How to Get Through a Time of High Stress

If you are feeling very stressed out, and feel as if you are having a meltdown, or like you might be going bonkers, hopefully this post will help you.

Step one.  Realize that it will pass.  During times of high stress or anxiety it is easy for us to keep thinking about our stressful situation.  You may have thoughts about how bad things are.  You start to imagine how many other things could go wrong.  One of the most common phrases you tell yourself is “what if, (insert bad outcome here)”.

So, you need to start telling yourself something else.  If you are human, chances are you have been in a similar spot, with similar feelings before.  You got out of it and you are still here.  If the most positive thing you can come up with is “this will pass, I will not feel this badly forever”, then use it!  You emotionally, intuitively, and logically know that it will pass.  Every time you start to go down a negative thought ‘road’, replace it with “I will get over (or past, or through) this”.

Step two.  BREATHE.  Focus on your breath and bring your breath deep into your belly.  Keep focusing on your breathing.  If you are thinking about your breathing and feeling your body, you cannot be thinking about what is bothering you.  You can only have one thought at a time.

Step three.  Relax your muscles.  It is physically/psychologically impossible to be angry, upset, stressed or have otherwise ‘negative’ feelings when your body is relaxed.  If you are having uptight thoughts, your body is stressed and your muscles are tight.  If you can relax your arms and your back and your torso and legs, and focus and think about relaxing, you cannot be feeding the stressful thoughts and feelings.  Its physically impossible.

Step 4.  Think of a time when you were in a similar situation and overcame it.  Think about how good it felt the last time you felt good (even if it feels like it was 100 years ago).  Relive it in your mind (in the case of a break up, don’t think of the person you just broke up with.  Think about a different break up you had before that that you go over).

If you have lost a job you enjoyed, think of the last time you were in a career that you enjoyed that ended before you got the one you just lost.  You got another one that time, you will get another one again.

You need to trick your mind by feeling better feeling thoughts until your emotions can catch up.

I must say that if you have lost something that you did not like anyway, then count your blessings and look upon it as divine intervention to move you forward from a spot you were stuck in.  It’s likely a place you would not have left without some “help”.

There are physical as well as energetic things going on when you are stressed or upset.  Our body produces many hormones and enzymes and chemicals (natural) at different times, depending what we are going through.  Endorphins when we are happy, cortisol when we are afraid.  (plus many others, I’ll keep this simple for now).

Let’s say, you are at the height of your stress and one of your hormones kicks in and is at a 10 on a scale of 1-10.  So, not only are you dealing with a stressful situation, you are now dealing with a hormone that is helping you to be more stressed out.  So our hormones have kicked in, our mind is running all kinds of negative scenarios through our mind, and we are essentially “losing it”.

If you take step 2 & three above and do them, your hormone level may go down to an 8 or 7.  So now step one and step 4 are even easier.  So let’s say that after doing step 1 and step 4, your hormone levels go down to a 6. Phew, progress.

Now that you have managed to lower your hormone levels, maybe you can get onto the next step, which would be to distract yourself.  Go for a walk, wash dishes, meditate, read a book, whatever.  Anything to take your mind off your worries and help your physical self and hormones.

As you go through this process, keep remembering to breathe and relax (step 2 & 3).

Once you are feeling a bit more ‘under control’ of yourself or your attitude about your situation (there are plenty of situations you cannot control, but you can always control your attitude about them), your stress hormone level may get down to a much more manageable 2 or 3.

Now you will be in a position to make decisions and have movement in your life from a place of more power.  When you started out and were in a place of high stress there was pretty much nothing you could do to keep your thoughts positive.  Almost every thought you had was doom and gloom.  “I’m so sad”, “I’m so powerless in this situation”.

As you feel better, solutions to your problems will start to appear.  You will have inspired thoughts instead of fearful thoughts.  You will have relaxed your emotional and physical body to a point that your intuition can work, and your angels and guides can communicate with you easier.  You will find that just as you are coming into a more relaxed state, you will be inspired to take an action, or do something (or have a nap for that matter).  At this point, whatever it is that comes to you, will be much easier to accomplish.

Before you know it, the situation, (or issue, feelings, anger, depression, whatever is was, and however it manifested for you), will be behind you once again, and you will be able to say “I remember that time I felt just awful but I GOT THROUGH IT!!

Depending on the situation, your beliefs, your habitual thinking patterns, and your environment, this process could fix things within minutes, or it could take days, or even weeks.  Every person and every situation is different.  It WILL help you get through and past it though, that I know.

Repeat as required.

* Note: I am not a doctor, and this is not a replacement for any medical care you may require from a qualified medical practitioner.