HOW TO REFRAME STRESS AS POSITIVE

"Stress acts as an accelerator: it will push you either forward or backward, but you choose which direction". Chelsea Erieau, an actress

Stress has become an inseparable part of our modern life. It’s something we all experience (and even expect!) as we try to find time for everything during the day, as we juggle between work, personal and social life. Some acute & short-lived stress is good for us: it ‘awakes’ the brain for improved performance. Good stress, in its many forms, is vital for a healthy life. If we don't have some “good stress” in our lives, we'd feel purposeless and unexcited. However, long-term, chronic stress caused by a stressful job, or unhappy home life can severely damage the body and mind. It leads to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, immune disorders, diabetes, and more and may have a dangerous effect on our brain. Studies have shown that it can lead to severe anxiety, memory loss, and difficulty regulating emotions.

Can you turn bad stress into good and reframe it as positive? Of course, not all forms of bad stress can become good stress, but it is possible to change your perception of some of the stressors in your life. This shift can change your experience of stress.

The body reacts strongly to perceived threats. There is no threat-based stress response if you don't perceive something as a threat. If you perceive something as challenging, the fear you usually experience may turn into excitement and anticipation. As you practice looking at threats as challenges more often, it becomes more automatic, and you experience more good and less bad stress.

To have good stress in your life and reduce as much chronic stress as possible, you need to learn to reframe it as a positive. There is a practical, three-step process for using positive psychology to reframe your stress:

1.????Develop?awareness?of feeling stressed

2.????Determine?why?exactly you feel stressed

3.????Redirect your stress response?based on that why

The fantastic thing here is that noticing your Stress Reaction is all you must consciously do. The rest mostly takes care of itself. Once you notice it, you’ll automatically start to mitigate it.

To manage your state and focus on what you want, you can control what you're picturing in your mind and how you're picturing it:

• See the potential benefits of a situation
• Remind yourself of your strengths.
• Have a positive mindset?

And remember: Stress is caused more by your thoughts and less by the situation. If you learn to control your thoughts, you can reframe stress as positive.?