Stephen Clasper
Completely banishing stress from your life may never be an attainable goal, but learning how to minimise its toll on your body and mind is one thing we can work on. We turn to Stephen Clasper, co-founder of Shakti Healing Circle, to point us in the the right direction.
Thinking and what you think about are the only things in life over which you have any control, so it's obvious where you need to focus your efforts. Here are some tips on how to manage stress and be in charge of your thoughts.
6 Tips To Manage Stress
- Mind your language. The words we use, whether thinking or speaking, generate an energy that lifts us up or puts us down. Ask yourself whether you would classify yours as predominantly positive or negative, and practice substituting a positive word for the negative one whenever you can pay enough attention to what you are saying.
- Don't be like a dog with a bone. You cannot 'not think' because that is what your mind is designed to do, but you do have a choice every time a thought comes up as to whether you let it go or really grab hold of it and chew it relentlessly – just like that dog with a bone. Let the thought go if you can't do anything about the matter right then and there.
- Avoid 'catastrophising'. When you're tempted to imagine the worst, as in "I'll probably be fired for that little mistake", ask yourself how likely that possibility really is. The reality almost every time is that what you just did ranks very low on the 'catastrophe' scale.
- Avoid 'generalising'. Whether it's about yourself or someone else, as in "he never listens", ask yourself "really, never?" and you will soon get back a sense of perspective because usually, of course, he does listen, just not this time – or so you thought.
- Avoid using labels about anything or anyone. This includes yourself, as in "I'm so lazy". Ask whether there might be some useful benefit you get from what you're calling 'laziness'. Usually the benefit will be something like "well, I really needed some downtime as I've been travelling a lot recently and I'm really tired".
- You're not a mind reader so leave that to the psychics. How can we ever really know what someone else is really thinking or what they are feeling at any moment? Most of our interactions are based on guess work and we respond, therefore, to misleading or incomplete information. We all know where that can lead with our nearest and dearest in particular.
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