How Altering Your Perception affects Your Stress Levels

Sharon Moore July 18, 2013

Is your workplace giving you lots of headache? Do you often feel troubled about your financial status? Are your friends no longer keeping in touch? Feel like you haven’t fulfilled any of your childhood dreams yet? Every day, we deal with things that make us stressed and anxious. It’s true that we can’t change the fact that stress is always around the corner. Still, it is possible to lessen its impact on our health and well-being. How? We can do it by changing our perception.

Lauren E. Miller, a stress expert, defines stress as our perception of what’s happening outside us and the power we give it. Based on this idea, we can conclude that it is possible to reframe the way we think about each situation. Challenging how you view the daily events in your life, including those that are not so good, could help you deal with your stressors more effectively. By understanding that you are in-charge of how you feel and what you would like to feel, you can significantly reduce the impact of stress on your health and well-being. According to Miller, if we make the conscious choice and stay aware, we can adjust our perception of any situation. This also helps reduce any emotional burden that negative experiences could bring us.

Here are some tips to alter your perception about stress.

Delete, delete, delete.

If you let the “bad” thoughts linger, they could greatly distract you. If you can delete a word or a sentence on your screen with just a tap of a key, you can also delete a stressful thought in your mind anytime you wish. Try practising saying “delete” aloud whenever a negative thought enters your mind. It works!

Label it right.

How we label situations affect our emotional response to such things. For instance, if you label a job interview as a “difficult” task, so does your brain. As a consequence, it generates emotions that make you feel worried or anxious. But if you label the interview as a “challenging” situation, you let your brain maximise its resources, increasing your confidence and focus to get through it and win the job.

Look at the situation from afar.

When you find yourself in the middle of a stressful situation, try to look at it from afar. Imagine you are watching a movie, a very stressful scene. Then think of how you would react. Assess your actions – is it proper? Will it resolve the problem or simply make it worse? Looking at the situation at a different angle helps you decide on the best strategy to deal with it.

Be grateful.

It’s easy to get lost with negative thoughts and memories that make you feel so “little”. Here’s a challenge for you – each night, before you go to sleep, write down three things you are thankful of and post it on your wall or desk. So the next day when you wake up, you will be reminded that there are many things to be grateful about than things to be distressed about.

Use your imagination.

Are those stressors making you feel intensely miserable and restless? It’s time to let your imagination soar. Close your eyes and think about a beautiful place you’ve always wanted to visit. Or, recall one of the best experiences you had. Imagination can shift your attention and perception positively, giving you a sudden boost in mood. As a result, you feel calmer. Try doing this in front of a mirror. You will be surprised to see a smile on your face as soon as you open your eyes.

Lastly, cultivate positive thinking. This is one of the best ways to alter your perception about stress. Optimism increases your resilience to negative thoughts and emotions that make you feel more stressed. When you see the glass “half full” rather than “half empty”, you will find it easier to deal with your stressors because you don’t see them as difficulties but challenges that you can always overcome. But positive thinking is a skill that you cannot master overnight. It takes time and practice. The tips mentioned above can greatly help you harness this mental skill.