3 REAL Ways To Eliminate Stress & Misery

To truly eliminate stress in your life, you need to know where your stress actually comes from. Find out why you’re not stressed for reasons you think. Learn what to do about it.

Real Life Is Full of Real Stress

You’re sick of your situation. Your partner is driving you up the wall. The kids are too. You’re frustrated with your job. You are tired of feeling stressed and overwhelmed. If things would just finally CHANGE, you’d feel so much better. Wanna hear something interesting?

The stress and frustration you are experiencing have nothing to do with what’s happening right now in this minute.

Really, truly. 

AND…

The stress you’re experiencing is nothing more than resistance to what is. That’s it. Yes, your resistance to your current reality is the sole cause of your discomfort, unhappiness, and flat-out stress.

Eliminate Stress By Eliminating Your Resistance

Pretty interesting, right? Here’s what to do with this:

Your stress isn’t now. Let’s start with the fact that stress doesn’t exist in the present moment. Hold up, I sense your doubt but hear me out. When you’re stressed and resisting your current situation, what’s the focus of your thoughts? I’ll guarantee it’s not focused on the right-here-now moment.

The focus of your thoughts is in the projected and imaginary future state in which your current situation is the same, or worse. It is around the idea that this stress, pain, discomfort, and/or struggle will not end for a while. Your stress is coming from the anticipation that the end in sight is not really in sight.

If You Want To Eliminate Stress…

Take any stressful situation you have going on – anything that is causing any amount of misery and ask yourself: “Where does the misery exist?“

Is it right here in this exact moment NOW as you’re reading this, or is it when you’re thinking about the imminent journey that this situation may travel, extending the misery and strife?

It is Anxiety About Your Imagined Future State

It’s not right now.

Now get really present, shift your attention to your body and just drop your thoughts for a second. Look around you, what is real right now this very second? Nothing really stressful, right?

Ok, now even if you’re reading this from your phone while giving your kids a bath, both screaming and splashing, the smoke alarm is going off, the dog is barking, the doorbell is ringing with an urgent package that must be signed for, and your homemade soup is boiling over I’d STILL argue that any stress you’re feeling is not caused by the what-is-ness of right now. It’s the resistance to the what-is-ness AND the idea that it’s not over. (Meaning, it’s in your imagined future state.)

Here are 3 REAL Ways to Eliminate Stress:

1. Simply acknowledge that you’re resisting what is.

Feeling overwhelmed? Stressed? Miserable? Many times this simple acknowledgment will transform your resistance into acceptance. But let’s be clear – I’m not talking about resignation where you’re not going to do anything about your situation. By acknowledging your resistance to what is you can shift from reaction to response (see a previous post for more on that). In “response” you can act. You are present and powerful. In response, you are never stressed.

Practical example:

Next time you’re stuck behind a really slow driver when you’re in a hurry and get angry, simply acknowledge that you’re resisting what is and see what happens to your anger.

2. Acknowledge that your stress does not exist now.

It’s in your imagined future. Don’t paint a miserable future, tell a different story and get present NOW. Forget the past, drop the future, and simply be with what is right now. It is a moment. And every moment is manageable.

3. Tell your story backwards

By the way, this step is definitely my favorite way to eliminate stress and find more than relief. Fast forward to the vision you’d like to be true whenever that future state for you is. Tomorrow? Two months? Three years? See the perfect scenario that would make you happy. Now tell the story backward. Explain to yourself how the current situation was absolutely necessary, absolutely on purpose, to get you to this vision.

Painting backward is *awesome* because it doesn’t just eliminate stress from the current circumstance (i.e. the imagined future state) but it puts the current situation in a light where you automatically shift into gratitude and purposefulness. And in my book, that’s way more enjoyable than stress.

I share these 3 stress elimination tips because they are the tips I practice regularly.

As a result, I can say that my life is pretty darn good. Sure, I get knocked off my center and get overwhelmed… often. (Anyone with two kids can attest to this.) But, practicing these tips regularly can recondition you to a state where stress and “overwhelming” are an exception and not the norm. Therefore, because you won’t be so conditioned to negative emotion, it’s easy to catch and recenter as soon as it happens.

Try these three tricks out and see what happens. Report back and tell me if it helps you to live in the present and on purpose. If you need more support to eliminate all the stress in your life, then work with me! Or, check out my friend Karen Salmansohn’s Anxiety Cure to reduce stress, overwhelm and overthinking. Either way, I got you covered!

Always on purpose,

Amy
xo

Share this Article: