Conquering Stress

Lately, I have been feeling more stress and anxiety than I usually to. As I write and build my own business, I’ve felt some insecurities and fears surface up again.

But I don’t see this as a bad thing. Stress is a neutral energy we can use at our advantage. It all depends on how we perceive it.

Seeing stressful situations as a bad thing or as a threat, triggers our flight-or-fight response and we lose our power. We all have experiences in life where stress overwhelms us like this.

However, if we perceive a stressful situation as a challenge, we can transform it into a powerful source of energy. Think of elite performers before an event. In this scenario, stress fuels their senses and awareness.

But this is not easy, especially for people experiencing chronic stress.

So, below are my top tips for dealing with stress.

First, reduce the stress that is not necessary.

How do we do that? We commit even deeper to our fundamentals. The way we eat, move, sleep, breathe and our presence, all directly influence our stress response.

Eat

When we eat highly-processed food, factory farmed animals, a lot of sugar, and little vegetables and fruits, our body is in constant stress (acidic state). It doesn’t have the resources to deal with toxins and we have less energy available to face our stress. To restore balance (alkaline state), cut out unhealthy food and gorge yourself with organic fruits, vegetables, and water!

Move

If we are sedentary all day and never exercise, our body never gets the opportunity to move its energy around. We continue to accumulate tension and never get to release it through exertion. My favorite practices to release stored emotions and raise my energy, are walking in nature and Flow Training. You can also try out strength training, yoga, qi-gong, running, dancing… Whatever makes you feel the best!

Sleep

Sleep is one of our biggest allies to deal with stress. It is during our sleep that we balance our cortisol and stress levels. Unless you are an exception, sleeping less than 7 hours a night will make you very agitated and anxious. So whenever I feel stressed, I make it a solid point to rest as much as I can (sometimes up to 10 or 11h of sleep).

Breathe

When we are stressed, we usually revert to shallow breathing through our mouths. Breathing is a very underrated way of dealing with stress. Slowing down your breaths, focusing on deep inhales through your nose and into your belly, is the fastest way to enter your parasympathetic state and come back to center — even if you only take one conscious breath. Another awesome practice is the Wim Hof Method, which trains our body and mind to reduce stress through deep breathing and cold therapy.

Be Present

Finally, we have presence. If you are stressed, it is very likely that you spend a lot of time using technology and not being fully present with yourself.

Most people distract themselves when they feel stress or anxiety by using their phone, drinking alcohol or overeating for example. Why? They don’t want to face the pain that this stress is creating in their body.

But depleting your attention only makes these emotions more unconscious instead of facing them. My favorite practice to cultivate presence is meditation. It is the fastest way to learn how to be present with our thoughts and emotions without reacting.

In addition, a new practice I adopted last year is resting in awareness for short moments. Essentially, I drop off my train of thoughts for short moments throughout the day and observe whatever is happening. Each drop in awareness only takes a few seconds, but repeated over time, this creates huge momentum.

Second, use stress as fuel for your growth.

Once again, it’s all about how we perceive our stress. Instead of being afraid of failing, we can recognize that we have a meaningful challenge ahead of us.

A simple mantra you can use is “I’m excited” or “Bring it on”. This is powerful because the energy of stress and excitement are very similar. When we use this tool to face of a challenge, we can alchemize a stressful situation into inner strength.

Stress, overall, is what helps us grow as humans. If we never felt any form of tension, our life would have little meaning to it. The wisest and strongest people I know, all faced huge amounts of stress and fear in their lives. But they did not let these emotions run the show. They used them to become stronger instead.

We can choose to be reactive to stress and be its victims. Or we can be proactive and choose to face it head on. The stressful situations in your life are an invitation for you to evolve and step out of your comfort zone.

A little bonus here, is to really ask ourselves if we want to face these stressful situations or not. I spent a lot of my life worrying about things that weren’t important. Social media is not going to determine how happy I am. So why stress about it?

I’ll leave you with a simple message. Learning how to deal with stress, is one of the greatest skills we can learn in the 21st century. It is how we can grow in the face of any challenge and create the life our soul desires.

So instead of running away from it, why not face it with courage and grace?