“It is not about eliminating ALL stress. It’s about reducing or eliminating harmful stress. Not all stress is harmful. When you lift a dumbbell, you are stressing your muscles. If you plank, you are stressing muscles and tissues, but this is desirable and beneficial. However, if you never put the dumbbell down to let the muscles rest, recover and grow, then that stress would be too much. It’d be debilitating.

It wouldn’t be beneficial. Some stress is beneficial and desirable. Learn to differentiate. Exposure to germs stresses the body. It also advances our immune system. Without exposure to germs, we’d not develop an immune response. Our immune system learns from those microbes to respond in healthy ways. Kids used to play and eat dirt. It was good for them. Today, finding clean dirt might be an issue.

Some stress is good. Hardship, challenges, obstacles, defeat, disappointment, and anger can get us to move. We don’t move much when we’re comfortable. We’d not grow or get anywhere without a catalyst. Some stress can be useful when it gets us to act for our own good. Sometimes, some people wait and wallow. Stop. Instead, act productively. Move! Exercise is good for mind, body and soul.

DEVELOP THE POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MINDSET AND BELIEFS TO TRANSFORM YOURSELF

Remember, Newton’s Laws of Motion. A body at rest tends to remain at rest, until and unless a larger force acts on it. Getting uncomfortable is good to cause us to move. Then we change and may make changes to evolve. When stress and discomfort is chronic instead of acute it can be harmful. So, what to do. Discover ways to use stress to your benefit. Become aware and proactive. Act in positive ways.

Consider the law of motion again. A body at rest will remain at rest until acted on by a larger or outside force (but this could also be an inner force in our discussion) and a body in motion tends to stay in motion at a constant speed in a constant direction unless acted on by a force. Acceleration is due to mass and force applied. I talked about going from rest to movement. Let’s do the other.

If you are moving in the wrong direction you’ll continue until something inner or out acts on you to change you and the direction. Once you are moving, momentum can occur if you add to it. If you put your car in neutral and act on it you can push it to move. Once moving it will remain at a constant rate with gentle pushes but gravity and friction will slow it. Push harder, it goes faster. Get this?

DEVELOP THE POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MINDSET AND BELIEFS TO TRANSFORM YOURSELF

Come to a hill and you must exert more effort. If you hit an incline it will speed up due to gravity. Whether you move in the direction you want at the rate you want is up to what you put into it. It begins with the mind shift. When you decide it is desirable and possible and that you can and will do something you put into begin to control your destiny. You are the force for change.

Some years back, someone made a meme quote of one of my sayings. ‘A stop sign is a gift for you to learn that moving in the same direction won’t take you anywhere new.’ You don’t want to eliminate all stress or all hardship but use them to move in new directions, so you benefit in new and positive ways. You can too once we learn how. It’s about learning and then adjusting from the feedback.

It begins with awareness. Awareness of what’s going on is always the beginning. If you can’t or don’t notice something, you can’t change it. It may affect you, but you don’t realize it. Once you become aware of what the ‘problem’ is, then you can, IF YOU WILL, shift your attention to consider what you can do productively and healthily to make the situation better. You notice and shift to change it.

DEVELOP THE POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MINDSET AND BELIEFS TO TRANSFORM YOURSELF

If you didn’t have nerves to feel you’d be in trouble. Pain is a useful signal. As a signal it’s a very good thing. If you didn’t have nerves in your fingertips and you rested them on a hot stove, you’d never realize the damage done. Because you have nerves that discomfort causes you to move your hand quickly. Ouch!! If you can learn to quickly recognize and respond to other pain it’d be good.

If when you felt mental and emotional pain or discomfort, instead of going down the rabbit hole, you used that signal to shift from where you were at and what you were doing it could benefit you. Things pass. Some things may require more time as everything has a season. AND there are times when getting out of discomfort quickly and shifting into a positive direction is most desirable and useful.

You can move from discomfort to be somewhere else, within yourself or outside in the world. Because of discomfort humans created clothing, chairs, spoons, entertainment, heating and cooling, modes of transportation and communication. Innovation comes mostly, if not always from lack, discomfort and disappointment. People look for a solution or a better way when things are to their liking. Get it?

DEVELOP THE POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MINDSET AND BELIEFS TO TRANSFORM YOURSELF

When things don’t go your way, you might get stressed. If you can use that stress to move forward in new ways, then that stress is the impetus for innovation. You use that stress for good. That change is good. Instead of labeling things good or bad, wanted or unwanted, think in terms of whether it’s useful. Does it serve you? If yes, okay. If not, what can you do to make it better? Consider this.

What can you POSITIVELY do to make things better for yourself AND others? Can you find the ways to make it serve you and them? When you learn to think in terms of service your life transforms. Become aware. Look for the good. Move in that direction. Resist nothing. Let go of the old way or the way that doesn’t serve and seek the positive way that serves better.

Take charge of your change instead of suffering. Notice what isn’t working when it isn’t. Know what you want instead. Aim at it and get off your butt. Move positively in that direction. Create momentum by adding energy to what you seek to accomplish. Use your thoughts, emotions, words and behaviors to move you from where you are to where you want to go. If it is to come true, it is up to you! And remember, if you consider something a problem, it’s a problem. If you consider something a blessing, it’s a blessing. everything is useful in an appropriate context. Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes