Derek Smith’s Real Answers

Is stress affecting you?

Almost everyone suffers the effects of stress in part of their life (including me), knowingly or unknowingly. It does not have to be that way. You definitely can do something about it. When we have stress in our life, there are two choices:

Acceptance or Change
As you are reading this article, you clearly want to go from acceptance to change, or else you would not be reading these words at this time. Excellent, you have made a start!

Warning Signs of Stress
• Having relationship problems
• Having emotional problems
• Getting annoyed easily
• Feeling rundown
• Can’t be bothered
• Lack of motivation

I know what you are thinking - ‘heard it all before’. All I ask is, please try this quick, simple but highly effective exercise, although it may sound silly … it works and that is all that matters.

The first powerful step is creating, feeling and seeing the space between you and ‘it’ (stress).

At the moment ‘it’ (stress) is ‘part’ of you. Get the idea of an object stuck to your head.

The ‘breakthrough’ is when you create space between YOU and IT. An absolute fact is that you are ‘yourself’ and not the problem - in this case, stress.

Now you look at stress (stress is ‘it’ instead of being part of you). You are now looking at stress that is a few feet away from you. From this point it has less effect on you.

Next, get the ‘idea’ however you see stress, that it is a ball. See the ball six feet away from you (point to it with your finger). Are you starting to get the idea? Now, put it outside in the street, then put it in Edinburgh, then in Dunfermline, then Perth, then Dundee, then Aberdeen, then Inverness, now back to Edinburgh, and last of all, put it on top of the Castle! Now you choose to put it in many different places. The more you simply get the ‘idea’ of putting it in different places, you are creating space between ‘you’ and ‘it’ and at the same time, getting the idea that you are now in control of stress however you see it (we all see it differently).

You have now clearly proved to yourself (no one else did) that you can control stress.

Like anything, the more you practise the better you get at it. More and more as you create space between ‘you’ and ‘it’ is the key to handle stress.

Derek lives in Edinburgh and does one to one therapy and new awareness sessions house calls in the surrounding areas including Midlothian and the Scottish Borders. This column is written based on his book ‘Real Answers’. For information regarding one to one sessions and his book please see his web site or give him a phone call.

www.fullcircletherapy.co.uk
info@fullcircletherapy.co.uk
Tel:0131 666 0346

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