If you would describe yourself as feeling low or having a sense of anxiety most of the time then you need to start taking control.

We can get to a point that we no longer are able to discern the
difference between a relaxed, normal or stressed state. Our body and mind can get so used to being ‘on guard’ and ready to fight or flee that it doesn’t register in our conscious awareness anymore. Except that at the end of the day we feel tired and maybe stiff in the shoulders and neck.

Take Back Control

To start making a change you can begin by doing a simple physical exercise that will help you mentally and physically register the difference between stressed state and relaxed normal state.

Sitting down, take your left fist and clench it really tight. As you do so notice how that feels, allow that feeling to spread up your arm to your shoulder. Really register it your mind and body.

Now quickly undo that fist and let it flop in your lap and looking at your hand allow your mind and eyes to fix on the feelings of relaxation and softness in your hand; your arm and your shoulder.

That now is your baseline for knowing the difference between physical and mental stress and tension.

Repeat this often enough so that it’s easier for you to notice when you are beginning to tense up.

You can take this exercise further. Stress and relax parts of your body in sequence. So, you might start with your hands and arms, tense them and then relax them and note the different feelings. Then move to your shoulders and neck and do the same.

Now move to your chest and abdomen. Tense and relax this area. Then your buttocks, your thighs, etc. Do the rounds a few times and you will be feeling a lot more relaxed and in the here and now.

But to go back to the original point of this post - managing your stress by understanding your triggers. Once you have got better at noticing when you start to get tense or stressed you can then begin to record what are the triggers.

Perhaps it’s when you know you need to phone a certain person. Or when you think about getting a certain task done. For the time being just get to notice when you get tense, stressed or anxious and note it somewhere that you can refer back to. Record when it happened and what happened just beforehand to cause you to have an anxious, stressed response.

A Chance to Do Things Differently

Over a few days or a week of recording these incidents you will begin to see patterns. This information will help you begin to take control and consider ways to do things differently.

For example you may realise that you need more information in a certain situation, or to delegate some of your tasks. Perhaps just to realise that other people are miserable and having a bad day!

You can live your dreams, banish stress and enjoy work. Visit Think Right Now site at http://www.think-rightnow.com/ for more information on workshops to help you work smarter and more effectively, or download reports or an e-book to checkout symptoms of burnout and what can do to help yourself.