Stress is the distance between where you are now and where you wanna be.
Let me exemplify it: if I walking my dog outdoors but my monkey brain really just wants to be back home playing a game: any delay in the walk with the dog will feel like an insult, and I might end up being angry with the dog even though it really enjoys being outdoors, and quite frankly probably needs it much more than I need to be at the screen.
Or another one: you have a deadline to work with, but you playing with your kid - half the brain is on the work and stressing about how you’d need to be elsewhere and that half ruins the play.
ACCEPTANCE
One of our three core values is #acceptance - which is important to us because we want every single individual to feel welcome and accepted as they are. BUT on an internal level it’s just as important to accept where I am myself: instead of expecting unrealistic things from myself.
Take work capacity, or strength, as an example. If I go into a workout expecting that I can do a result somewhere around the same lines as a Game’s athlete, I’m bound to feel disappointed after I finish the workout: I just don’t have the engine for that here and now. And I might miss the fact that my result was really really good compared to how a similar workout went a month ago.
The whole point is: can I be in the here-and-now with my monkey brain?
Do I expect perfection from myself, or from others? (Perfection never ever happens; except maybe when we are in love, but that is a psychosis we won’t even talk about).
Can I instead focus on performing the best that I can in this very moment? The difference is subtle - but if you weigh in that you’re in the midst of a global crisis, the like of which we haven’t seen in 20, or 70 years, perhaps being kind to oneself and relaxing for a bit is good.
Here’s a really useful tip I got from somewhere once: if you get stuck in a red light, instead of fuming about how you need to stop (stress = wanting to continue walking or driving) you just pause and relax into the situation. The universe just gave you a brief moment to breathe and enjoy the here-and-now.
That mindset has gradually changed me from just being frustrated at relights to transferring that same idea to other moments of life. And meditation, or mindfulness practice is the single best way to train that mindset.
Do you have another link to add to try out here?
