4 Steps to Shift Perspective and Change Everything

Using reframing techniques can actually change your physical responses to stress because your body's stress response is triggered by perceived stress, more often than actual events.

• Your stress response can be triggerd by events raging from annoying to frightening and can remain triggered long after the triggering event has passed, especially if you're not practicing relaxation techniques.

Reframing techniques are a way of minimizing the stressors you perceive in your life, thus easing the process of relaxation.

The first step in reframing is to educate yourself about some of these negative thinking patterns (like cognitive distortions) that may greatly increase your stress levels.

• Educating yourself about thinking patterns and how they affect people is important for laying the groundwork for understanding and change.

The next step is to catch yourself when you're slipping into overly negative and stress-inducing patterns of thinking. Being aware of them is an important part of challenging and ultimately changing them.

One thing you can do is just become more mindful of your thoughts, as though you're an observer. 

When you catch negative thinking styles, just note them at first. 

• You can even keep a journal and start recording what's happening in your life and your thoughts surrounding these events.
• Another helpful practice is meditation, where you learn to quiet your mind and examine your thoughts.

As you notice your negative thoughts, an effective part of reframing involves examineing the truth and accuraccy (or lack thereof) of these thoughts.

• Are the things you're telling yourself even true?
• Also, what are some other ways to interpret the same set of events?
• Which ways of seeing things serve you better?

Instead of seeing things the way you always have, challenge every negative thought, and see if you can adopt thoughts that fit your situation but reflect a more positive outlook.

When you're looking at something negative, see if you can change your self talk to use less strong negative emotions .

When you're looking at a potentially stressful situation, see if you can view it as a challenge versus a threat.

Look for the 'gift' in each situation, and see if you can see your stressors on the more positive edge of reality: see them in a way that still fits the facts of your situation, but that is less negative and more optimistic and positive.

That's the gist of reframing, and you can do it as often as you'd like.