How to foster eustress

With stress, the mind and the body are intrinsically linked. You can view stress as something that is wreaking havoc on your body (and it can) or as something that is giving you the strength and energy to overcome adversity.

Regular exposure to stress in small quantities can prepare us to handle a big stressful event in our lives. Prepare yourself for stress by self-education about the stressful event, by doing some physically stressful activities like completing a marathon, or something you dread, like giving a speech.

Repeated exposure to mildly stressful conditions can alter your body’s biological response to stress, making you manage stress in a better way.

Educate yourself about thinking patterns that may exacerbate your stress levels (for example, being aware of common cognitive distortions).

This process is important for laying the groundwork for understanding and change.

Become more mindful of your thoughts, as though you're an observer. 

Once you become more of an observer, it's easier to notice your thoughts rather than remaining caught up in them.

This personality type wants all to be happy and can sacrifice one’s own interests for what’s best for the group. Pleasers can become resentful and may feel under-appreciated.

Pleasers need to prioritize their schedule and manage time in a more balanced way, getting more done for themselves.

This personality type likes to be in charge, and needs to feel competent and wanted. They take on too much and feel stressed out and anxious. They need to wait a few minutes before deciding to take any new responsibilities.

• Understanding how the way we tend to think about things affects our moods and emotions
• Clarifying our values and strategizing about the most effective path toward them
• Learning to communicate directly and assertively in relationships or the workplace
• Building self-confidence in social situations
• Acquiring more effective parenting skills and techniques
• Working through complicated grief or loss

Ultimately, therapy is about growth and creating opportunities for positive change.

And in addition to improving traditional mental health struggles, therapy can also be a powerful and efficient way to make progress on personal goals or aspirations.

• Decreased stress: you learn to manage your triggers.
• Better communication in relationships: it helps you to tolerate and manage difficult emotions and then find more productive ways to work through difficulties.
• Decreased anxiety: you train your mind to stop fearing its own emotional reactions.
• You stick with your goals: you learn to deal with emotions like anxiety, shame, regret.
• Increased self-awareness: you learn to build a better relationship with your emotions.

• Emotional clarity: Taking the time to deliberately reflect on our emotions, to observe and label them.
• Emotional myth-busting: Eliminating myths and misconceptions floating around people’s minds about emotions. 
• Emotional tolerance: Learning to resist short-term gratification and instead invest in long-term values.

Pessimism is defined as the anticipation of good or bad things to happen in the future, while optimism is generally considered the opposite. Optimism can be defined as the individual difference variable reflecting the extent of which we hold positive expectancies for the upcoming event.

The ways in which we think affects our health, well-being and success, even though the situations are the same.

• A positive impact on many aspects of physical and mental health.
• Provides motivation to work harder.
• Greater career success in life.

Stress is a biological response(or a reaction) to external changes and forces beyond one's resources. Signs of stress include a rapid heart rate, shallow breath, and an adrenaline rush.

Acute stress or temporary stress is normal and even beneficial. Chronic stress is linked to health concerns like heart disease and a weakened immune system.

Ways to Handle Stress:

• Exercise daily.
• Focus your energy on what you can control.
• Know that your stress response is unique to you.

Anxiety is the culmination of worry and stress. It is a state of body and mind which is stressed and worried for no apparent reason, like a response to a false alarm.

An anxiety disorder is an acute form of anxiety and a serious medical condition.

How to Handle Anxiety:

• Curb your sugar, alcohol and caffeine consumption.
• Calm yourself by deep breathing and refocusing on your body parts.
• Distract yourself by listening to music or a little exercise.

Experiencing stress and anxiety can diminish the somatic stem cells, which are responsible for the color our hair had earlier in life.

Both physical and psychological stress can affect those stem cells and drive a rapid and permanent loss.

"We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same."

“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”