Stress is Actually Fear

You have a high stress, high pressure job and you don't know what to do. Or, you simply experience a lot of stress in your day to day living. Well, you can feel relieved now. You are not actually experiencing stress. You are experiencing fear. Oh, did that not help? Well, we'll move on, anyway. Stress is actually fear and a fear based lifestyle is one of suffering and anguish. What can you do?

Recognize what you truly have control over. This is important for two reasons: First, most people have more control over their lives than they give themselves credit for. Second, most of what we stress about is not actually under our direct control, so it is not important so it is not worth causing yourself pain. Your decisions lead to consequences and consequences change when your choices change. If you do not like where you are right now, you have nobody to blame but yourself. The good news is, you can change your choices and make tomorrow a better day.

Recognize that fear is a self-replicating god. When you bow down to fear all the time, it does this handy dandy little thing called multiplying. Often, we do not control our fear and without boundaries fear is free to morph itself into whatever shape will cause you the most damage. You must put yourself in circumstances where you are no longer afraid and where you can begin to develop habits of safety and caring and building a solid community around you.

Become bigger than the problem. Problems do not typically change in size. However, humans and their spirits do change in size. When you alter your perspective, you can grow and the problem is not nearly as large as it was before. If you keep doing this, your problem will become so small that you will not even remember that it existed. Help yourself to grow and evolve, and your ability to handle difficult situations will become your own private ladder to success.

Stress and fear are two sides of the same coin. Sit down with yourself and determine exactly what you are afraid of. Most of the time, your stress is masking a different fear than the one you are telling yourself. Dig down to the root of the problem and address that, and your stomach will happily begin to unclench.