The new normal is learning how to cope with anxiety, work and cultural stress as a result of Covid and an ongoing pandemic. Here are some practical tactics and tools.
We need to learn how to cope with adversity. It requires skills which help us handle the psychological pressures of the modern world. Otherwise, the anxiety and stress will cause health issues.
The effects of stress and anxiety sneak up on you, like the frog in the pot of water on the stove. If you gradually turn up the heat, the frog doesn’t move. It will die in boiling water if the heat is turned up gradually. It’s the same way with work and cultural stress, it’s an accumulation of small things that are subtle and hard to recognize.
We are like the frog in a pot of water we call a pandemic. Time only intensifies the psychological pressure. Do you know the signs of stress?
Tools to Cope with Adversity
We must learn how to conquer stress. It is not an option, it’s vital to our health and wellness. When left untreated, stress causes several health problems. It’s responsible for everything from headaches and insomnia to mental breakdowns and heart attacks, and it’s also a major factor in negative thinking, which causes errors in judgment.
Learning how to cope with anxiety and stress starts with being able to spot the warning signs of stress related issues. You may not be able to eliminate the source, so you must learn how to manage the effects.
We all need tools to cope with adversity. Work and cultural stress are silent killers. With the right tools, you relieve the forces that cause mental and physical ailments. When we get used to living with stress, it becomes more dangerous because we get accustomed to stress and fail to recognize the health consequences until it’s too late. We understand how being in a car accident is stressful. But we become used to the constant stress of an ongoing crisis.
The Warning Signs of Work and Cultural Stress
The first step in conquering stress is admitting that it exists. You must recognize and acknowledge it.
To admit stress is affecting your life doesn’t mean you have failed. If you recognize the effects, you can do something about it. It’s like the frog in the pot of boiling water finally realizing they need to get out or they will die. Once you know what’s going on, you can apply the proper remedy. If you have any of the three significant warning signs below, it’s time to make some changes.
Sometimes a simple change can have a very positive effect. The modern lifestyle fills our lives with stress, but we can recognize this psychological pressure and use it positively.
The psychological pressures of our modern world are a recent development for humanity. Learning how to cope with anxiety and cultural stress is a necessity if we are to maintain our health and wellness. Be honest. Read the list and see if any apply.
1. Pessimistic Thinking or Feeling Dissatisfied
Do you frequently have pessimistic thoughts and feel dissatisfied with life? It’s natural to be mindful of undesirable consequences. But when worst-case scenarios become the primary topic of your thought-life, it becomes a source of emotional and physical stress. When you feel stressed out, you attract more of the same feelings.
To cope with adversity, you need to be able to find solutions. A pessimistic mindset is like wearing a blindfold. It prevents you from seeing potential solutions.
Do you have negative, overly skeptical feelings? Are you resentful and unhappy with your life? These are also potential signs of stress. When our thinking becomes negative, it is easy to spiral downward to more unhealthy thoughts and feelings. Strange as it seems, this is also a comfort zone, even though it is harmful.
The key is learning to recognize when you are getting stuck in an emotional whirlpool so that you can make some changes. It would be best if you changed negative thinking patterns to find solutions. Take a break. Engage in self-care. Raise your spirits to find peace of mind, even during crisis circumstances. At the end of this article, you’ll find the strategies to address this. Here are the warning signs of stress.
2. Feeling Sick and Tired
You’ve probably heard the expression, “I’m sick and tired of this or that.” Being chronically tired is only a tiny step away from being physically or mentally ill. Do you sleep a lot on a day off from work but awaken only more tired? Are you mentally lethargic even after that cup of coffee?
Feeling down and lethargic over for days and weeks is a major sign of work and cultural stress which has gone unchecked. Ask yourself some questions about your health and mental state. Are you constantly catching colds, persistent headaches, or body aches and pains? These can also be signs of an overstressed immune and nervous system. Western medicine prescribes a pill to stimulate or kill the infection, but the root cause remains — an overstressed person.
If you find you are in an emotional whirlpool. Then you can implement some changes to raise your spirits and bring about peace in your life, regardless of your circumstances. The goal is to achieve emotional equilibrium. But in today’s world, it isn’t easy to do. At the end of this article, you’ll find the strategies to help you move closer to this goal. Here is one more area of concern.
3. Errors and Self-Doubt
Errors and Self-Doubt go hand in hand. Or if you prefer Self-Doubt and Errors. Either way, they can multiply. The more errors you make, the more self-doubt and second-guessing. It leads to more mistakes. The cycle is debilitating and only causes more and more stress. It doesn’t matter if you are engaged in something physical or mental.
Self-doubt manifests as self-talk is dominated by negative comments. When we realize this is happening, need to stop the negativity and focus on the things you’ve done right. Focus on your successes, use positive affirmations to break the cycle of self-doubt.
Errors are one of the most common issues that arise in the workplace. If you make errors, you know your job is in jeopardy. This creates more stress, which increases the probability you’ll make more mistakes. Most work environments have a progressive discipline for people who aren’t performing. So, instead of making fewer errors, the added work and cultural stress lead to more errors.
So, when your company places you on a performance improvement plan, your stress escalates. If you cannot cope with the increased pressure, you are more likely to make more errors. It’s a vicious spiral. It makes you susceptible to the other major stress factors of pessimistic thinking and feeling tired. To cope with adversity like this, you need to recognize the warning signs quickly. Otherwise, you’ll be unemployed, which is one of the most stressful experiences in anyone’s life.
Learning How to Cope with Anxiety and Stress
If you identify with any of the above areas, you are not alone. Here are some strategies to help you cope with adversity and move you toward a peaceful state from a stressful state:
Nature & Nurture
Take a walk in the wilderness or park. Above all, learn the basic techniques for “Forest Bathing.” Essentially, this practice focuses your attention on your body and the landscape. It gets you out of your head.
If you can, find a natural setting. Nature is full of healing. The ideal place is the wilderness. Someplace untouched by the hand of man is best. If a natural environment isn’t available, walk in a quiet park where you can hear and see the world’s natural beauty can work. If you need to walk in the city, walk on the grass or bare ground when possible, it is better than concrete and asphalt. But, if you are in the town, at least get outdoors and look at the sky. If you are stuck inside, visualize a place in nature.
The key here is to stop ruminating and get out of your head. Find a place that is calming and peaceful. Walking outdoors will improve our attitude.
When you catch yourself ruminating, stop. Take a break. It’s okay to reminisce. But, re-running conversations and events past can be self-destructive. Tell yourself to leave them alone for a while. Walk outdoors and use your senses to feel how hot or cold it is, smell the season, listen for the birds. Camp out in the wilderness. Yes, you’ll have to fight bugs and weather, but your spirit will reconnect with nature. Nature is our home.
Meditate
Meditate and bask in the state of pure consciousness, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. If you don’t know how to meditate to reach this state, many do not find someone to teach you Japa or Transcendental Meditation. Meditation is one of the best ways to deal with stress and anxiety.
You can start by learning basic mindfulness meditation techniques. It is easy to learn these seated and moving meditative practices you can use anywhere for any length of time. Learning to quiet the mind is an asset. It’s the most powerful tool for conquering stress.
Chant a mantra designed to either bring peace or break down the barriers in your way. Find a mantra that resonates with you.
When you Chant, a mantra takes the mind out of your normal hectic problem identification mode to a peaceful but energizing mood. It helps ease the anxiety and anxiety of thought patterns that cause stress. It also enables our heart to relax from any negative emotional state, thus reducing stress.
Affirmations are used to reprogram your self-talk. It can be very effective if you remove the negative self-talk first. That means you need to deal with the source of the negative self-talk.
Read Something New and Challenging
Reading is how we install new software in our minds. It’s essential to read something fun and read things that stretch your thinking. Above all, read things outside of your comfort zone. Believe it or not, this will reduce your stress. It gives the mind something new to think about, which is therapeutic. It also creates new neuron pathways, which helps you to cope with adversity.
The above strategies are a few of the core spiritual technologies we recommend. Several others are also effective in dealing with the stresses of life. Engage in positive life-affirming activities that will safeguard your health and wellness. So, we recommend learning as many of the ancient spiritual technologies. These are consciousness development tools. They help expand awareness.
Practice Self-Care
Do the things that help restore your emotional equilibrium. You cannot help others when you need nurturing. Taking care of yourself gives you the energy to help others. Self-care is not selfish if we do it in moderation.
Use Consciousness Development Tools
We have spent 30 years compiling the most effective methods for healing and developing body, mind, and spirit. We divide them into four categories, and you can learn most of them from articles on this website. Pick one or two from the following main categories:
In Conclusion
Stress and anxiety are hidden killers. When you ignore or deny the pressures, you increase their severity. Instead, take a proactive approach and learn to implement the tools to relieve mental stress. If you can learn to cope with adversity, you are more likely to find more enjoyment in life.