I wanted to try to move this series onto a more practical level. So I have made up a hypothetical Character, Tom and shown three diary entries.

The idea was to demonstrate the need to deal with things quickly to move them from bothering you to being resolved in your mind as quickly as you can.

It quite often happens that a number of bad events happen in clusters. So if you take too long resolving them they pile up one on another.

I know it might sound like I’m glossing over the seriousness of these events as if they are just minor details. I’m not. I understand that they are not simple things to clear in your mind. But the fact is that unless you do, you’ll suffer more stress and be at greater risk of becoming overwhelmed.

Here are the three diary entries.

Not resolving your mind of a worry is like a Runner in a hurdle race having the first hurdle added to the second, then the first and second added to the third. Once you have a second worry it’s going to be harder to deal with the first.

The more worries, things you have to do and unresolved or undeveloped ideas you have on your mind, the less mental horsepower you have to devote to it.

Stress is not a problem of not being able to cope. Stress is the result of not dealing with things as they crop up. It’s not breaking a big thing into it’s separate elements.

Focused attention has so much more power than diffused attention. Why so many people are stressed today is because they are trying to do too many things, so they are doing them with diffused attention.

Whatever your goal might be, whether it’s to achieve success, to live a more balanced life, to grow spiritually or to develop a better relationship, the grreatest step you can take towards achieving that goal is through gaining clarity and peace of mind. A scattered and agitated mind can do nothing.

So here’s the best thing you can do to achieve that.

Get a piece of paper and pen and list or draw everything that crosses your mind. Capture every thought or word that crops up without any judgement or analysis.

If you have a thought or a feeling, it is there for a good reason. And if you fail to recognise that reason it will recur and increase in intensity until you do and act on it. So just make a note of it, regardless of how inane it might seem.

Do this for five minutes or even ten, until you run out of steam. Here’s an example start of such a list.

In the next post we’ll talk about how to process these.

It might be easier to understand how to process thoughts if we have some real life examples. So if you want to share some from your list or even a hypothetical situation, post it in the comments box below and I’ll do my best to share how I’d process such a situation.

Tags: Stress Management //