How to deal with stress and anxiety

We live in stressful and highly competitive times. Often our worries revolve around wealth, physical appearance, socializing, among others. 

Most of us want to be popular, loved, and successful. 

These feelings can easily become overwhelming and escalate into stress and anxiety.

If you wake up with feelings of stress and anxiety, you need to step in.

Let's start with an understanding of what stress is. It is the perception of a threatening thought if we don't identify with it, it creates pressure against our artery walls.

Always remember that thoughts are real forces.

Feelings of anxiety sneak in when we think that things aren't going to work out well (not trusting life). You know that feeling of, "OMG I'm never going to...?" It is worrying about the outcome.

We all want a purposeful existence, an existence that maximizes the experiences of love, happiness, and joy, an existence that unleashes our maximum for potential and health.

So how do we reset our biological rhythm?

Take the pressure off!

Maybe it's time to recognize that we are never really going to have it all figured out and that there will always be uncertainty in our lives.

Life will never be perfect, we are not perfect and so are other people we know, not perfect.

You will get the full package in life with ups and downs, success and failure and friends and enemies.

Here are three principles you can use to fight off stressful thoughts:

*Practice rigorous authenticity (extreme representation of one's true nature and beliefs)

*Surrender the outcome

*Do the uncomfortable work

Start your day with a three-minute morning meditation.

Sit with your eyes closed and just listen to your breath. When things get calm around you, ask yourself,

who am I?

what do I want?

what is my purpose?

what makes me grateful, be true to yourself.

Make it a practice to see beauty, whether it's nature, a conversation or art. Notice this beauty and let it nurture you.

Contemplate (look at or view with continued attention or think fully or deeply about) your own beauty. Contemplate the great opportunities life has presented to you.

Make it a practice to have fun every day and spend less time worrying about stuff.

Make it a practice to exercise every day. Exercise pays immediate dividends in the form of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This is a neurotrophin that takes care of the wellbeing of your brain.

Exercise also leads to the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. For example, regular exercise can positively impact serotonin levels in your brain. Raising your levels of serotonin boosts your mood and overall sense of well-being.

Make a decision to: love yourself, respect yourself, trust yourself, do good work, be creative and have fun.

Use memories but don't allow memories to use you, so move from victim to creator.

A great book to read is "The body keeps the score" by Besel Van Der Kold Ph.D. He recommends social support. Social support according to this author is "being truly heard and seen by people around us, feeling that we are held in someone's mind and heart. For our physiology to calm down, we need a visceral (relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect) feeling of safety. No doctor can write a prescription for friendship or love."

Become an athlete of life.

The above advice is from renowned fitness expert, Marius Van Der Walt, human performance coach since 2002. He is currently part of PGS (Premium Group Sports) in Qatar.

With a passion for mindset motivation and performing under pressure, Marius will offer some tips every week to help you prepare for skills that are as relevant in the gym as in the boardroom.

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This content has been produced by Qatar Living's sister platform QL Lifestyle. 

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