Simple Actions To Regain Focus (Part 3)
Whaddya Gonna Do About It?
“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.”
(Anton Chekhov)
“So how do we deal with these small, chronic negative stressors that occur each and every day in our lives when it is not realistic at all to think that we can eliminate them?”
We take little breaks from them.
Specifically, we start to use some simple “in the moment” small breaks, which allow our bodies the chance for small periods of recovery from the small but daily negative stress.
These small breaks also greatly increase our ability to regain focus on whatever it is that we are doing at the time.
Over time this process leads to a new pattern of confidence in our ability to deal with various situations, which increases our eustress experiences.
Now, when I say small break I’m not talking about leaving your office, cubicle, or dare I say…meeting.
I’m not talking about going for a snack and switching to an easier or more fun task.
In fact, these small breaks do not involve you changing your physical location or task at all.
They are short/quick techniques that can be employed at any point during the day and DO NOT require:
1) Time
2) Scheduling
3) Training
4) Other People
These skills do not need to be life changing.
They simply need to be effective in terms of giving your mind and body a break from those small, chronic stressors that you are experiencing whether you are aware of them or not.
That being said, having helped thousands of people to incorporate these techniques into their daily routines…
I can say that once you start using these simple techniques regularly in your life they will have an enormous positive effect on your ability to decrease your body and mind’s experience of negative stress.
These techniques have three goals:
1) To give you a quick mental break without taking you out of your current environment or task
2) To help your body physically relax.
We all carry unnecessary tension in various areas of our body.
These techniques will not eliminate that tension (sorry), but over time they will help you to notice when you are getting tense and provide you with an “instant” way to decrease that physical tension
3) Help you to regain mental focus.
I like to think of this as learning to “slow your mind down.”
I would argue that the majority of negative feelings such as: anxiety, fear, sadness, doubt, depression, confusion, and anger are primarily the result of us not effectively slowing our minds down.
Bad things are going to happen to all of us.
Negative stress is a part of all of our daily lives and a plethora of other negative stressors are going to occur in our lives.
What all the courses, books, seminars, etc. boil down to is training people how to slow their minds down.
By doing so, we are not only better able to deal with stressful situations and unpleasant people and events, but we are also able to overcome our own self-doubt and fears and take a more objective look at our individual strengths and individual desires in life.
By learning to slow our minds down, we can quiet that negative inner voice that limits us and, very often, inhibits us from doing what we truly want to do.
This then leads to clearer, more objective thinking, more positive relationships, fewer health concerns, and greater experiences of eustress (positive stress).
Once your mind learns how to slow down, your body will “automatically” experience less feelings of tension.
Over time less feelings of tension lead to less time that your mind is racing and a greater ability to focus…and a new positive cycle develops.
Enough knowledge already. Let’s get to Part 4….
The Actions…
