Use Stress to Your Advantage

Use Stress to Your Advantage

Stress is a daily part of modern, urban life. Rather than avoiding it, we can benefit from reprogramming how we view and deal with stress. With a positive spin on stress, we can use it to become more self-aware and adaptable.

Here are three ways to use stress to your advantage:

1. Adopt a positive attitude.

Negativity drains energy and time. By recognizing that we’re heading down a negative path, we can adjust our attitudes. UC Berkeley professor Daniela Kaufer studied stress and found that some stress can be defined as “good.” Kaufer says, “If you tend to have a positive attitude – a self-confident sense that you can get through a rough period – you’re more likely to have a healthy response than if you perceive stress as catastrophic.”

2. Welcome new perspectives.

Use Stress to Your Advantage

One favourable effect that stress has is that it can allow us to perceive our lives (or problems) from a different perspective. Considering new ideas and coping mechanisms can be beneficial. When you start to see things from a different viewpoint, a feeling of burden can dissipate and be replaced by empowerment.

3. Let go.

Stress loses its ability to intimidate when we accept that not everything is under our control. Recognizing what we can control and altering our responses to reduce stress takes some effort, but positive change can occur over time. When we understand that some things cannot be changed, that only our outlook and reaction can be altered, we experience a kind of mental and spiritual freedom.

Use Stress to Your Advantage

Asking for help at times of stress is an important step toward developing life skills that will help you through the worst of times. For professional assistance to manage stress, call York Regional Psychological Services at (416) 602-3230. We’re ready to help.