NLP and Stress Management

How to Not Stress About Stress

If there is one thing that is more stressful than stress, it is stress itself.

It is an unending vicious cycle that can get the best of you when you do not know when and how to cut it. You beat yourself up tired with piles of work documents, home issues and personal concerns that leave you mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted to enjoy the pleasures in life. Too often than not, you even start to lose focus and unable to find your way to your goals and aspirations. This leaves you to be even more stressed out – now that is really stressful! See, it really IS a vicious cycle.

That is why it makes us wonder why certain people seem to know how to manage stress and work around it so effectively. It is certainly quite enviable to see a successful career-driven person with a busy and hectic work life yet still has time to beam the brightest smile like there is no tomorrow and unfazed with life’s problems, concerns and issues. Seeing these stress-free people can sometimes fuel worry in you that you get even more stressed. There goes the vicious cycle again.

NLP Intercepts Stress

You might think that stress is just too difficult to escape what not with all the stressors in the world today. Because of this mindset, we often think that there is no way we can beat the battle against stress. But, there is a way – an easy and very manageable way, actually. Enough of the pots of chamomile tea or listening to music, Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP cuts right to the chase and addresses your stress at its core.

Oftentimes, stress is self-induced. Your mind gets too obsessed over things that cause your stress. And because NLP works at rewiring how your mind thinks and responds to an external stimulus, it can help you efficiently cope with the challenges and finally see the many ways of overcoming stress.

Relax, Take a Break

First, you should understand that there are value and beauty in relaxation. You may not realize it but the stresses that we encounter happen on an everyday basis and are recurring. So, never deprive yourself of indulging yourself in a couple of short breaks from your everyday routine. Allowing yourself to take some time to relax helps to reduce your stress levels in so many ways. It can work wonders physically as it helps to bring back your body functioning at its normal levels.

Relaxation can also help in attracting more positive emotional responses and drain away tension, anxiety and panic, which settle when you are at the peak of worrying. Lastly, it helps to keep your mind focused and slows down your mind to create a space to set priorities on things that you need to get done first instead of flustering through dozens of things without ever finishing any one of them. This allows you to take control of your thoughts, emotions and body proactively and take charge of your life.

Paint a Relaxing Picture

Visual imagery plays a big role in NLP and is actually used in a number of exercises. One excellent example of such is by way of picturing an event or incident when you felt the most stressed about. It could be the time when piles of documents were laid on your table or when a colleague said something disconcerting about you. Visualize this as close as possible to your face, notice your reactions and how you felt during those moments.

Now, slowly move it back farther away from you and notice the changes that happen in that picture. Imagine the scene getting smaller, the voices getting fainter. Try to relish on your emotions and your reactions as the scene moves farther and farther away from you until it just becomes merely a dot.

If visualizing the scene in blank space is difficult for you, just put your hand in front of you and use it as sort of your “movie screen”. Slowly move it back until it is within arm’s length and just simply drop the scene off from your hands. You can even do this by replacing the faded picture with more relaxing images and slowly zoom this in towards your face.

This may take some time to practice, but this an effective exercise that can work significantly, especially when done after a relaxation. So whenever you feel too anxious or stressed over anything, do this visualization exercise and you will find yourself eventually free from the reigns of stress.

Visualization exercises can even be complemented with NLP Anchoring technique. Associate a physical stimulus to the feeling when you pushed back stress away from your life, then use this whenever you are confronted with a new situation when you are bombarded with issues, concerns and problems.

It’s a Matter of Perspective

Sometimes, all it takes is a different perspective. This is the same whenever you are confronted with a situation where stress could be an end-result. This is exactly how NLP Reframing technique can work well in this kind of scenario. It is a very useful technique that allows you to change the meaning or outcome of a situation by placing it in a different context or setting.

There are actually two Reframe forms, which are Content Reframe and Context Reframe. The former answers the question “In what way could this situation be positive?”, while the latter enlightens you with “Can this have value or is it useful?” It allows you to see what the intention is behind the stress and even lets you to realize how to achieve the intention without the stress.

If you put it simply, it somehow works at seeing the brighter things in life. Reframing works at putting a different spin in life’s situations, similar to how a joke is played out, where you take an ordinary event and positioning it in a context that is more appealing and more fun.

For example, when you are asked to go over and proofread dozens of documents, instead of stressing out of having to notice every wrong spelling and punctuation, see it as a fun activity by counting how many misplaced commas are there in a document. This takes out the anxiety and stress over a task that is actually enjoyable when viewed on a different perspective. Reframing works around some of the principles of NLP, like:

• Behind every behaviour is a positive intention.
• The process is more important than content.
• I am in charge of my mind, and therefore my results.

The End of the Cycle Starts Here

Stress can be cumbersome and can pile up if you do not know how to intercede and put a stop to it. Just like the Energizer bunny, it can go on and on and on. But unlike the battery where it will eventually charge out, stress will not, leaving you the one beat out and too tired to see the pleasures in life and pursue your goals.

So, if you do not want stress to take over your life, join Singapore NLP trainer Jacky Lim in one of his 2-Hour Fast-Track NLP Course. This intimate 2-hour session will let you see how NLP can help you defeat stress and not stress about it, among the many other positive changes NLP can bring to your life. Call us now to book the seat reserved just for you!