Stress Management Techniques--Have A Good Attitude

One of the central foundations of effective stress management techniques is to have a good attitude. You can see this play out almost everyday in stressful situations.

For example: you and your friend are driving down the road and suddenly you get a flat tire. One way to react is to curse and complain that "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all!" Another way would be to pull over to the side of the road and calmly assess the situation to figure out what to do.

Why the difference? Everybody learns by example and probably this is how they saw their parents react in similar situations. It takes a conscious effort to unlearn bad habits and take on new ones. This is at the heart of learning stress management techniques. It is called cognitive restructuring.

Listen to your self-talk

Self-talk is the ongoing conversation we all have inside. By listening to you own self-talk you can learn how to make positive changes. This will lead to a good attitude and you will be much better at coping with stress.

Your internal dialogue might go something like this:

Another example might go like this:

Now your self-talk:

Obviously, these examples show an unhealthy internal dialogue that will act, more or less, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. We tend to become what we dwell on in our thoughts.

Some examples of a positive attitude in your self-talk might resemble this:

 Remember, you are the on who decides how your self-talk will go. With some practice, you can turn negative messages into positive, constructive ones. Over time, you will also notice that the things you dwell on are very often fulfilled in one way or another. You decide!

A good attitude is certainly one of the fundamental stress management techniques. Time spent working on your inner conversations is time well spent.