How to fight with stress - aka the monster that ruins us

I have gone through many stressful situations. Some were work related and some not. When I found myself in a complex situation where I did not feel much in control, I started fading away. Entering an unknown, starting to debate myself, worrying too much about things that probably did not matter that much...

Stress feeds on all that. It grows and grows. Sometimes you don't realise. It's there. You don't see it. Heck, you don't even think you are stressed.

I was grinding my teeth for a while. Then it stopped. Then started again. It was a big sign of stress. My dentist obviously noticed this and asked me to watch out.

I then started thinking, what's it all about? Why do I have to feel that way?

Is whatever happening really that important to stress me out?

Well, it probably was not anything to do with something that I thought was stressing me. It was about not being able to live the moment.

Brain is a wonderful organ. We associate it with IQ and being smart. However, brain is just a network. Miles of cables. Brain makes us focus on survival instincts. It makes us worry and pay attention to the worst can happen. That negativity... What if?

When we work on something "stressful' it's not stressful because of anything but us worrying too much about it. When we also can't focus on that task, we then start developing stress. This is called, staying at present. More like, inability to stay at present.

I will refer to a book I recently finished and I think it explains the situation very clearly. The book's name is ''Practicing Mind''

I really like how the book adresses this situation;

Humans, due to not staying at present, lose their focus and develop stress. If they can focus on what they are doing, instead of other worrying thoughts (such as whether they are going to achieve something or not) they can then learn to appreciate the progress made and get their energy focus on accomplishments.

This is exactly what I want to talk about. We are too much focused on getting from A to B. What we must do is to pay more attention and enjoy every bit of that journey between A and B. If we are not at B what's the point of thinking about B too much?

Eliminate that from your head and you will see how magically the worrying signs are all going to disappear.

Focus on what you are doing, nothing more. Clear your mind. Get on with it. Leave the dilemmas of what you are going to cook tonight, the grim news, whether your friend will make fun of your creation afterwards or not... aside.

Once you adapt a mindset like that you will realise you won't be feeding the stress monster. That thing is easily controllable when not fed much and you know what... Sometimes, a little stress is actually not a bad thing.

This, indeed, the way to fight stress. Or at least, how I do it and enjoy the results.