How To Relieve Stress

How To Relieve Stress, Anxiety & Depression

- by Chris Green

(c) Chris Green - All Rights reserved

One of the most common flawed modes of behavior
performed by every sufferer who enters into a harrowing
episode of stress, depression or anxiety concerns the words
they use to describe situations and events they are
confronted with. In using powerful, emotive words, sufferers
will trigger the fear response and the more they use such
words, the worse their suffering gets.

Powerful, emotive words are part of everybody’s vocabulary.
Sometimes, we use powerful words when we lose our temper
or we become angry and frustrated. In this state, we give vent
to our feelings and the emotions within us have an outlet.

This is fine. For most people, once their emotions have been
expressed, they return to their usual selves and life carries on
as normal.

But it doesn’t work like this if you are prone to stress,
depression or anxiety.

In these states, sufferers will react negatively to every event
they are confronted with in their lives. One of the negative
reactions concerns using powerful and emotive words that
can make even the most insignificant of events a major
problem. Words can and do have that much power and in this
article, I’m going to show you how this works with three of the
worst words you can use to assign meanings to events. They
are:

Nothing, everything and never.

For example, let’s say your relationship with your spouse
breaks down. Here’s how using the above words can trigger
stress, depression or anxiety:

“Well that’s it. EVERYTHING has gone wrong in my life. I’m
NOTHING without him/her and I know I’ll NEVER be happy
ever again.”

Can you see how flawed this highly emotive reaction is and
can you see how these words – seemingly innocuous by
themselves – have made one event a major, stressful episode
by assigning a catastrophic meaning to your whole life?

To avoid arousing such fearful emotions, here are three
better, much less emotive words you can use to lower the
intensity:

For everything, use ONLY. For Never, use TEMPORARY. For
nothing, use SOME.

So let’s use these words to find a less intense meaning to the
event in our example, the breakdown of an intimate
relationship:

“OK, my relationship is over, but it ONLY affects my love life.
SOME things will change but other areas of my life – my work,
my friendships, my hobbies and my social life will carry on as
normally as possible. I’m hurting now, but this is TEMPORARY
and things will get better in due course.”

Can you see how using different words can dramatically
reduce the impact and make much clearer sense of the
event? This is exactly why some people never enter into a
stressful, depressive or anxious episode even when they are
faced with the most trying of circumstances, such as
relationship breakdown.

Everything, nothing and never are just three of the emotive
words used by sufferers. There are many more – including
expletives that are far too strong to use here – but if you use
the three alternatives I’ve given in this article, you will
drastically reduce the chances of entering into an episode of
stress, depression and anxiety.

Be aware of the words you use to assign meanings – mind
your language!

See you soon.

Looking to find out how to relieve stress, anxiety or depression
QUICKLY and without taking drugs? For more tips, information
and articles, click the link below:
www.AngerManagementGroups.com/ConqueringStress.p hp

Anger Management Groups
led by Dr. Lyle Becourtney, licensed psychologist