How to deal with stress, anxiety and uncertainty
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The only thing we can be certain of the future is that it is uncertain. Uncertainty causes worry, anxiety and stress. Stress causes illnesses, it causes us unhappiness and can shorten. In our lives where the past is permanent and the future is uncertain we might begin to wonder whether we have chosen the right career, doubt might make us uncertain if were the right person for the job. More stress over the possible consequences of looking for a new position in perhaps an undermined field. Stress caused by an uncertain future may have many different consequences for different people, some maybe able to handle the stress on their own, others even seem to thrive on it making the most of changing opportunities, but others may require medical attention or therapy. The question here is what makes these differences and what can an individual learn how to respond in a more effective way in coming to terms with an uncertain future.
Coming to terms with stress and uncertainty will typically:
Seek to uncover your personal sets of believes that lead to your emotional distress
Encourage personal growth by focusing the present and what you can do now in order to achieve a better future
Explore what personal resources you call upon your own capacity to create emotions and gain a fuller experience of life;
Encouraging self-healing from individual disturbances by providing appropriate insights and introspections
The reforming of dysfunctional ideas through developing a new philosophy of life.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy can be useful in redefining how an individual faces an uncertain future through its understanding that cognition (thinking) and perception are often be based on arbitrarily associated events and that your individual ideas and beliefs are individual are uniquely constructed from the sum of your thoughts and experiences. Learning how these individual constructs of reality leads to your current ways of thinking is an important part of therapy in assisting you in recognising that your beliefs about experiences are born from your perceptions of experience and to test these be beliefs against reality. Your thinking patters have a powerful effect on your emotions and thus how they react and behave under particular circumstances, however if these counter-productive cognitions can be identified, analysed and changed, then the emotions and resulting behaviour will be changed as well.
An example of how these cognitions result in behaviour is illustrated by the example of a client who did not get a job after an interview. Their automatic thought could be “I will never get the job I want because I am not good enough” The emotions experienced include low self-esteem, uselessness and helplessness and result in the behaviour that they no longer seek new job.
Exercises that will help you to come to terms with stress and an uncertain future.
Keep a diary relating to the issues that you wish to change will help you slow down your pace of life and thoughts.
Recognise and interrupt your established thought processes
Recognise where your automatic thoughts come from
Develop rational and affirmative statements that will then become permanent
Pay more attention to the reality of the situation
Focus on positive self-statements
Look at how you might view the world in a rational way
Look at your issues of perfectionism and how you deal with them now and in the future
Look at how you can deal with setbacks and frustrations now and in the future
Learn relaxation techniques to help you manage anxiety.
These exercises will help you to learn more about yourself and help you to take more responsibility for your own therapy.
N Wood-Gaiger, 2014
To book your FREE initial consultation call Neil anytime on 07968 465933
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Practice
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| Rowan Cottage 130 Wells Road Avalon Glastonbury Somerset TA3 7AB |
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| Tel: | 07968 465933 (mobile) |
| Email: | neil@woodgaiger.co.uk |
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© Neil Wood-Gaiger |