In the last post I said the Stress Trap was “when we’re in a new and/or somewhat scary situation and our minds shut down. Our energy is diverted to our muscles so we can either fight or run. That’s not a very helpful reaction to most of the pressures we face in this modern world.”
I’ve been thinking of that a lot. And what I mean by the Stress Trap is much broader than that. My new definition goes more like this:
What is the stress trap? The stress trap is the belief that stress is something that happens to us from the outer world, that we are victims of external circumstances. It is wasting our time complaining about other people and our life circumstances, resenting things that have happened in the past, and scaring ourselves about what might happen in the future.
Stepping out of the stress trap is doing our best to see things clearly and adopting the attitude, “That’s the way things are, so what am I going to do about it?” Stepping out of the stress trap is taking responsibility for our lives. Responsibility doesn’t mean blame, it simply means choosing our response. And, hopefully, it means choosing a response that will lead to more effectiveness and joy.
What do you think?икони
