What Did You Say? How to Reduce Stress By Managing Your Self-Talk
It’s natural to think you can’t do anything about stress but that’s simply not true. Here’s why: events don’t stress you out but rather your perception of those events.
The Mayo Clinic says, “Also known as the fight-or-flight response, acute stress is your body's immediate reaction to a perceived threat, challenge or scare.”[i] Note: they say a perceived threat, challenge or scare.
Don’t get me wrong. If you’re hiking in the Montana mountains and a snarling grizzly bear appears on the trail about 30 feet away, your perception of a threat is accurate. You’re going to need that immediate fight or flight response.
However, most modern problems don’t equate to being attacked and eaten by a huge hungry carnivore.
Instead, we suffer from the chronic stress of daily situations: a big fight with our spouse, job insecurity, financial difficulties, health problems, or smaller irritants like unexpected guests, a car breaks down.
Add sudden unexpected challenges such as the death of a loved one or let’s say, for example, a global pandemic, and you find yourself suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress can build up to physically unhealthy and mentally intolerable levels.
The good news though is that identifying, analyzing, and reframing your self-talk can actually reduce your stress level.
Identify your self-talk. What are saying to yourself? “I can’t take this?” “This is just too much?” There are myriads of things you could be saying to yourself that are stress-inducing.
Analyze your self-talk. Write down your thoughts and then ask yourself three questions. Is this thought actually true? Is this thought accurate? Is it helpful?
The prophet Elijah complained to God that he was the only faithful believer left in Israel. God responded: “I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18) In other words, Elijah’s thoughts were not true, accurate, or helpful.Reframe your self-talk. Stop saying things to yourself that aren’t true. Replace those words with more positive affirmations. Even small modifications matter. There’s a big difference in saying, “This is impossible” and modifying that thought to say, “This may be challenging”.
The world we live in right now offers us many opportunities to stress. However, the Scripture promises us strength. It reminds us that we transform when we renew our minds and think differently. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself with this question:
What did you say?
Then have the boldness to correct your own thoughts and move forward into the uncertain future ahead with boldness and courage.
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[i] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-management/art-20044151
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George P. Woods, Executive Editor of Influence magazine. interviews Dr. Jeannie on the Influence Podcast.