4 Ways To Reduce Stress With Self-Awareness

In our fast-paced world, stress has become an all-too-familiar companion. Our responses to stress will hinder our decision-making and create negative emotions. The fields of neuroscience, psychology and biology have long proven this. By better understanding yourself, you can change your perception of how stress impacts you, adopt a more mindful approach, and learn to effectively self-regulate your stress levels and improve your overall well-being. In this article, we will explore practical steps to transform how we view and handle stress.

The impact of stress on well-being

Stress permeates various aspects of our lives, affecting our physical health, mental well-being, relationships, and capacity to influence others positively. Physically, stress can lead to changes in eating habits, disrupted sleep patterns, and reduced exercise. Mentally, it can cause anxiety, depression, and reduced cognitive function. In relationships, stress can strain communication and exacerbate conflicts. Additionally, stress can hinder our ability to exert influence confidently, as others may sense our stress and perceive us as unreliable or unstable.

Understanding stress

Stress most often arises from the gap between our expectations and reality. It can stem from past or future worries. When we feel stressed, we lose clear thinking, and our ego often kicks in, attempting to protect us from a perceived danger. The problem is that the stories we tell ourselves based on these interpretations are usually not real – they’re fiction. The worst part is, that we are mostly unaware of this, because 95% of our thoughts, feelings and actions are subconscious. Therefore, if we are only aware of 5% of our stress response, we cannot change what we cannot see.

Our percetion of our reality and beliefs, leads us to experience negative feelings and make decisions from a place of fear rather than lucidity and alignment. These decisions are often inappropriate or not the best choice or behaviour for us because they are based on old programming from growing up which we are stored in our subconscious. When we are stressed, some of us will experience self-doubt, some of us will become more controlling, some of us will become ridged and inflexible, some of us will avoid seeing anyone, some will blame others for our miseries and others may become impatient quickly.

The good news here, is that because this is all a question of perception, we therefore have the power to change how we perceive ourselves at any point in time. The key thing, is to first learn to recognise the early signs of distress. To break free from our programmed stress response, we need to change the way we perceive ourselves by simply thinking differently about ourselves. This is however, is hard and requires professional support most of the time. If 95% of decisions weren’t run by our subconscious mind, then yes it would be easier!

Things we can do to reduce stress

Lowering our expectations and being self-compassionate can help us manage stress more effectively. As a transformational coach, I've witnessed the transformative power of simply "lowering the bar" when feeling stressed, without taking away from your self-esteem. Usually, we don’t do this because we have never questioned our high standards. They will be based on what we are used to and what is recognised positively around us. While you cannot control the expectations of others or your environment, you can take control of your own expectations. This takes guidance and time because we have to uninstall and re-install new programs depending on how deep the limiting beliefs are. If we can work and live with lower levels of stress, we allow ourselves room for growth and learning without falling into the trap of constant stress. We become the best version of ourselves, and live our best life!

Measuring stress levels

Stress manifests differently in each person. Some may feel it as emotional turbulence, while others experience it as physical tension or changes in energy levels. Recognising your individual stress signals empowers you to identify stress early on and take corrective actions before it escalates. How do we do this?

Different personality types will have different predictable sequences when it comes to stress. Understanding your unique stress pattern allows you to recognise signs of stress even before you feel overwhelmed. An effective tool is the Process Communication Model (PCM), is a personality inventory which helps individuals identify their personality types and understand how stress affects them personally and others around them. Empowered with this knowledge, you can implement targeted strategies to manage stress effectively. Without self-knowledge, you can’t see what you need to change! Get in touch with me if you want to discover your PCM profile.

The power of self-awareness

The truth is that you know yourself better than anyone else. Reflecting on what works best for you during stressful situations can be transformative. We don’t tend to do this, and when we do if we are not calm, we won’t thing clearly enough to learn lessons from our self-reflection. Self-reflection and self-awareness are not skills we practice much growing up, so it takes us more energy and the majority of us find it difficult, so we avoid it. We all have experienced moments when we felt prepared, confident, and in control.

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