PsychSense: Sensible Psychological Solutions

In an earlier post I wrote about innoculating yourself against stress with exercise and other techniques. Well, if you are like me, statements like the one above annoy you and make you feel kind of helpless. In response, I usually tell myself, “I will never be able to stick with an exercise program”. My history confirms this belief, if I last a month on any exercise program I have done very well. Ok, so how will I ever get enough exercse? Well truthfully, maybe I never will, but I have found something ( a mindset really) that seems to help me get some exercise. It starts with getting rid of the word program (its kind of like the word diet)! When the reports started to surface indicating that minutes of exercise could be cumulative I started to feel some hope. I told myself I could do almost anything for a minute or 5!

Many of us avoid allowing ourselves to feel anger for a variety of reasons.

Our culture teaches us that anger is a bad feeling, perhaps a sign of poor character or even a sin. For these reasons many of us have learned to hide our anger so well we may not even be aware of it ourself.

Hidden anger is often a result of old hurts and many years squashing your feelings
Review this list of symptoms to see if hidden anger may be a problem for you.

• Procrastination
• Being late all the time

Lets face it, as much as we would like to, we can’t always avoid stress. Many times we are told to “reduce the stress in your life”; this is so much easier said then done! However, some factors have been identified that can help us deal with the inevitable stressors of live and protect against developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a Crisis. Research has shown that theses factors will help in making you more stress resistant.

1. Getting lots of physical exercise

2. Using active coping skills

3. Remaining positive in your outlook