Tip #5: Control versus No Control (Stress Management Series)

Hi! Welcome back to this free series of stress management. I’m Stephanie McCannon, I have for you today tip number 5 in this video series, it’s the final tip but it’s not my final word on stress management. There is so much we can do to decrease our anxiety and stress in our life so we can live a fulfilled, happy, healthy existence while we’re on this playground we call life.

I’m glad to help you navigate through health and wellness and there’s a couple of different ways that I can do that. I have written an e-book about more positive practices and healthy habits that you can start to implement to ensure that your body is capable of handling the stress that you give in to day to day living. You can also join my webinar of the month club; it’s a great way to get helpful tips and tricks and to interact with me every month on a different health and wellness topic. For example, this month it was stress. Next month is communication and the following month that would be something different. Every month I go over a different health and wellness topic to serve you and I’m always open to suggestions. So feel free to let me know if there’s a particular topic that you want covered, that you want a little bit of guidance or assistance with, or something that really keeps you from enjoying your life the way that you really want to.
But enough about that, let’s get on to tip number 5. It’s about control versus no control. It’s important to get clear, to be specific about what’s causing the stress in your life. And today we are going to focus on whether or not you have control or no control over the situation. For example, the stress that I alluded to in my last video was my children’s rooms and the stress and the anxiety that it created for me. And I decided that I did have some control over that. I could make their beds that would make me feel better; it helps them feel better too.

Sometimes we don’t have control over the situation, I can’t control the weather, certainly can’t control all the traffic. So then we have to make a decision about how we’re going to react to those situations. So once you’ve determined if you have control or no control, you have to decide on what action you can take or let it go.

For the situations that we can’t control, we need to just let it go or reframe the way you’re thinking about that. What do I mean? While you’re sitting in traffic, if you’re stuck in traffic and it’s going nowhere you can grip the steering wheel and tense your body, think about the traffic not going anywhere, think about you being late for your next appointment or you can LET IT GO. You can remind yourself that you’re stuck in traffic, that there’s nothing much you can do about it, you can think different thoughts, you can turn on the radio and enjoy some music.

Control versus no control. I’ll give you another quick example. I often get rid of furniture and clothing periodically I’ll call local companies and they’ll come to my house and pick those up for me, different charities. Sometimes when we settle on a particular day and I’ve taken all of my donations outside, and they’re waiting for the charity to come and pick them up they don’t necessarily show up. So, I have a choice. I have to decide if I have control or no control over that situation. I have no control over them coming or not coming to pick up my donations but I have a control on how I respond to it. I can tell myself that I have a couple of choices. I can call the company if there was some misunderstanding, or if they like to come another day to pick them up or I can decide to pack them in my car and take it somewhere. Those are my choices. I can choose how I’m going to react to a situation that I don’t have control over.

To the bottom line, we always have a choice, we always have a choice. Decide if you have control over the situation that’s causing you stress and can you do something about it, like make the beds. If you have no control over the situation like a company not coming to pick up your donations that you’ve set outside for them. What can I do? What can I control in that situation that initially I have no control over. I would love to help you in continuing this conversation on stress management and I would love to hear your feedback. So if you would indicate down below and let me know how these tricks and tips are improving your life and helping you decrease your stress and anxiety in day to day living. I would really appreciate it. I would also invite you to join my Facebook group StephanieMcCannonOnline and I’m on twitter and also on some other social media. I would love to continue the conversation and connect with you.