In this article you’ll learn how to overcome stress and anxiety with an easy and very effective exercise.

Stress and anxiety are two issues that the vast majority of people have to face at one point or another in their lives. Many, indeed, have to face stress and anxiety over and over again. Finding a solution that is compatible with your business life and family life can often seem like an insurmountable task, but worry no more for Arolemodel.com is about to present a very simply and very effective tool for overcoming stress and anxiety that you can begin to use in as little as ten minutes. What’s best is that once you get used to this tool you will be able to perform it anywhere you may be, even whilst in a board meeting.

This exercise, which I call Cleaning your Vision is based around the fact that ninety-percent of our idea of “reality” is based on personal bias and self deception.

NOTE: If you already know about personal bias then feel free to skip to the “How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety” exercise below; otherwise continue to read this.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety

We have in our minds a personal map of the world, a map which is based largely on memory and associations. For instance, the very word “stress” will mean different things to different people based upon their associations to the word. For some, “stress” is a particular type of headache that is associated with staring at the computer screen too long and damaging their eyes. For others, “stress” means a struggle to deal with emotional complications, which may be the case for those in abusive relationships, for example. There are a million specific things “stress” could mean because the word itself is ambiguous. The only thing about which we can be certain is that we do have some definition in our minds about the word “stress.” Our definitions may be different, but we all have a definition of the word.

There are two very important lessons that can be learned from this. First of all, we know that we naturally and automatically, without thinking, create definitions, be it of words, of events (we might see cleaning the car as a chore; others might see it as a pleasure) of people (your enemy might be my friend), of everything. Equally importantly, we know that our definitions are not accurate; they are simply one personally-biased view of an event. And this is true of our stresses and anxieties: they are just one very narrow and very biased view of a situation.

A lot of people reading that sentence above, about stress and anxiety being nothing but a personal view of a situation, will have scoffed. “But I am losing my job,” one person might say; another, “I did breakup with my boyfriend” and so on. It can be extremely hard to recognise the fact that we create our own realities, especially when it’s about something so important and so painful to us. We become so certain that our big terrible view of the situation is reality itself that we begin to shape everything to that image. If we have lost our jobs, we don’t just think “I’m jobless” but “I failed. I’m going to struggle to pay the rent. The family / partner / other will think I’ve let them down” and so on and so on. We begin to live in a reality shaped by our negative and false view of a situation.

What we need to do at these times is to separate ourselves from our false-negative impression of the situation so that we can reconnect with the actual reality of the situation and get back on the right track, carrying on with our lives.

This exercise will allow you to quickly differentiate your false-negative perceptions of a situation from reality and in so doing will enable you to overcome your stress and anxiety.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety: Cleaning your Vision

When you begin to use this exercise you will need to do it in a dark and silent room, but when you get used to it and understand the process you will be able to perform it successfully wherever you may be.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Step 1
Begin by lying or sitting down comfortably and focussing on your breath (as you would do in meditation, for those who meditate). Simply focus on your breath coming and going as you lie in silence.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Step 2

Take a moment to recognise the fact that you are sitting in complete silence and in the dark. This is important as it will allow you to recognise the fact that anything that happens in your mind during the process is of your own creation and is a part of you yourself (because there is nothing else in the room or around you).

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Step 3

Having recognised that anything that happens in the dark room is of your own creation, slowly and gently bring your attention to the thing about which you are suffering stress and anxiety. Your aim is to see the reality of the situation. If it is a breakup, for instance, imagine that you are alone in a place you would normally be with your ex and try to accept this image for what it is, without negative thoughts. To give another example; if you have lost your job, imagine being in an interview for a new job and being totally comfortable in that situation.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Step 4
Every time a negative thought / image comes to mind, remind yourself that you are in a dark and completely silent room and anything that happens is of your own creation. Any stress or anxiety is the creation of your own mind. Recognising this fact and owning your stress and anxiety as your own will give your power and control over it.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Step 5

Each time you are successfully able to say to yourself “this is of my creation and I am in control of it” after feeling stress or anxiety, reset the situation by returning to the first step of this process.

As you can see, this is a clarifying process. You are progressively realising that your negative view of the situation is of your own creation, that it is not reality and that you can change or remove the way you think / feel about the situation. The more you do this the more control you will have and the more you will be able to overcome stress and anxiety.

More help for stress and anxiety:

How to Deal with Stress

Relaxing Art