Is your stress really anticipatory grief?

Stress sometimes comes out of nowhere. You may find that you’ve recently become easily distracted or angry for seemingly no reason. In some cases, this stress may come from grief. Over the past couple of years, the world has experienced collective grief. According to one expert, everyone should understand the stages of grief to better navigate post-pandemic life.

Editors from the Harvard Business Review recently interviewed David Kessler, the leading expert on grief. The article covers Kessler’s thoughts on the importance of acknowledging grief. He points out that grief doesn’t just occur from the death of a loved one. Grief can occur when things in your life change, such as a change of careers. The anticipation of change or loss can also cause grief.

Anticipatory grief is the grief that occurs from the anticipation of loss. It’s a common feeling that typically occurs when the future is uncertain. Kessler believes that everyone should acknowledge the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance. Acceptance allows you to move forward with less weight on your shoulders. You can build greater confidence and resilience.

Kessler also explains that anticipatory grief is really just anxiety. You’re anxious about the future. Focusing on the present can help ease these anxieties. He also recommends letting go of what you can’t control. This makes it easier to focus on what you can control in the present.

Along with control, Kessler believes in the importance of compassion. Showing compassion for yourself and others can help reduce fear and grief. It’s also important to keep trying. The stages of grief can occur in any order. There’ll be times when your negative feelings are too great. Instead of falling into a pit of despair, keep showing compassion and control.

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NLP offers several powerful methods for dealing with grief and related symptoms. NLP takes positive psychology to another level by helping you understand and control emotions. You can look for positive outcomes where you previously only saw negative ones. Common techniques for grief, fear, and anxiety include reframing, anchoring, and discovering positive intent.

Reframing is useful for finding opportunities in situations that previously brought grief. You can find the silver lining in anything by reframing it with a positive outlook. With reframing, you identify a thought you want to change. You then look for positive intentions to reframe your thoughts. Anchoring is another technique that puts you in control of your emotions. It is a form of conditioning that helps you trigger specific responses in stressful situations. For example, you can learn to recall a favourite memory when a stressful event occurs.

Fear of losing something can lead to profound stress and limit your mental stamina. NLP provides solutions for dealing with each stage of grief, allowing the stress to melt away. You can learn to let go of the past and gain greater acceptance. To learn more, explore my one-to-one coaching services and online courses at https://thinklearnsucceed.com.au

Stressed out? Swap affirmations for THIS

Are affirmations failing to address your stress? Research shows that self-affirmation techniques can ease stress. The same studies also found that affirmations typically only work when contemplating the future. This may not offer much relief for the present time. Instead of affirmations, there is a technique you can use to fight stress.

A brain-imaging study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience shows what happens when you practice self-affirmation. Self-affirmation is the recognition of your self-worth. There are three proposed benefits to affirmations. It’s enjoyable to think about positive things. Affirmations also help remind you what you value most. This can broaden your definition of self-worth. Using affirmations may also help you regulate your emotions.

So, do affirmations work? To find out, researchers interviewed 67 participants. The participants were asked to rate how much value they place on different areas of life. The areas include creativity, relations, humour, earning money, independence, politics, religion, and spontaneity. The participants were then placed in a brain scanner. As the researchers scanned the participant’s brains, they asked them to think about their top-rated values.

The brain scans provided neural evidence of the benefits of affirmations. The study confirmed that affirmations are rewarding and pleasurable. However, the study also found that these benefits only applied to certain scenarios. For example, the positive effects of affirmations were only found when subjects thought of the future. Contemplating the past or present didn’t produce the same effects.

Researchers also found that people can respond negatively to certain affirmations. If the affirmation makes them feel bad about their current situation, it may cause more harm than good. An alternative approach may involve changing your outlook on your current situation. Positively reframing things may increase the power of affirmations.

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Fear and anxiety can limit the effectiveness of affirmations and hurt your mental stamina. These emotions keep you from seeing a positive outcome in difficult situations. This is where NLP can help. Learning to control your fear and let go of your anxieties can ease your stress. NLP offers several powerful methods for altering your thought process. With practice and training, you can gain an optimistic mindset and boost your resiliency.

For example, cognitive reframing helps you see a situation in a different light. Reframing is a practice used in positive psychology to open your mind to other opportunities. It helps you change your focus from negative thoughts to positive ones. You can transform your perception of negative situations. Anchoring is another method that helps high achievers deal with stress. It’s a form of mental conditioning that helps you elicit positive responses in specific situations.

The bottom line is that affirmations don’t work for everyone. Your current mindset may even make self-affirmations damaging. Neuro-linguistic programming offers a way to change your perspective and boost your resilience. You’ll find stress less of a burden and be able to get more out of life. If you want to learn more, explore my one-to-one coaching services and online courses at https://thinklearnsucceed.com.au