How To Judge A Good Amount Of Stress
Many clients are sharing that their nervous systems are fired up lately.
It may be politics, the environment, recent tragedy, and it could also be business as usual in personal relationships or work.
What do you notice in your body when it's distressed from worry, fear, or anger? What do you notice if you are worn down?
Do you notice? This is the place to start. As I often say, you do not need to become a meditation lover or completely stop your love of getting stuff done. Just begin to notice.
Flexibility is SO helpful here - You get to judge what feels good to you. There isn’t a single, easy answer in a book or a podcast.
The word stress has become a catch-all for lots of emotions. Get more discerning - rename it as a more specific feeling - grief, fear, anger, worry, sadness... or another description.
Here is a simple way to judge if "stress" is serving or not serving you:
How does it feel in your body?
It's only in recent history that medical, psychological, and neuroscience research demonstrates that our brains and bodies are intimately connected and communicating with each other. Think about it - our bodies are an incredible well of information, if only we would listen.
Once you've identified that your nervous system is talking to you, don't judge it, it's part of being human.
What we know in psychology is that naming and allowing a feeling is far more effective than pretending it doesn't exist or being annoyed with yourself for how you feel.
Go ahead, try naming it and identifying how and where you feel it in your body. It’s then easier to gauge where your stress level is - is it around a 5/10, a mid level amount for you, lower or higher?
Use this scale like doctors use a pain scale, out of 10. If you scan your body and feel the stress at a level higher than 5, it’s likely not a “good” amount of stress.
Again, an rigorous meditation practice, although great for our health, isn’t required to lower stress. You also don’t need a dozen tools from Instagram. My simple suggestions are to learn deep breathing, movement, and new ways to talk to yourself.
