Awareness enables you to catch and control your response.
Make a list of your red flag stressors, and then write down how you responded in each case. Now the subtle part, describe how you felt afterwards about how you responded. This quality of self-reflection enables deeper self-understanding, helping you to identify how you would prefer to respond more resourcefully in the future.
Reflecting, and making choices in this way, leads to a better sense of control and empowerment. It will of course take practice to be able to respond like this most of the time. So, don’t be disheartened if you at first struggle to fully manage your stress responses – just keep repeating the process. Soon you will be able to look back and congratulate yourself on how much you have improved.
