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MailNovember 2019
What is psychological stress?
Psychological stress is all in our mind. It occurs when we don’t feel brave enough or energetic enough to take an action we think needs to be taken. For example, in daily dental practice, it's easy to set limits on ourselves by thinking we are not capable of doing something. For example, "I don’t have the time to take that course... I’m not prepared to have that conversation… He can’t afford this treatment… She won't accept this treatment."
We believe what we tell ourselves, and we stress ourselves psychologically when we are not mindful of the limiting things we think. We need to stop, say, “Wait a minute,” and challenge the cognitive effects our beliefs have.
Past frustrating events, lack of confidence, fear of not being capable, and internal resistance to change all keep us from seeing true potential, hoping for a better outcome, and then acting to achieve purposeful goals. Our psychological stresses remain boulders in our path.
Fortunately, there are four coping methods for psychological stress.
- Challenge your beliefs.
First and foremost, you must challenge your belief system, which means having friends, colleagues, even people on social media that diametrically oppose you. This is something we're not very good about. We like to surround ourselves with people that make us feel validated and comfortable, because that feels good. That’s the compliance effect bred in all of us. When we have people in our lives that oppose us, that challenge us. It triggers our stress response, and we want to get away from that but that is good for us. It's helping us view the world in a different way than how we perceive it, so we can move those boulders.
- Increase Curiosity
Increasing curiosity helps in challenging our beliefs. Ask yourself why you have a limiting belief about yourself or your world. This will help you develop the habit of challenging yourself. If you ask others why they believe something so you can reflect on it and learn from it, smile and lean in. Don't make it sound like a challenge but rather a question born out of true curiosity with open body language.
- Self-Development
The next coping method is self-development. You can read books, take courses, and listen to webinars that expand your knowledge and view of yourself and the world. I recommend meditation and self-reflection. If you don't go internal, you're not going to address your psychological stress. You can't go to the gym and exercise away your psychological stress. You can't lie on the couch and relax your body to get rid of your psychological stress. It keeps coming back to haunt you. It will take internal mind work to solve your problems.
Perhaps, you just need courage. Often, we have the skills but need to develop confidence to implement them. It will really help to observe or converse with others who are good at what we want to do more naturally … easily … comfortably. YouTube how-to videos have catapulted self-development by modeling best ways to do what you want to do.
- No Post-It Notes
Posting multiple reminder notes and inspirational quotes is a no-no. Having multiple displayed notes creates chaos for the brain. It triggers our stress response—that twitching sensation we feel from the little rush of stress hormones flooding our veins. Instead of notes that clutter our environment, get used to using a digital calendar, notepad, or journal. Write reminders in one place you can easily share with others.
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