Your Reaction to Stress – Conscious or Unconscious

Stress is a common occurrence in our lives. Often, it leads to unconscious reactions, such as pushing yourself harder, exceeding your limits, not recognizing your needs properly, or freezing when making choices. This can create a spiral, causing you to work harder and harder to achieve the same goals. There’s less and less room for relaxation, which can lead to exhaustion or even burnout.

Ways to Deal with Stress

• Your unconscious reaction is like autopilot, a reflex of sorts. This autopilot often seeks the fastest and easiest route. As a result, many people make choices that are unhelpful or even unhealthy in the long run. Examples include working harder, denial or avoidance, using stimulants, overeating, or filling time with social media.
• In contrast, the conscious reaction involves being mindful of what’s happening and assessing whether it’s within your power to change. If something isn’t within your control, it’s pointless to stress over it. Once you’ve determined whether you can change a situation, you can respond consciously (e.g., change or accept). Healthy responses might involve devising long-term solutions, asking for help, exercising/moving, talking about it, or creating breathing space.

Exercise

By becoming aware of your stress reactions, you learn to make better long-term choices. The feeling of stress won’t disappear, but you’ll learn to respond in a calmer way. It’s like practicing to use stress to your advantage by landing on the right side of the diagram more often.
You can think of stress as an antennae. The earlier you detect your stress, the easier it is to interrupt the reaction. Even if you’re well into your stress reaction, taking a step back can still help. It’s rarely too late.

Sources

https://centrumvoormindfulness.nl

https://www.happywithyoga.com/mindfulness/mindfulness-uitleg/

https://www.radboudcentrumvoormindfulness.nl/media/1366/

https://www.happywithyoga.com/mindfulness/wetenschappelijk-bewezen-voordelen-van-mindfulness/

https://youtu.be/WuyPuH9ojCE

https://www.deimel.nl/gebed-om-kalmte/

https://centrumvaktherapie.nl/stress-maastricht