Stress Management For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10

Understanding How Your Thinking Stresses You Out

In This Chapter

Understanding how you create much of your stress

Figuring out how to separate thoughts and feelings

Recognizing and correcting your stress-producing thinking

If someone corners you at a cocktail party and asks you where most of your stress comes from, chances are you’ll tell them it’s your job, family pressures, or not having enough time or money. You probably won’t tell them that your own thinking is creating much of your stress.

Yet your thinking plays a larger role in producing stress than you may imagine. Fortunately, learning how to change your thinking is not all that difficult. This chapter shows you how your thinking creates excessive stress in your life. It shows you how you can identify your stress-producing thinking and offers step-by-step advice on how to turn that stress-producing thinking into stress-resistant thinking.

Believe It or Not, Most of Your Stress Is Self-Created

Feeling stressed is, and always has been, a two-part process. First you need something “out there” to trigger your stress, and then you need to perceive that trigger as stressful. Then you feel stressed. You empower these ...