The One Key Way to Reduce Stress in Your Life

There is a saying “You can either be the victim of your own life, or the victor.” by Catie Hartsfield. Catie is a small business owner and the mother of four teenagers. I tell you that so you understand where she comes from when she wrote this quote.

While we all know how easy it is to be a victim, how can one become the victor over stress in their life? It is my hope by the time you finish reading this article you have gleaned some ideas to help you become the victor over stress.

The reason I’ve decided to write this article is because I have read and heard far too many articles on what is called ‘intergenerational trauma.’ This is when the trauma experienced by one person is passed down to future generations. While this is not the type of legacy one want to pass on, it does happen.

It is my understanding that intergenerational trauma can bring some families emotionally closer or cause the families to move apart. The ways that this form of trauma affect families include;

• Disconnection
• Impaired self-esteem
• Bonding with the abuser or their target
• Neglect, and
• Abuse or other forms of violence

Stress and trauma of this form can increase the chances or chronic pain, illnesses and behaviors that deeply affect a person’s health. According to the American Psychological Association there are many symptoms of ‘intergenerational trauma’ that include;

• Shame
• A higher sense of vulnerability and helplessness
• Low self-esteem
• Overactive-awareness
• Interfering thoughts, and
• Extreme reaction to stress.

So, the question is how do we overcome this from of stress. According to the late Dr. Albert Bandura a social psychologist, the perception of being in control is an important buffer of negative stress. This leads to a few important fundamentals I want to share with you.

Dr. Bandura created the term ‘self-efficacy’ to describe a person’s internal beliefs about their capacity to have an impact on the events in their life. As you know, when people feel that their life is out of control, they experience stress, even though they are in control and simply can’t comprehend this control. Then there is the other reason that people feel stressed or out of control; it is when they feel that they do not possess the appropriate skills, or resources to suitably cope with the situation that is causing them the stress.

Secondly, studies on rats prove that it is so important to have the belief that if you can do something to overcome the stress your stress decreases. In the experiment which took place over 20 years ago it showed that if the rats could press a bar to turn off the stress, they were experiencing their stress reduced. This control offsets many of the health problems that the other rats were experiencing.

Now that you know the background, you can now see the one key to reducing stress in your life is to believe that you have some control in it. This is because when you internalize a stress-filled emotion it will create chaos on your over-all health.

Isn’t this a better way to live your life?

You want to be a victor, don’t you?