06/08/2016
Stress & Remote Control
I think most of us would agree that we’re living in an environment full of stressors and if we don’t have the appropriate coping skills and abilities for dealing with them, our mental and physical health can be negatively impacted by.
We know that chronic stress weakens our immune system and those who suffer from it can experience symptoms such as anxiety and depression to name a few.
The fact is that there are and will be stressors around us so the issue isn’t about how to get rid of them because we simply can’t, the issue is how to not let these stressors internalize us, in other words not to let them to become an integral part of our nature and belief system.
I read somewhere that one of the factors that promote mental stress is one’s expectations of oneself or of others and when some of these expectations are not fulfilled the result is internal emotional and mental stress. And the thing is often expectations are unrealistic and impracticable.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t set goals in our lives to do better. I am not saying that we shouldn’t set standards for ourselves and for our kids. The point that I’m trying to make is that we must set those goals for ourselves that are realistic and achievable.
We must also understand and accept that we do not have control over others hence we cannot expect other people, even our loved ones, to live up to our expectations. Since we are not in this world to live up to the expectations of others, we shouldn’t expect others to live up to our expectations either. But the problem is that we expect everybody else to behave and follow the same standards that we do ourselves in life.
I think we should keep reminding ourselves that every individual is unique with distinctive belief system and abilities and often what we expect from others is unrealistic. Maybe others are performing their best but are incapable of providing what we expect them to deliver.
We must not think that others should share our perspective on various aspects in life such as definition of a functional family, child rearing, religious belief, politics etc.
Like one of my colleagues, when I work with people who come to see me for stress related issues, we spend some times working on the issue of expectation and how to overcome it accordingly. I use the metaphor of the need for taking back the remote control of our life from other people. One of buttons on that remote control is labelled EXPECTATION. Let’s not give away the remote control of our life to others.
What do you think?