Putting Your Life in Perspective

Article Title: Putting Your Life in Perspective Article Author: Peggy Porter Article Copyright: 2005 Author Contact Email: coachpeggyporter@yahoo.com Word Count: 335
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Putting Your Life in Perspective Copyright 2005 Peggy Porter Seeking Balance www.seekingbalance.ca

Do you often overreact to situations? Are you a constant worrier? Do you look at the glass as always half empty?

One of the greatest stress management tools you can possess is the ability to put everything into perspective. How you perceive your life has a profound effect on how you deal with stress and your level of happiness.

For an event to be a stressor, we first need to perceive it as such. What if we were to take note of the little daily demands that we find stressful and experiment with changing our perception of these demands?

Look at your commute to work in heavy traffic as an opportunity to listen to your favorite music or motivational CD. How about using your supper preparation as a time to spend with the kids? Get them involved in some way. Stress is in the eye of the beholder. What may be one person's stressor could be another's saviour.

This week also experiment with the role your thoughts have in how calm or chaotic your day is. Notice how negative thoughts can spiral into a stressful day and when the majority of your thoughts are positive, your daily routine tends to run much smoother.

We often are doing the same daily tasks but some days they seem more overwhelming than others. Why - because of how we perceive them. Certain days preparing supper can be an enjoyable task while other times it is one more job added to my TO DO list. It totally depends on my thinking.

One simple way to reduce the stress and create more balance in your life – change your thinking. Recognize when negativity takes over your day and stop it ASAP. When we start thinking our life is overwhelming, it will become just that.

Start living in the moment and remind yourself how precious life is. Practice becoming more flexible as life always involves a series of changes. Embrace then instead of resisting them. We only go around this way once!!!

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Copyright © 2005 Peggy Porter Peggy Porter is a nurse, Wellness Coach, and author of YumME MumME Makeover-How to Balance Womanhood and Motherhood by Nurturing the Me in MumMe. If you are a Mom and want to start creating a healthier balance in your life, go to www.seekingbalance.ca and register for Peggy's free monthly teleclass and Ecourse! For more info you can also email peggy@seekingbalance.ca or call 506-832-0117.