The First Step To Lowering Dis-Stress

One of the first things I always work on with Clients is lowering their Dis-Stress.

Now, Stress itself is not inherently bad, and the Goal of doing this is not to Eliminate Stressors altogether.

But the Reality of today's world is that most people simply have Too Many Stressors occurring Simultaneously.

See, All Stress Adds.

It doesn't matter what "Type" of Stress it is, they combine together in our bodies.

Whether it is Work-Related, Emotional, Mental, Physical, Spiritual, Environmental, Relational, Financial, or "Any" other form of Stressor.

They "Add" together.

When we have too many, or as it is technically called "Exceeding Our Stress Threshold", it becomes Dis-Stress.

Dis-Stress becomes Extremely Problematic, and at its Worst becomes Burnout.

In today's world, 80% of people are Experiencing Burnout, with more on the way.

This means that most of the people I interact with are already under Extreme Dis-Stress, and for us to make Any Progress toward "Any" Goals we must First Lower Dis-Stress.

So, how do we go about Lowering the Dis-Stress?

It is actually a Very Simple Process, but it has Multiple Benefits when done properly.

All we do is Write Down Every Single Stressor we currently have.

Now, it may seem Simple, but there are Multiple Benefits to doing this.

The first is that "Just" by Writing Down all of the Stressors, we are Immediately Lowering Mental Stressors.

As Humans, one of our most Powerful Tools, and Crushing Weaknesses, is our Brains.

Our Brains are Amazing at making sure that we don't forget things... but sometimes Our Brains are Too Good.

See, the Brain "Despises" Forgetting Anything, so if the Brain is Worried that you "Might" Forget something, it will Remind you.

Then Remind you again... and again... and again.

It'll continue to do this until whatever it is Reminding you of is Resolved or it "Knows" you Will Not Forget.

However, the Need to Remember "And" Remind you is a Mental Stressor.

A Major Problem for most people is that the Brain is trying to Remember and Remind you of Too Many Stressors Simultaneously.

This takes a LOT of Effort to Maintain, and it becomes Exponentially More Complex the More that you must Remember.

However, when you Write Down All of those Stressors, you tell your Brain that you have a Different Place for Remembering.

This allows your Brain to No Longer Focus on Remembering and Reminding You because the Paper (Or Whiteboard or Word Document) can do it now!

That alone Reduces Tremendous Mental Stressors.

But there are More Benefits as well.

When you put all of your Stressors in front of you, what you find is that some of the Stressors are the Cause of Other Stressors.

This is what I call a Stress Chain.

The bad thing about a Stress Chain is that they end up Creating a Lot of Dis-Stress.

The Great thing about a Stress Chain is that when you Identify the Starting Link, you can Solve Multiple Stressors Simultaneously with Less Effort.

See, most people attack the Stressors that are the "Loudest", but generally the "Loudest" Stressors are "Caused" by other "Quiet" Stressors.

But, by Writing it all out, you can Identify where the Stress Chain Starts, and you Fix Multiple Stressors with Less Effort when you Eliminate the Stress Chain from where it Begins.

This has Two other Benefits when looking at Dis-Stress.

A Side Effect of Dis-Stress is that your Body becomes Less Efficient with Energy, which is called Mg-ATP and is produced in our Mitochondria.

You could think of it like a Bucket.

Our body can only produce so much Energy (Mg-ATP), which is like putting a hose into a bucket.

The amount of Water (Energy/Mg-ATP) going into the Bucket is Restricted by the Hose.

So how Quickly can you fill up the Bucket?

The Answer Depends on the Bucket.

If you have a Solid Bucket, it will fill up pretty quickly.

However, if the bucket is filled with Holes, it will take longer, if it is possible to fill it at all.

Our Stressors are like Holes in the Bucket.

In order to Fill the Bucket, we must Eliminate the Holes.

However, to Fix the Holes we Need Energy (Mg-ATP).

Some Holes have a Larger Impact and some Holes require More Energy.

By writing out All of your Stressors, you can Identify which Holes have a Larger Impact, and which Holes require Less Energy to Fix.

If you target the Low-Hanging Fruit, those holes that require Less Energy to Fix, which are also Large Stress Chains, you can begin to Keep More Energy (Mg-ATP).

With More Energy, you can Fix More Holes, more Quickly.

That becomes the Two-fold Benefit of Writing out Stressors - Identifying what Stressors are Low Energy to Fix, and which Stressors Solve the Most Stressors Simultaneously.

When you further Combine this with Habit Building, you get what is known as the Halo Effect.

This is where by Hyper-Focusing on Small Habits, other parts of your Life Inherently become Better without requiring more Energy or Focus.

If you are picking the Right Habits during this Process, not only do you Fix Holes, but you can also potentially Increase the amount of Water (Energy/Mg-ATP) coming into the Bucket from the Hose.

This becomes one of the Greatest First Steps toward Peak Performance.

Improving our Lives Dramatically does not need to be Hard, but we do have to Approach it in the way that our Psychophysiology is Designed.