Stress, like change, is constant.

But no matter how many times we experience it, very few of us can actually find a path to the serenity that we seek.

But is serenity hard to achieve or are we just too distracted as a society to clearly identify, accept, and implement the skills necessary to reach it?

What is stress?

Stress is your body's response to a trigger and facilitates our thoughts, our emotions, and our behaviors.

And if left untreated, stress has the ability to paralyze, overwhelm, frustrate, and depress us.

Leaving most of us in a state of disassociation, disconnection, and potentially dis-ease.

Why stress happens?

Simply stated, stress is a reaction to a trigger.

Our biggest challenge in stress reduction is our inability to break through the overwhelm to identify a pathway for peace.

And because triggers come in various forms, it becomes difficult for us to anchored in the chaos leaving us feeling out of control with no connect to what or who really matters.

And in my experience it boils down to one thing. CONNECTION.

If you want to stress less, you need to connect more.

Regardless of who you are we all seek to find a those who appreciate and recognize our significance.

However, the path to seeking our own significance is often imposed upon us through external noise instead of the wisdom within you.

Why?

Because it requires us to be vulnerable, accountable, and responsible for our role in our current circumstance.

And in my experience as an Emotional Wellness Coach, it's easier to find a scapegoat than admit that you have any control over a situation and its eventual outcomes.

So how do you obtain what you seek?

In order to obtain the serenity we seek, we need to take an inventory of where we are in each area of our blessed mess called life and own what is important to us and why.

And in doing this, I focus on the following three things.

1. Awareness.

2. Story.

3. Relationship.

Awareness is a state or condition of being. (1) The easiest way for me to understand my current condition is to deconstruct how I'm feeling. And because my feelings facilitate my behavior I reverse engineer both to identify my current thought. But the work doesn't stop here.

Story, otherwise known as belief, is a narrative, either true or fictitious, designed to interest, amuse or instruct. (2) Once, I've named my emotion, assessed my behavior, and identified my current thought. I go deeper into the narrative woven in my soul by asking myself, "Why?" at least 5-7 times.

It's this activity that leads me to the origin of the belief that I've formed and the reason why I formed it. But there's more

Relationship is an association; a emotional connection or other connection between people. (3) And it is here where you'll discover your inner wisdom and personal power to build the relationship and connection you desire. And in doing this you realize that you've always had the power to overcome stress.

The biggest challenge is....

Eliminating distractions so you can deconstruct the situation appropriately.

So how do you begin?

You begin by doing the steps in order and by beginning exactly where you are.

So this means you need to great honest and real with yourself about your life root yourself in your current awareness.

And as you begin to create space by cultivating your awareness the next 2 steps will naturally follow.

And there's more....

Sometimes we need a little bit of help in recognizing exactly how we are meant to be in this world.

So I have some tools that are meant to help with that.

Visit my website and take advantage of one of my freebies so you can begin to get to know yourself better.

Because once we get to understand ourselves better we recognize that comparing ourselves to others is pointless and the only individual we are actually in competition with is ourselves.

Foot notes:

www.dictionary.com references for the three definitions used in this post.