Identifying Stress Triggers

In January, I completed an Insight Timer 31-day meditation challenge that included a Stress assessment. The meditation didn’t offer enough time to reflect on the questions and answer them authentically, so I wrote them down and made a mental note to get back to them. It is now November when the questions are coming up again, and I’m given an opportunity to explore them.

After years of working on self-regulation, I believe my relationship with stress is now a healthy one. I understand stress is not bad; it is our body’s way of communicating. “Pay attention to this,” “Be present,” “Use this information to prepare for the future,” and more often, “Take a break; it’s time to rest.” At a minimum, this is how I shifted my understanding of stress in order to form a healthy relationship with it.

First, self-awareness helped me understand the stress-inducing aspects of my life. The more aware I became, the more I was able to discern the common threads and the unconscious messages causing my stress response. Through exploration (self and relational), I rediscovered the power I possessed only to allow life to affect me to the extent necessary to learn lessons amplifying wisdom.

I will pause to share I have had a consistent and insurmountable amount of love in my life, along with the trauma. As a result, my brain has always had a contrast supporting overcoming traumatic experiences in addition to the skills I intentionally use for self-regulation. I share this because your ability to believe that you can handle “stress” directly impacts your ability to self-regulate. My body, brain, and heart work with me to achieve my goals because we have spent years learning each other’s languages.

Identifying stress triggers is a matter of self-awareness, and my challenge to you is to love yourself enough to slow down and learn the language of your body, brain, and heart. Then, invite them all to the table when stressful situations arise to facilitate making the most loving decision for yourself and the people with whom you relate. The more you do this, the easier it will be to identify which one of them (body, brain, heart) needs to lead in all the varying situations you will encounter.

And remember: “Nothing in nature blooms all year. Be patient with yourself!”--Lisa Kelly