Optional Stressors

Optional stressors are usually created by negative belief systems, judgmental thinking, rationalizations, assumptions, and magical thinking.

Don’t base your definition of your experience on these things. Instead, allow your perception, thinking, and feelings, to be based on awareness not opinions. You can avoid any artificial stressors when you deal with negative realities in this fashion. How does this work?

Here’s an example. You find that your pain is interrupting your sleep and that you haven’t been getting up until 9 am. You make the judgment that you should feel ashamed about getting up so late. You could assume that everyone else feels the same. You could determine through magical thinking that disrupted sleep should have no affect on the time you begin your day.

Or you could say to yourself: I continue to need adequate sleep, even when my sleep is disrupted. I see sleeping until 9 am a necessary thing until I find better ways to cope with my sleep disruption. The reality is still negative, but there are no optional stressors.