Coping with stress effectively involves managing a variety of symptoms, too many to address in a short article. One symptom common among many sufferers is the continual replaying of events from the past. Today, let's look at a new method for dealing with stress I have created that will also help alleviate anxiety and will also be useful for people who are suffering from depression.

Continually brooding over the past is a very harmful behaviour to perform. Sufferers will selectively recall only those occasions where things didn't work out, went wrong, or where they made a mistake. This creates a no-win scenario and it is vital to be aware of the way this injurious behavior works.

When you're feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, the desire to replay past experiences and adopting an "if only" perspective can be compelling. What will happen is that you will blame yourself for things you did believing that you shouldn't have done them, for example:

"If only I hadn't left my old job for this one. I'd have been better off back there, leaving was a huge mistake, I'm such an idiot."

Additionally, you will castigate yourself for something you did not do that you will now tell yourself you ought to have done, for example:

"Why didn't I buy that nice house when I had the chance? I was so stupid to turn it down and I'm certain all of us would've been much more happy there."

Can you now recognize what is going on here and that the only outcome is emotional turmoil?

It's a lose-lose situation because in selectively replaying bad events from the past, you damn yourself if you do and you damn yourself if you don't.

What is really surprising about this is that many sufferers can recall in great detail unhappy, sad or unpleasant episodes from their lives that occurred as long as twenty or even thirty years ago and still beat themselves up over what they did or didn't do.

About a month ago, I caught myself replaying several distressing situations that I had to endure way back in the year 2000 and it lead to me generating a new skill to combat it that I know will help to relieve stress, depression and anxiety significantly without a doubt.

After catching myself negatively brooding about these events to a point where I became very upset, I looked at myself in the mirror and said:

"You can't do this anymore. What occurred back then is spilt milk, gone once and for all and I won't let it hurt me again from this moment on."

That's a powerful statement to make as well as being completely true, but what I said next is the most important part:

"This is just so boring. I've had enough of this drivel, it's lasted way too long and from this day on, I'll not tolerate its mind-numbingly boring presence for a second more. It's now time to move on to a brand new exciting chapter."

Now, whenever I get the urge to rake over the past, a past that doesn't occur anywhere other than inside my brain, I merely say in a contemptuous manner:

"Not again with this boring drivel. I have no time for it, it holds nothing of interest whatsoever and I'm now doing far more enjoyable things."

This technique has been really good at preventing me from raking over past situations and I hope you put it to the test because I'm certain it will help with stress, anxiety and depression.   

Tags: Health, coping with stress, dealing with stress, suffering from depression, distressing situations, year 2000, old job, thirty years