Get Good At Counting The Positives

This week has been very busy and stressful for me—long days, lots of meetings, proposals, conversations, with very little me time. Whenever I am in the midst of challenging situations like this, I know I have to de-stress.

Stress is the accumulation of negative emotions coming from challenging situations, relationships, conversations, deadlines, and anything against the natural flow you want to experience.

Stress comes from friction you feel in your head about how things are going versus how you think they should go.

I have a simple model for dealing with moments when I feel stressed- where I think some situations are not going as I want them to go.

I sit and list down 50 things that are actually going well consciously. Doing this forces me to look at the brighter side of life instead of focussing on the few things that may be making me feel low. Writing down 50 things going well somehow magically gets me looking at the balance sheet of life differently.

Paradoxically, stressful moments are opportunities to remind me of all the positives.

Make an effort to count the positives, however innocuous they may feel. You will notice your perception, and your stress will begin to shift.

I just did my count of fifty positives, and the week’s stress is replaced with a sense of positive energy going into the weekend.