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     Mediating Responses

This week we’ll be talking more about a specific technique you can use to manage your stress – it’s called ‘Mediating Responses’.

All techniques used to manage stress involve either changing the internal cause of the stress (that is, your thoughts and beliefs), altering the external cause of the stress, or a combination of the two.

One technique that can help to manage stress is called ‘Mediating Responses’. Often, it is your emotional response and/or attitude to the stressor that leads to you feeling stressed out. For example, if you’re stuck in a traffic jam and you’re late for an appointment, your emotional response may be something like, “Why does this always happen to me?? I’m going to be late!! Everyone is going to be upset with me!”. This response would probably lead you to feeling anxious and angry, and you may end up cutting into traffic, swearing, showing your anger, and arriving to the appointment completely stressed out.

Let’s apply the mediating response to this stressful situation. So, you find yourself facing the cause of stress that is the traffic jam and your being late for your appointment. Instead of letting your emotional response and attitude be like the one above, you make a conscious effort to apply the technique.

In this case, a possible mediating response would be to think to yourself, “I will stay calm so that when I arrive at the appointment I will be relaxed and confident. There’s nothing I can do about the traffic, so I’ll spend the extra time getting mentally prepared for the appointment.” What would this probably lead to? Not anger and anxiety. It would probably lead you to feeling calm, relaxed and confident. It could lead you to calmly ring the person you are meeting and explain the situation, safe driving, and your arriving there feeling relaxed, and in control.

Next time you’re feeling stressed out about something, try out the mediating response and let me know how it goes! Look out for another very effective technique to manage stress next week in your inbox.

Regards from Marryam