How to Handle Your Stress Recovering From the Global Crisis
[Music]
once upon a time
there were four friends happiness
sadness anger and fear
they called themselves the emotions
happiness was the one that held the
whole group together
he cared for the whole group and brought
some light
on a dark day but happiness
was a little insecure and sometimes
a bit shy did he
really belong in the group happiness
sometimes thought
he felt so different sometimes
if only the others in the group would
tell him that he was so appreciated
but whatever happens happiness will
never leave the group
he will always be there maybe sometimes
a bit in the background
but he is there
on great days happiness laughs out loud
and feels he can fly
then we have anger
anger liked to defend the whole group
from danger
she liked action and she liked noise
and anger loved to storm
but anger also needed the others in the
group
to remind her to be gentle and sometimes
to be a bit quiet that is also what
anger appreciated from her friends
anger would want her friends to tell her
more often
that she was sometimes just a bit too
much
then we have fear
fear always likes to run away from the
group
fear cannot sit still he
always thinks that nobody is to be
trusted
and overthinks everything he comes
across
fear likes happiness as a friend
happiness always gives fear a hug when
he feels like
running away and then it all feels
better
it melts all the ice that fear collects
when it freezes but
fear is a funny one he is also attracted
to sadness and anger sometimes running
from one to the other but in the end
he belongs to happiness the one
that makes fear calm
finally we have sadness
sadness loves the rain and is the most
introvert of the group
though she is a part of the group she
always feels
alone and she likes to pull the others
in her loneliness too
but anger and happiness do not let that
happen
happiness always tries to make sadness
laugh
and anger shakes up sadness world and
teaches her how to fight
sadness feels then imbalance and not
out of control this group of friends are
best when they are its equal
when the competition between them grows
that can mean trouble
happiness is a natural leader when he
takes his responsibility
then we are fine but when
anger fear or sadness want to lead the
group can fall apart
all these changes how to adapt
this is where the next door neighbor
sees her chance to
talk to the friends the next door
neighbor
is called stress and she likes the
competition going on
she likes to bring the emotions out of
control
and watch them struggle to adapt
but there is love
love is already very old and he is the
strongest you will see
love is very special because he also
loves himself he does not only love
himself
he also teaches the friends to love
themselves
that there does not have to be one
stronger
than the other love clears the sky
love helps stress to be softer
but you have to believe in love for him
to come
and then keep the door open for him
because love
only works when you open your arms
and let him do his work
will there never be trouble
of course there will be that is why the
emotions
stress and love are there
but it is important that they all are
there
because only then we learn the value of
them all
and that is the story of the emotions
it is quite a story to start with and it
is at the core
of who we are as humans
a story not to forget when we are
born we start walking on this road
called
life and this road called life is a long
road and this road has ups and its road
has downs and we come
across different situations good or bad
and sometimes the things we experience
are exceptional
in 2020 the world experienced something
exceptional
with the pandemic for many it created a
mix of emotions
sadness anger fear but also happiness
all were there this mix of emotions in
an
unusual situation can feel very
confusing
and for some it could have felt that
they did not have their emotions
in control anymore all these emotions
confusion and the feeling of having
things not
in control can make us feel
tired we do our best
to process all the information coming in
and what we are feeling
and this is not easy for mind and body
so it makes us tired
but the pandemic will not be there
forever
at some point we will have to recover
from our global crisis
and this will also cost energy
we will have to adapt we can certainly
do that
so some will happily go through it but
for some
it can also create stress
so what should one do then the first
step
is to accept your emotions
be willing to feel any emotions that are
there
when we experience stress our focus is
not always unconsciously feeling
what is happening inside us
literally get in touch with yourself
first
so let us do a small exercise
bring your hand forward like this
now put your other hand on top of it
feel the weight of your hand on top
of the other hand
are your hands cold or warm
feel the touch of every finger
consciously
on your hand when was the last time
you felt the weight of your hand
consciously
like this in the same way
also practice to feel your emotions
and that they are present
very well so a next step
is to go through that process of not
only feeling
but also learning in the process of
recovering from the crisis
when we know a change is coming we can
do a few things
we can avoid the change we can run away
from the change
we can fight the change accept the
change
or we can go through the change
and surf on the waves it creates
going through change is not always easy
it feels comfortable to stay in the same
place
but to recover from a stressful
situation there’s also
change needed and if we gently go
through it we will feel better
for example a family lives in a small
apartment
they want to move to a bigger place a
change
but in the end moving to this bigger
place
will feel better for them
practice being full of surprise wonder
and gratefulness
while going through this process
when we are in a state of wonder we
admire
the small things in times of a crisis
becoming aware of the small things that
give us joy
help us keeping our emotions in place
two psychologists from miami who study
gratefulness
as the group they were studying to write
a few sentences
every week the first one-third of the
group
wrote what they were grateful for the
second
one-third of the group wrote what
irritated
them the third one third of the group
so the last part wrote neutral about the
things
that happened in their lives ten weeks
later
the ones who had expressed gratitude
felt happier
than the others and you can also do this
as an
experiment for yourself
monitor yourself write one week
about what you were grateful for write
one week
about what irritated you and write one
week
about happenings in your life in a
neutral way
evaluate what felt best for you
monitoring your progress is very helpful
also keep reflecting and asking yourself
questions day by day
reflecting is having a conversation with
yourself
which is also important to do from time
to time
so we need to develop ourselves we need
to adapt
training your ability to adapt will make
that you can handle
tough situations in life better and
better
every time and this is a continuous
process that will keep going on every
day
however it is important
to emphasize to take your time
your own time and that is okay
before the pandemic happened a lot of
people
were always in a rush running from one
place to the other place
being occupied with one or the other
thing
when many countries went into a lockdown
some people were forced to be with
themselves
while a human connection is very
important
being with oneself also teaches the
person
to deal with time differently
taking your time to develop yourself can
be a great learning
because we then keep consciously
monitoring
and working on ourselves
recovering from a crisis also needs
managing expectations
manage the expectations in your life
it feels great to look forward to
something exciting
or to a world where we will be able to
do a lot of things like we did before
but when we put expectations there
we can get disappointed and we can also
get tired
of waiting for those expectations to
become
a reality become aware of what your
expectations are
and sometimes it is very hard to let
certain expectations go
but awareness is a first step
then is all the managing here in our
head
no no of course not physical exercise
has been more
important than ever to maintain our
bodies and mental health
and physical exercise has all the effect
on our emotions often we know
some information about maintaining our
health
but when does this turn into doing
when we start doing what we learned that
is where the magic happens
and that is when we can feel proud of
ourselves
and feeling proud of ourselves when we
are taking
care of ourselves well i can tell you
that is a great feeling
let us go back to our friends the
emotions
one thing is sure happiness
cannot exist without the other emotions
it is a part of life they all have a
useful function
make a road map of your emotions on this
journey
identify them every day and become
friends with them
i will end with a story about a boy
that i once met when he came
in my consultation room with his parents
he was born blind when his parents came
with him
the boy started exploring the table and
other things in the consultation room
with his hands and with his feet
he crossed my chair and hugged my leg
and did not want to let go
he wants to be your friend his father
said
it taught me that we can experience the
world in different ways
but there is something special about
companionship
no matter if that is sharing with other
people
or to be your own companion
it is worth learning to be a companion
especially when we want to recover
from a crisis
[Music]
you