hey there everybody this is dr. Dawn elise Snipes and there is a lot going on out there right now
so I figured I would do a series on dealing with stress in uncertain times right now we have got
a ton going on in politics the stock market has just taken a complete dump lately the coronavirus
we just don't know what to expect from it and then there's also those looming things that we've been
talking about for years including the environment and community violence everywhere you look it
seems like there is something stressful or chaotic going on so how do we handle that so we can still
be happy and we don't let the stress tear us up inside and cause stress-related illnesses well
there is no one way to handle it effectively each person is gonna have their own strategies that
work but I'm gonna give you several strategies that you might try the first one is to take 10
minutes each day to focus on what is going well and the good news 10 minutes that's all I'm asking
at the end of the day at the beginning of the day whenever you want to ten minutes where you
tell yourself I'm not gonna think about anything negative I'm not gonna get online where I might
see something negative I'm just gonna think about what's going well in my life you know my kids are
healthy my car got me to work today you know I've got a job whatever it is that is going well in
your life ponder on the things that are going well and how things are you know on a scale of one to
five one being completely crappy in every aspect five being completely awesome and your dream life
where are you right now most likely you're probably somewhere around a three hopefully
maybe even a fourth but when we focus on the new we watch the news every day when we get on social
media we can forget the things that are going well in our life because when we are distressed
when we're angry anxious depressed our mind our brain is primed to notice the negative things and
ignore the positive things so that's one of those tricks that we need to do is force our brain to
also notice the good things when you identify a problem such as politics or the stock market or
whatever identify something that's going well you know I don't like the fact that the stock market
took a dump for the third day in a row and I know a lot of people are gonna be really stressed about
their retirement accounts and yada yada well we can get stressed about that but is that gonna
change the fact that the stock market took a dump no it's not so alright I've identified a problem
now let me focus on identifying something that is going well in my life to kind of counterbalance it
a little bit so I'm not stuck in that place where I'm feeling like quote everything is going badly
I'm forcing myself to recognize that some things are going well limit your exposure to the news
please they say the same thing over and over and over again so it can feel like it's never-ending
crisis and chaos and the news for whatever reason has decided that what they're gonna report on are
always the worst things the fires the shootings the car crashes the coronavirus anything that is
going to get you upset is what the news thinks they're going to report on next time you watch
the news you know and I encourage you to only do it for like 30 minutes a day if you have to do it
every day but count how many stories were positive and made you feel good and count how many stories
were negative and made you stressed out and think to yourself is it really that imbalanced
in the world and then force yourself to get out and find positive things that are going on find
people that are six seating at what they try to do find people that are happy find children that are
happy you know find things that counterbalance the negativity in the news if you see a story about a
shooting okay that was unpleasant now let's look at the positive there wasn't a shooting in your
neighborhood again you're looking at where you're safe what things are going well in your little
sliver of the world you can't control the whole world the next thing is to breathe and I know
that sounds weird but when we get stressed we tend to breathe shallowly and rapidly so we don't get
full oxygenation when you breathe in slow four four hold for four out for four you actually
trick your body or confirm to your body that there's no threat when you slow your breathing
your heart rate will slow your threat response system also called the HPA axis that will go into
the slowing down and relaxation phase instead of staying ramped up so breathe it's important
focus on what you can control and we'll just go through a couple of these in politics you can't
control what the politicians are saying right now if politics are really important to you you
can get involved in campaigns that's something you can control but you can't control who people are
gonna vote for you can't necessarily control the outcome of the election and I mean there's just so
much time between now and then getting all fired up about the possibility that something's gonna
happen isn't going to do you any good if you get if you are passionate about it use that energy to
get involved the stock market you can't control the fact that it took a dump it took a dump and
that's just the way it is what can you control about it well you can sell now and take a bunch
of losses or you can realize that there's a lot about the stock market for majority of us that we
can't control and we're just going to have to ride it out so what else can I control I can control
my spending I can control other aspects so I make sure that I have the ability to ride it out until
the stock market comes back up the coronavirus I can't control if it comes into the u.s. you know
that's way beyond my ability the president can't even control whether that comes into the u.s. you
know we just don't know enough about the virus what can I control I can control whether I wash
my hands I can control how many public places I go out to there are a lot of things I can control
to make sure that I and my family stay safe the environment community violence same sort of thing
we want to look at what can we control I can't personally stop global warming I can recycle I
can reuse things that I are able to be reused I can do as much as I can to reduce my carbon
footprint there's a lot of things that I can do in my little sliver of the world but I can't change
the world all by myself and community violence yes there may be a shooting it's like every
time I turn on the news here in Nashville it seems like there's always a shooting somewhere okay well
that's unfortunate however in my neighborhood in my city there isn't what can I do to keep myself
safe and keep my family safe because that's what's important to me is keeping my little sliver of the
world as positive and safe as possible and you know that includes my community being aware of
strange cars that are coming in and out of our neighborhood and things those are things I can
do I can't have much of an effect on things that are happening happening 30 miles away
another strategy is to act purposefully and this may seem sort of common sense but a lot of times
when we get upset we're not thinking about it wanting to fight or flee we're wanting to attack
whatever that threat is and that's not always the best strategy because sometimes we can't do
anything about the threat so getting upset about it and perseverating on it and just continuing to
rant about it is just exhausting our energy so instead when something happens we need to ask
ourselves what's important to me right now who in my life is important what is important in my
life and is getting upset about whatever this is impacting you know a good way to use my energy to
cherish those things that are important in my life a lot of times the answer's no getting upset about
the stock market for example that is not going to help me have a good relationship with my children
that's not going to help me be healthy that's not going to help me succeed at work that's going to
distract me and that's going to drain my energy and those are not things that I want to do and
worrying about something I have no control is a pointless futile exercise it is however helpful to
acknowledge your anxieties and frustrations when you feel anxious when you feel angry notice it
that's your body saying there might be a problem say okay I feel anxious it is what it is now what
can I do to improve the next moment is there some way I can address this issue if not what can I do
with my energy instead that is going to help me grow and that's going to benefit those things that
are important to me I hope these strategies gave you a couple of things to start thinking about
we're gonna have two more videos in this segment but ultimately I want you to be able to figure out
some ways that you can tolerate the distress that is bound to increase over the next few months you