Accept Conflict to Release Stress

What do you want? A new car or house, a fulfilling relationship, or a smart investment for your future? Once you identify what you want, determine what barriers prevent you from pursuing it. Whether you lack the resources, have nagging doubts, or can’t find a support network, those barriers are your sources of stress—that is, they trigger negative emotions that you experience as stress. 

Now, most people approach negative, stressful thoughts through a past or future lens. For instance, you may believe that life will continue to feel like it always has in the past and you cannot change the future.  A dissonance between your current state and your ideal state can create internal conflicts that produce stress. Yet a counselor or mental health expert can help you overcome your mental rut through therapy for stress.

Choosing to Let Go

Some stress comes naturally with relationships, decision-making, and other areas of life. You can expect to feel a bit of discomfort as you acknowledge and work through your internal conflicts. But remember, this temporary discomfort is much less painful in the long run than the stress caused by avoidance.

However, internal conflicts can create suffering that—when projected onto oneself or others—leads to casting blame as well as internal and external arguments. No matter whether these disputes revolve around a particular person, incident, event, or situation, they’re a result of internal resistance against the discomfort that comes with acknowledging your internal conflicts.

Instead, practice surrendering to these negative emotions: acknowledge their presence and then step away from your instinctive stress response. If you have influence or control of the conflict, you can choose to engage. If the results are from uncontrollable circumstances, accept them, let go, and allow yourself to be free. The latter option requires your internal self to be still and grateful in the present, disassociating yourself from the mental chatter of past and future thoughts. This practice is called state management.

How to Manage Your State and Enter the Present Moment

Some daily habits can help you regulate your internal state. Allow yourself time to rest and relax. Make time to breathe, walk, and exercise. Have you noticed how new and creative ideas and solutions pop into your head when taking a shower, exercising, playing, or walking your dog? Give your mind the chance to process and approach its internal conflicts. Doing so entails putting down the phone, turning off the TV, and taking a break from any dopamine-releasing stimuli so you can be present.

Additionally, seek out and stay in touch with a mentor to guide you through your core need to engage. Further guidance can come from listening to spiritual leaders and inspiration through self-help books, podcasts, music, art, and nature. Many people find daily journaling a successful stress-management strategy.

Practice compassion towards yourself first. Then, practice gratitude towards everything around you. Try to write down three things you’re grateful for at the end of each day. Though it seems a trivial practice, daily gratitude rewires the brain toward a more positive perspective.

Embrace Your Inner Self with Love, Compassion, and Kindness

Give Your Inner Self Space and Time

Giving space and time entails acknowledging the inner self, accepting it as is, and distancing yourself from it. Facing your internal fears will allow you to let go. Understand that the divine within is working to keep you safe and happy.

Engage or Deal with Your Inner Self

Be careful about how you engage with your inner self. Deciding, once and for all, to accept failure and consequences can help you to release your worry about them. If not dealt with, these worries can show up again and again as different behaviors in your present.

Let Go and Move on

The mind seeks to find external justification for the emotionally-driven actions and reactions caused by internal conflicts. It drives individuals to dance around stressful conflicts and temporarily quell the underlying fears that tell them they are not enough, are not loved, cannot succeed, and are alone. Someone with a victim mindset will disassociate from their mental state and project them onto others.

Instead, stay present and acknowledge these feelings. Observe your body’s reactions to them and ask why you tend to react in those ways. The practice of letting go requires that you not cling to your expectations but rather accept the present moment, no matter how painful it may feel. Stay in the present moment, see your anger and agitation for what they are, and apprehend your pain reaction. 

Although your discomfort and pain will pass, you possess an endless loving capacity. You will always have ups and downs. Decide to release your attachment to the past and your anxiety about the future, allow yourself to truly live in the moment, and see how your stress and negative feelings dissipate.

Seek Therapy for Stress in  Fredericksburg, VA, with Therapeutic Alliance

Individuals who feel stuck in the grip of stress and other negative emotions can turn to Therapeutic Alliance. In addition to therapy for stress, we offer autism behavior services, family counseling, virtual outpatient care, and more to residents of Fredericksburg, VA, and beyond. Come learn why Therapeutic Alliance is one of the best private providers of care across Virginia. To learn more or schedule an appointment, visit our website or call us at (833) 319-0526.