Dealing With Setbacks.

When we decide to tackle our stress we can be all gung-ho at the start, making many changes, but somewhere along the way things start to slip. It’s very common to have setbacks along the way to better mental and physical health. This is one reason why I suggest weekly reviews and taking things slowly.

Our aim is always progress over perfection here. We need to expect setbacks as part of any change process we are undertaking. Planning ahead will certainly help with trying to prevent setbacks. Plus remember a setback doesn’t mean you are all the way back to the beginning again. You have learnt a lot and can keep going. So what can you do to get back on track and stay on top of your stress?

Bring It Back To Basics.

1. Get to know your stress. Remind yourself of what causes your stress, your triggers and how you response. I have a four part series on stress starting here, it will help you get to know your stress. Has your stress changed in any way? May be it is coming from a different source this time and you didn’t realize it. So review, raise your awareness of your stress, even if you think it’s the same.
2. Bring it back to what has worked already for you. Was it meditation, journaling, basic self-care, saying no, talking to your support system, etc? What was working? Now reintroduce these one at a time. Take it slowly and review as you go. Yes you might feel frustrated by your pace; we all want that quick fix. So please express your frustration and other emotions to your support system and in your journal.Ask for help from your support system as well, these are important in changing your lifestyle.
3. Review what went wrong. Ask yourself some questions to help you learn here: What can I learn from this setback? What happened exactly? Did you let something creep back into your life? Did you let someone negative into your life? Did you forget to say no when you should have? If you don’t review this and learn from it then you can’t be proactive in getting yourself back on track. Plan out how you will tackle a similar situation in the future. Praise yourself for achieving so much already. Then get back out there and continue on.

Remember the difference between those who fail or succeed is how they view failure. Successful people no matter what they are tackling in life, when faced with failure, will see it as a learning opportunity. So they learn, plan ahead, celebrate and keep going. If you would like more quick stress management tips then do check out my other blogs.

My Workbooks.

I have a number of workbooks you might find helpful in my shop or on Amazon. They cover negative thinking patterns and how you can learn to challenge them. You will find all links to these workbooks here.