How To Find Your Calm To Find Your Strength
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could react to any situation with the appropriate response that no matter what situation came up, that you would know how to appropriately react, to get the response you were looking for whether you responded with joy, excitement, calm, control…
But it doesn’t always work out that way. Does it? The appropriate response doesn’t always happen.
So today, I’m gonna discuss;
How To Find Your Calm To Find Your Strength.
So how many times have you responded to something with a knee jerk reaction and later on figured out that it was not the most appropriate action at the time.
I know I have, …more times than I’d like to admit.
You play the scenario over and over in your head and you say to yourself; “Oh, if I could only take that back, you’d say to yourself, I had only said THIS, or if I had only done THAT,… that would’ve been the perfect thing to say or do.
And very often the short knee jerk reaction that you had to this situation, had nothing to do with the situation that was going on, but could have more to do with the stress and overwhelm that you’ve been going through in your life.
So when your overwhelmed and stress, you’re seemingly right on edge, ready to the boil over, and you don’t know why.
And then a family member comes up to you and says; “Hey, what are we doing for dinner?”…
And BOOM!, You Flip Out.
And so your family member, your partner, your spouse, raise their eyebrows and they walk off, or even worse, because of the way you responded, they explode and, an argument ensues.
So many times your ability to respond to most situations with Calm & Control lies within your ability to …
- Take a Pause,
- to Take A Breath,
- to decide what’s important…
- to decide what you will focus on and…
- how you will respond.
Victor Frankel said that…
“Between stimulus and response,
there is a space and, in that space lies
our power to choose our response.
And in our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
You see, by taking that pause; by taking that breath, it gives you the ability to…
- Find your calm and
- the calm gives you control.
- And the control gives you strength,
- Strength of mindset,
- strength of focus, and…
- the strength to better understand yourself.
Now, James Allen said in his book: As A Man Thinketh (we should really say as a PERSON) thinketh, right? And I’m paraphrasing here.
“We become calm in the measure that we understand ourselves, and that we develop a right understanding and that we understand the relationship between cause and effectso that we can remain poised, steadfast and serene.”
And as you’ve heard me say before,..
it starts with awareness. An awareness and understanding of your “state”. And when you’re aware, you have the ability to respond with calm and control, rather than with frustration and anger.
Now don’t get me wrong. It’s okay to get angry about something. But when you respond in anger with a knee jerk reaction, what it actually shows is weakness and a lack of control.
But by understanding yourself and being aware of your state of mind, you can control your responses and work on the situation that made you angry in the first place.
So how do you work on your responses and focus on staying calm and keeping control?
There are dozens and dozens and sometimes hundreds of situations that you respond to every day. Now you can use those situations during your day to focus on taking a breath and taking a pause before you respond.
Now, you’ll be surprised by your responses and the fact that they’ll be more measured, more controlled and more positive.
And don’t worry about the time you think it takes to take a breath or a pause. You’ll notice it, but no one else will. The only thing that they’ll notice is your appropriate responses, and they WON’T notice the stress, the anxiety, the anger, the frustration, and the overwhelm that you sometimes show.
So now, as with anything, as you practice, it will become easier. And as you continue to work on it, it’ll become almost automatic.
And you’ll begin to…
- love “the space” that is between stimulus and response.
- And you’ll love “the pause”, that gives you the power and the strength to choose how you’ll respond.
- And it will give you the ability to grow as a person.
Well I hope you enjoyed this content. Try it this week and let me know how it went.
Have a wonderful Week!
Be Positive, Be Motivated, Be Focused and Be Well,
Have a great day.
Mark
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