I know I am not alone in having heightened awareness of and anxiety about the drought in our state and the increased risk of fires that could threaten our communities. 

This is just one layer of stress that many face daily. There are several others that I often hear, including declining health—our own, our loved ones’, our pets’—relationship tensions, financial strain, world events, spiritual crises, pending or recent transitions, etc. That last one is clear.

When we are facing several things at once or when our stressors are significant, we will, of course, need to build up our support and resources.

How well we are able to navigate stressors depends on a variety of factors, including our genetics and biology, life experiences, and the number and intensity of the stressors we face.

Another major factor to consider when you are facing a challenge is the meaning you place on the situation, or the interpretation you make about it.

Let’s look at a few of these factors in more depth, starting with biology. If you’re not taking care of your physical health, your ability to face any kind of stressor will be compromised. 

As such, make sure to get plenty of sleep and pay attention to nutrition, the substances you ingest, and the amount of exercise you get. I know these are not new things to think about, but they will absolutely improve your ability to cope with day-to-day stressors.

Another factor related to physical health is your central nervous system. It’s important to remember that your central nervous system is just another part of your body that requires nurturing and maintenance. Things that we can do to nurture our nervous system include conscious deep breathing, grounding exercises, being outside in nature, centering, focused meditation, and visualization, just to name a few.

One exercise for caring for your nervous system is called “legs up the wall.” You do this by literally lying on the ground with your rear end as close to the wall as you can get it and resting your legs straight up the wall in a relaxed position. If you have difficulty getting on the floor, then do it from your bed. 

There are very clear physiological improvements when in an inverted position. With your blood flow directed more into your torso, you will find that your heart rate decreases, your breathing slows and moves into your abdomen, and your body is connected to the earth. As a result, your brain gets the message that “we’re safe, we’re in control, and everything is OK.” Try it just a few days a week and see what you notice as a result.

Another centering and grounding technique that you could try is called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The point is to shift away from whatever is spinning around in your head and to move into your body. Start by looking around and naming five things that you see. Then notice four things that you feel, tactilely, not emotionally. For example, right now, I feel cold in my fingers, my hair tickles my chin, I have an itch on my left side, and the air feels cool as it enters my nostrils. Next, identify three things you hear, two things you smell, and one thing you taste.

Let’s move on to how past life experiences influence how we deal with stress and anxiety. If our life experiences have primed us to face challenges with confidence and a sense of empowerment, then we will likely carry that forward as new challenges arise. If our life experiences tell us we are powerless and easily overwhelmed by life, or that we “can’t” manage this or that, then it’s naturally going to make it harder to face current stressors.

This then ties into the part about understanding the meanings we assign to the events that occur in our lives. I’ve talked in previous columns about paying attention to your inner narratives, dialogues, meanings, and interpretations of events, and how those interpretations can then become “truth.” Here is an exercise to try to build insight around those automatic thoughts or reactions: 

When something happens, consciously name the worst, most fearful, or angry meaning you could assign to this event. Then come up with a neutral meaning, and then a potentially positive meaning.

Here is an example: Let’s say I am driving down the road when someone crashes into me. This would obviously be a stressful event, but I can choose how to interpret it. My most negative interpretation might be that this person knew it was my car and deliberately ran into me with the intention of causing me harm. This would be the meaning that fear or anger could easily place. A neutral meaning could be that accidents just happen, that it wasn’t personal, and that I’m glad everyone is OK. Now I have to create a potentially positive meaning. Maybe I could say that my car already had some dings and dents, and now I’ll have them repaired through this person’s insurance instead of mine. Nice.

Once you’ve identified the various interpretations, then you can choose the one that you would like to carry forward. Which one feels better? Choose that one.

The above exercises are mindful examples of how to take care of your nervous system and how to pause and check in on how you’re responding to stressors. To help you respond versus react.

Other straightforward things we can do to cope with stress speak to the need to regulate cortisol, which spikes when something happens. 

Get up and move. Exercise gets your heart pumping for a positive reason rather than a stressful one.

Limit the time you spend on the issue. Don’t completely avoid facing whatever you have going on; you need to address it, but don’t spend your days ruminating.

Talk with others. When you open up, it allows other people to show up for you, and then you can be available for them as well. Getting out of your own problems by helping others with theirs reminds you that there is more to life than the hard things. Feeling useful is a key component to improving your quality of life. And always remember that facing things alone makes things much harder than when we ask for help.

Engage with nature and creativity.

And finally, for today at least, get clear about what you do and do not have the power to change in your situation or problem.

In the 12-Step community, a basic recovery tool is an abbreviated version of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer. Whether you are a prayerful person or not, the Serenity Prayer is just good psychology. Think about the components in the Serenity Prayer and use it like a formula. Are you serene? Are you trying to control things that you can’t? How do you access the courage to change the things that you can change (which may mean changing yourself)? And what will give you the wisdom to know the difference between what you can change and what you can’t?

And if you’d like to read someone’s account of how they kept their identity and center in the midst of terror and insanity, I highly recommend “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. It inspires me every time I read it.

Sarah Hills, LPC, CAS, CAI, has a master’s degree in community counseling and the certification required by the state of Colorado as a certified addictions specialist at the supervisory level. She is also a certified ARISE® Interventionist. She is office-based in Estes Park and can be reached by phone at 720-250-6610. Click here to review her website.