3 Crucial First Steps To Beat Stress, Depression & Anxiety

If you’re enduring a harrowing episode of stress, depression or anxiety, then seeing light at the end of the tunnel can be difficult. You just want the torment to stop. Here are three steps you can take to start walking towards the light today:

1. With many changes in life, the first step is the hardest and taking the first step towards beating stress, depression and anxiety is no different. It’s accepting that where you are now is solely down to you. This took me so long to realize and for years, I believed circumstances caused my anxiety, such as the timing of events, the number of events and the people involved. I also thought that because these circumstances were beyond my control, I couldn’t do anything to change. This thinking deepened my anxiety. But accepting that where you’re at right now is solely down to you is so important. Initially, accepting it can seem overwhelming but in fact, it’s liberating. Why? Because when you accept that you are responsible for where you are now, you also accept that logically, you are the one who can get you out of it. There are always events outside ourselves that we can point to as being the reason for our plight. But doing this won’t help. Instead, say: “No matter what happened, no matter what others did or didn’t do. I and I alone am responsible for where I am now and therefore, I will get myself out of it.” Doing this will remove the power external events and other people have over you and will empower you instead. And please don’t confuse this with blame. This is accepting responsibility and developing the power to change and is vastly different from blaming yourself. One is destructive, the other is constructive and the difference between them is crucial.

2. Make a firm decision to get rid of these problems. Say: “I want to conquer stress/depression/anxiety. These things are no longer acceptable and I’m going to take action to beat them. I want them out of my life and I deserve to be free of them.” This is another great step to take. From now on you will control these problems they won’t control you. There are many actions you can take and there are many skills you can have in your power that will effectively diminish the torment stress, depression and anxiety inflict upon you. And when you have them in your power, the quality of your life will improve dramatically. In taking this step, you acknowledge that stress, depression and anxiety aren’t problems that you have to put up with and instead, you have the power to conquer them. You also realize that you deserve to live a happy and enjoyable life and that stress, depression and anxiety WILL NOT take that away from you. Indeed, you have a right to be happy and you will no longer allow anything or anyone to take that away from you.

3. The self-improvement gurus have been sharing a secret with their clients for years. It is a powerful secret that has helped millions of people around the world to change their lives. As my clients will testify, I don’t believe in magic bullets to conquer stress, depression and anxiety as they rarely work. But this is a magic bullet that really does work and it will yield big results for you.

Their secret?

If you change your thoughts you will change your life.

It’s a simple sentence but my word does it hold power! Because the way you think about your life – and I mean everything in your life from your looks, your abilities, relationships, work, to events and circumstances you are faced with – affects how you feel. When you’re suffering a stressful, depressive or anxious episode, assigning negative meanings and outcomes to your situation is performed habitually. Continually brooding upon negative and even catastrophic outcomes is performed by all sufferers and these flawed modes of thinking are the fuel that maintains these problems. The more you think in negative ways the deeper your suffering becomes. But if you apply the secret of the self-improvement gurus, you can change your life too. Because if you carry on doing the same things – thinking in the same way – your life will carry on in the same way. But if you change your thoughts, you will change your life and you will emerge from the tunnel into a brighter, happier future. It’s true – change your thoughts, change your life!