Breaking Down Stress

Welcome to the Anturas newsletter, where I share my thoughts, learnings, and failures to help you think, learn, and grow. If you enjoy it, please feel free to forward along to friends.

Quote I Loved: 

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” —Mark Twain

Things I Am Thinking About:

I've been thinking a lot about stress. For me, stress falls into two buckets:

1. High intensity, in the moment spikes (immediate stress)

2. Slow burn, long lasting stress (continuous stress)

Immediate stress is when you notice a mistake three minutes before a big pitch and need to fix it. It's when you are in the woods and look over and see a grizzly. It's an isolated incident, but you can feel your stress levels spike. Continuous stress is when there is one thing after the next. When it just keeps happening week over week and it feels like death by a thousand cuts. The "when it rains, it pours" feeling.

I have noticed I am great at dealing with immediate stress. Everything slows down and I can solve the problem. It's the continuous stress that gets me. Even if it's just minor levels of stress, the consistent, relentless stress wears me down.

The good news is I believe we have more control over the continuous stress vs. immediate stress. We can't stop the fight or flight response when we see a grizzly bear or the immediate pain when we receive bad news, but we can work on how we deal with daily stressors. In some cases, we can even remove ourselves from the continuous stress cycle.

Even though we have more control over continuous stress, it's still hard. I've tried several different solutions, but three have really stuck out and worked: 

1. Habits

2. Simplifying

3. Gratitude
   

When I focus on waking up early, enjoying some quiet time, getting a sweat in, and focusing on the positives, my stress starts to disappear. I still have a long way to go but it feels really great knowing that I'm in control.

Questions I'm Asking Myself: 

Is it possible to completely eliminate continuous stress?

Favorite Photo From the Week:

When I started trail running I had visions of running through Glacier National Park. I was inspired by the opportunity to cover more ground in less time. This week I made that vision a reality with my first trail run in the park!  

Till next week, be kind, be curious and work hard. 

Tanner