The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn’t been able to keep up. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
During the financial crisis, I worked with hundreds of executives who struggled as a result of their thoughts about job security. When their beliefs changed, so did their emotional experience – and they were then able to focus on the task at hand more effectively. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
It’s time we learned the truth about stress. It’s time we identified the thoughts that actually create our stress and learned to dismantle them one by one. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
Worrisome thoughts and their resulting feelings are a form of self strangulation. They not only strangle your emotions. They affect your physical life as well, and your ability to focus and get things done. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
People around the world now complain about stressors everyday, and the word shows up throughout professional and lay literature. But in reality there is no such thing as a stressor. Why not? Because nothing has the inherent power to provoke stress. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
Look closer at the stress in your own life and you can identify that negative emotions are always built on counterfactual statements. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
The less you think counterfactually, the less you experience stress. Stress, in this light, isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply a warning system telling you that your mind has lost touch with what’s real. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
You might think that shifting your thoughts is as easy as setting your mind to it. But stressful thoughts aren’t held in place through choice or will power. They’re held in place through perceived truth value. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
You can’t tell yourself that your stress is produced in your head and feel better. You still need to learn how to create a change. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
To believe that your husband, wife, parents, kids, boss, job, bank account, or body is even partly responsible for your emotions, to think that there are bullets ‘out there’ that you have to contend with, that there are stressful life events to overcome, is to miss something vital. Andrew J. Bernstein Read Quote
