Seven simple actions taken over the course of a week will radically reset your relationship with stress, promises this psychology professor.

BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM@ENTRYLEVELREBEL

For Inc.

Photo: Getty Images

The worst of the pandemic may be long over, but many of us are still carrying a lot of unprocessed emotional baggage from the past few years. Add to that inflation and recession fears, war in Europe, the climate crisis, continual social division, and a general sense that the world is changing faster than humans can wrap their heads around and it’s easy to understand why so many of us feel so stressed.

Peace in Ukraine, decarbonizing the economy, and–perhaps most challenging of all–draining the toxicity from our politics are all beyond our control as individuals. (Hats off to the entrepreneurs working on these sorts of big problems, though.) Yet we continue to carry a lot of unresolved stress about these problems, and that wears on our bodies and minds.

Is there a way out of this impossible situation? Yes, answers University of California, San Francisco, psychology professor Elissa Epel. She recently appeared on The Science of Happiness podcast to talk about her book The Stress Prescription and explain her seven-day prescription to reset our relationship with stress so that it plays a more manageable and sustainable role in our lives.

The full podcast spotlights people who have tried Epel’s stress reset and discusses their experiences. It’s well worth a listen, but for those just looking for the basics of her plan for how to get their peace of mind back, here are Epel’s seven steps in brief.

Day 1: Embrace uncertainty

The first step to overcoming your towering mountain of stress is simply identifying both the pebbles and boulders that make it up. Just writing up an uncensored list of the constituent parts of your stress is a large step toward reducing it.

“We can just simply ask ourselves, what are we holding onto at this moment? What are we worrying about? What might we name that’s actually just an unformed feeling of stress, threat, and uncertainty?” says Epel on the podcast.

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