Cognitive Approach to Handle Stress

Dear Friends, today we focus on how Cognitive Approach and positive thinking helps you overcome stress.
We all know our daily life is filled with countless minor annoying sources of stress. Everyday we have to struggle hard to cope so many challenges and hardships of life. The bulk of stress we experience daily actually comes from little frustrations, delays, irritations, minor disagreements, teasing, bad grades, fighting lack of money, bad weather etc. Due to urgent demands or expectations people feel that they must work harder, faster or do more this is called-Time pressure. They are so intense that they produce a state of overload.

The amount of stress you experience depends in part on your way of dealing with situation. How you process and evaluate the situation. cognitive appraisal of the events or situation is a smart way to deal with stressful situation. 

The extent to which you perceive it as threatening and perceive that you will be unable to cope with it.  While some persons suffer ill effects after exposure to a few mildly stressful events, other remain healthy even after prolonged exposure to high levels of stress these individuals are described as being Stress-Resistant or Hardy by Kobasa.

In one situation some people experience stress, whereas others do not, because stress occurs only to the extent that the person involved perceive-that situation is somehow threatening to his important goals (this is often described as primary appraisal) and that he will be unable to cope with these dangers or demands (this is often described as secondary appraisal (Croyle,1992, Lazarus & Folkman, 1984,91).

Cognitive Psychologist Richard Lazarus developed a cognitive view of stress called the Cognitive-Mediational Theory of emotions, in which the way people think about and appraise a stressor is a major factor in how stressful that particular stressor becomes.

According to Lazarus, there is two-step process in assessing the degree of threat or harm of a stressor and how one should react to that stressor.

1. Primary Appraisal: Estimating the severity of the stressor and classifying it as a threat (something that could be harmful in the future), a challenge (something to be met and defeated), or a harm or loss that has already occurred. If the stressor is seen as a challenge, however, it is possible to plan to meet that challenge, which is more positive and less stressful approach. If perceived as a threat, secondary appraisal occurs in addition to the bodily and negative emotional reactions.

2. Secondary Appraisal: This involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with stressor. Resources might include social support, money, time, energy, ability or anything depending on the threat. If resources perceived as adequate, the degree of stress will be considerably less than if resources are missing or lacking.

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