I AM STRENGTH

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” Proverbs 31:25

The fear of the unknown: a classic stressor. Not knowing what’s going to happen can be such a cause of contention with people that it often brings out their worst instead of their best. But the way we deal with the unknown is what determines if we’ll be stressed or not, not the unknown itself. We can face it head-on, tackling it with vigorous plans of action. We can take a step back, assess, and then deal with it gradually. Or (and this one is quite popular actually) we can move around it, and not deal with the stress, but everything else. Now that one has people confused at times, because there’s some guilt that comes with moving around stressors instead of dealing with them… but what if I told you it totally possible and absolutely ok.

Moving around Stress makes me strong, not avoidant.

There’s a difference between avoiding stress and accepting the circumstances without the stress. When you pretend like you’re not stressed about something, that’s avoidance. That means you’re not accepting your feelings about the situation and therefore allowing stress to creep up in you and possibly cause you harm down the road. But if you accept that stressing something isn’t going to make it better, you move around the emotion and take it’s power. Take the power of stress away by moving around it and show your strength of will.

And this isn’t something you have to do by yourself! Having conversations with loved ones or a trained therapist to work out how to empower yourself to move past stress instead of through it is always an option. You can also recite these affirmations to yourself to remind you of just how powerful your will is. And then you can read this scripture from Proverbs: “She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (31:25) Now yes, it’s talking about the virtuous woman, but to my fellas, there’s no reason you can’t apply it to yourselves as well! Enjoy your life without worrying about the things you cannot control or change.

So be strong today and show Stress who’s boss! I believe in your ability to walk in that truth and conquer the bigger things in your day. I love you, and as always I’m rooting for you. Keep conquering daily!