Anticipating and Preparing for Change and Stressful Situations to Minimize Distress
All
of us face change in our life. Sometimes we love it, look forward to it and
enjoy the preparations that are involved in making it happen. On other
occasions, change can be very distressing. Usually occurring without warning,
we are usually unprepared for it. We can feel quite disorientated when change
is unexpected and it can produce physical reactions we may feel we have little
control over.
Facing
unplanned change with a prepared mind helps to re orientate life even when it
seems to be out of our control. If we accept that change is inevitable, we see
the sense in thinking about and preparing to deal with it well ahead of when it
actually happens. It also helps us reflect on how we will deal with our
responses when faced with stress and change.
Taking
the time to plan and prepare for change is not inviting fate, but facing
reality People who work in occupations that involve dealing with sudden
unexpected emergencies, are in a state of readiness at all times. They learn to
anticipate all possible scenarios by learning how to deal with them before they
occur. They learn how to prevent the situation or minimize its harm, and they
learn to enact certain actions when these events do occur.
We
gain valuable insight into how to prepare for change by learning how to apply
their approaches to potential change and stressful situations. We prepare for
change, or potential stresses in three ways: Firstly, the higher the risk of something
happening, the more we should anticipate it likely to happen. People living in
areas where there is a high risk of a natural disaster occurring, prepare for
its inevitably, by preparing their surroundings each year and psychologically
being ready for it.
Contrary
to people may think, being psychologically prepared for change is possible.
Although it is impossible to know what it will be like to face being a parent
for example, we can prepare ourselves by reading and identifying possible areas
of concern we may personally face in our new parenting role.
Thirdly,
we can learn to manage our responses and thoughts in times of minor changes and
challenge. As we do this, we are providing ourselves with invaluable training.
Learning how to deal with the many minor challenges and changes we face daily,
will help us to develop the skills to deal with the unexpected major ones.
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