The Fascinating Way to Reduce Stress: “I have a choice!”

Do you feel stuck, as if you have no choice?

Consider these three principles.

— -Simply reminding ourselves that we always have a choice is the beginning of stress reduction.

— -Choosing to focus on a meaningful purpose reduces our focus on the feeling of stress.

— -Because opposition is a part of daily life, it provides constant opportunities to choose.

First: We have a choice.

We are always choosing, either intentionally or by default.

I love the mantra, “I have a choice.” As you say the words, “I have a choice,” notice how you feel. Can you sense the stress transforming into hope, curiosity, and decisiveness?

I was on a very long car ride and beginning to feel restless and stressed from sitting so long. With curiosity, I pondered my choices. I could increase my stress through venting or overeating or I could use my creativity experimenting with small movements to increase blood flow to my restless muscles. It became a fun game to think of how many ways I could move different parts of my body while sitting in the car. After about twenty-five minutes of movements, such as shaking my hands, rotating my ankles and moving my elbows in many directions, I felt like a different person, transformed from stressed to calm.

Here are a few quotations from Viktor Frankl.

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”

“Decisions, not conditions determine what a man is.”

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

“Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, we are always free to choose our thoughts.” (Source: azquotes.com)

You have a choice right now. What will you choose? Ask that question with childlike wonder and curiosity. What are my choices in this very moment?

Feeling stressed, I overate. I chose to overeat. I chose to ignore my decision to not overeat. I made a yummy quiche, which I overate. If I choose to look at that with childlike wonder and curiosity, I might ask myself, “What’s up, Cutie?” Maybe I will discover the pressure I put on myself around food. “Oh, that’s fascinating!” I could choose to ease up on myself, lightheartedly instead of judgmentally. I could choose to ask for Divine help.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Second: Choosing to focus on a meaningful purpose reduces our focus on the feeling of stress.

Viktor Frankl speaks of the importance of having a purpose. (See above quotation.)

What purpose do you choose?

I choose to believe in, gather, and share Divine light.

I choose to receive, rejoice, and share in the abundant Divine light and love, and family light and love. I choose to have joyful and meaningful experiences together.

I choose to receive Divine joy, refuge, forgiveness, thanksgiving, and belonging. I choose to experience the joy that comes from a life centered on Jesus Christ. I choose to create a stillness to ponder the many ways I have seen the Lord relentlessly pursue us with His wonderful love. (See Patrick Kearon, October 2024.)

I choose to memorize songs of praise.

Third: Because opposition is a part of daily life, it provides constant opportunities to choose.

There is an adversary or spoiler who offers us opposition on a daily basis.

The spoiler whispers lies to us in an effort to convince us that life is too hard and we are just stuck. He wants us to believe that we don’t have a choice. He wants to remove the wonderful possibilities from our awareness. We can choose to not let him spoil our day.

We can choose to notice that the lies are the spoiler’s thoughts, not ours. We can choose to give the lies no heed. We can choose to listen to divine truth and respond to it.

Isn’t it kind of fascinating to think that we can reduce our stress by using the mantra, “I have a choice”?

Try it.

What if reducing our stress were easier than we think?

We don’t have to do it on our own strength and wisdom. Divine help is always available.

We have a choice.

“And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of His Son.” (Alma 33:23)

We have a choice.

We can choose to reduce our stress by saying, “I have a choice,” and, by intentionally and daily choosing.