Stress is a byproduct of subconscious beliefs you have about the world. You can't choose not to believe something. You believe it because you think it's true. To eliminate stress, you must learn to challenge these beliefs so that you see them differently.

Andrew Bernstein

Categorized in : Thinking Believe Stress

Nothing is given to man on earth - struggle is built into the nature of life, and conflict is possible - the hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen.

Andrew Bernstein

struggle hero men

If you're successful and stressed out, you're succeeding in spite of your stress, not because of it.

Andrew Bernstein

succeed stress successful

We all enjoy pushing ourselves to accomplish our objectives. But we don't need stress to get there.

Andrew Bernstein

pushing stress needs

We need to distinguish between stress and stimulation. Having deadlines, setting goals, and pushing yourself to perform at capacity are stimulating. Stress is when you're anxious, upset, or frustrated, which dramatically reduce your ability to perform.

Andrew Bernstein

upset stress goal

Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.

Andrew Bernstein

stress remember

The truth is that stress doesn't come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about these circumstances.

Andrew Bernstein

stress inspirational kids

A hero has faced it all: he need not be undefeated, but he must be undaunted.

Andrew Bernstein

undaunted hero needs

Altruism demands that an individual serve others, but doesn’t stipulate whether those others should be one’s family, or the homeless, or society as a whole. Collectivism states that, in politics, society comes first and the individual must obey. Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.

Andrew Bernstein

ethics demand firsts

... statism systematically violates the rights of individuals and is, therefore, immoral. Because it suppresses the mind and violates men's rights, it thereby causes abysmal poverty and is utterly impractical.

Andrew Bernstein

rights mind men

Negative thoughts stick around because we believe them, not because we want them or choose them.

Andrew Bernstein

want believe negative

The reason humans experience so much more stress than other species isn't just because we think more, but also because we think differently.

Andrew Bernstein

stress reason thinking

Throughout history, independent minds have carried mankind forward. Whether they identified how to make fire or manufacture tools, develop rational philosophy or create man-glorifying art, pioneer scientific knowledge or invent the electric light, independent thinkers have created the goods on which human life and prosperity depend.

Andrew Bernstein

independent philosophy art

During the financial crisis, I worked with hundreds of executives who struggled as a result of their thoughts about job security. When their beliefs changed, so did their emotional experience - and they were then able to focus on the task at hand more effectively.

Andrew Bernstein

emotional jobs hands

Look closer at the stress in your own life and you can identify that negative emotions are always built on counterfactual statements.

Andrew Bernstein

stress looks negative

It's time we learned the truth about stress. It's time we identified the thoughts that actually create our stress and learned to dismantle them one by one.

Andrew Bernstein

stress

Stress is the negative whirlwind of emotions that gets imposed on top of our stimulation and engagement.

Andrew Bernstein

engagement stress negative

Stress is not the spice of life any more than arsenic is. And without it, you won't feel bored.

Andrew Bernstein

arsenic bored stress

You might think that shifting your thoughts is as easy as setting your mind to it. But stressful thoughts aren't held in place through choice or will power. They're held in place through perceived truth value.

Andrew Bernstein

choices mind thinking

The hero is valorous because he stands up to every threat directed against his values. Heroism requires value conflict.

Andrew Bernstein

threat conflict hero

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

Andrew Bernstein

balance stress numbers