Set Yourself Free

Saying goodbye to stress can be as simple as changing our negative thoughts. We share 13 ‘mind traps’ – and how to escape them.

- Ulrike Fach- Vierth

In our often stressful lives, one single thought can make the difference. These were the findings obtained by brain researchers in recent studies, which showed there are 13 common ‘mind traps’ that can constantly trigger stress reactions, even when the actual threat level is low. We might live in a stress-filled world, but experts say recognising and changing some common negative thought patterns can save us a whole lot of exhaustion and unnecessary anxiety.

“Stress is like a guitar string. If it’s strung too loosely, it can only play flat, lower sounds, and if it’s strung too tightly, it produces excessively high, sharp tones, or indeed even snaps,” says stress researcher Jonathan S Abramowitz of the University of North Carolina. “A guitar string must have the right tension in order to sound good. And when it comes to stress, we too need to find the right tensioning to ensure this stress plays out within a healthy range.”

It might sound easy, but the reality isn’t so simple. After all, stress is defined as the sum of all our physical and mental reactions to our environment and the daily demands placed upon us. This is the reason stress reactions are often triggered too intensively and too permanently, and sustained tension can make people ill. And yet irksome situations only make up a small part of the triggers behind stress reactions, with 90 percent of our stress tracing back to how we think about a challenge beforehand.

Brain researchers have found 13 mind traps we constantly fall into and which immediately trigger stress.