Podcaster Rob Dial Discusses Ways to Deal with Stress and Anxiety

On a recent Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial cited the Mayo Clinic's "Four A's" to deal with anxiety, expanding upon each of them.  As Dial says, stressful situations are a natural part of living and in today's time of accelerating information, the Internet and smartphones, it is only going to intensify.  Stress in itself isn't bad, but rather the anxiety it can produce.  How to get around it? Dial points to the Mayo Clinic's suggestions, explaining that you go through each "A" in order to meet the situation.  They are Avoid, Alter, Accept and Adapt.  First, if you can avoid unwelcome stressful situations, then by all means do so.  If that isn't possible, then try to alter the worst parts of the situation to make it more manageable.  If you still don't get relief, then try to accept what is going on, and ask yourself whether your resistance to it isn't contributing in large part to your anxiety while feeling forgiveness toward anyone playing a role in it.  Finally, if you're still experiencing anxiety-producing stress, then consider adapting by changing yourself and your attitude toward it all, asking yourself why it is causing such trouble and working to see it in a more positive light.  Dial also recommends starting a personal stress management journal, writing down about such situations you may encounter and your strategies and progress for dealing with them.  Concluding his show, he added that practicing mindfulness of your present physical surroundings can aid in interrupting the ongoing pattern of stress and allow you to refocus in a more positive way.  Ultimately, it's all a matter of breaking things down to more manageable habits of thinking and action.  I thought it was one of his better podcasts...