You choose how you respond to stress

You get to choose how you respond.

That’s the incredibly simple yet life-changing advice Mike Weeks wants you to hear.

The climber, coach, organic farmer and author – his latest book “Resilience by Design” is out now – is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking experts in the world on the subject of stress and resilience, and how you can regain the power to choose to be exactly who you want to be in an given scenario to life the life you want to live.

For Mike, the biggest issue most of us face in our daily lives that’s stopping us from being happy and making us miserable is that inability to remember that we get to choose how we respond to the words and actions of the rest of the world.

He gives this example: if Mike pushes you hard in the chest, how should you respond? Punch him in the face for his unwarranted act of aggression? Give him a hug and ask if he’s OK, because Mike must be really frustrated to have done that? Or choose another course of action, one of a million possible responses you have between these two ends of the spectrum?

And that’s his point. In any given stressful, unpleasant or hurtful scenario you have an infinite number of ways in which you can respond. Some actions may escalate the situation and make you feel even worse. Others may instantly alleviate the tension or anger and make everyone feel better. You have that choice. You hold that power.

Yet the world in which we now live is not conducive to cool, calm and considered responses. Thanks to social media most of us are quick to fury, or even seek out reasons or opinions to which we can respond with indignity, outrage and confrontation because someone has the audacity to disagree with our precise opinion on politics or economics or social injustice or sport or trans-rights or any one of thousands of divisive and hot topic issues.

But help – and guidance that might just change your life – is at hand. In our in-depth and advice-packed conversation with Mike he details his tried-and-tested tactics, strategies and approaches to confronting, dealing and managing with stress so you can become far more resilient to the people, news and issues around you.

Remember, you always have a choice and this one is as easy as it gets: put Mike’s advice into practice and you will live the happier, calmer and peaceful life you want.

Resilience By Design: How to Survive and Thrive in a Complex and Turbulent World, by Mike Weeks and Ian Snape (£28, Wiley) is out now.