Self Realized, Shatter Your Limits

Navigating Uncertainty: 5 Tools for Managing Stress and Setbacks

• Linton Bergsen • Episode 97

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Uncertainty arrives uninvited in all our lives. Whether it's job loss, financial strain, relationship challenges or global crises, these moments test our resilience and reveal our true capacity for growth. In this deeply practical and compelling episode, join me, Linton Bergsen, on the Self Realized, Shatter Your Limits Podcast as I unpack five powerful tools that transform how you navigate life's inevitable storms.

The journey begins with mastering your focus. When setbacks occur, your mind naturally drift toward fear and anxiety—creating a downward spiral that keeps solutions out of reach. I share specific techniques to redirect your mental energy away from worry and toward possibility, helping you regain control when circumstances feel overwhelming. This fundamental shift in perspective doesn't just feel better—it also creates the mental conditions necessary for finding your way forward.

Physical well-being emerges as a cornerstone of resilience.  Explore how exercise and nutrition directly impact your brain chemistry, creating a physiological foundation that makes emotional regulation possible during stressful periods. This connects seamlessly with mindful time management strategies that prevent the paralysis that often accompanies uncertainty. When combined with careful creation of your social environment—surrounding yourself with those who elevate rather than deplete you—these practices create a powerful framework for stability amidst chaos.

Perhaps most significantly, you’ll delve into the spiritual dimension of navigating uncertainty through meditation, prayer, and faith. By developing these internal resources during calm periods, you build a reservoir of strength to draw upon when challenges arise. This isn't about blind optimism, but rather about cultivating a grounded trust in your ability to meet challenges with grace and wisdom.

Ready to transform how you respond to life's unpredictable moments? Subscribe now, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and visit selfrealized.com to continue the conversation on resilience, personal growth, and spiritual development to become your own greatest resource in times of uncertainty.




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Linton Bergsen:

Welcome to the Self-Realized Podcast with Linton Bergsen, where you will shatter your limits. I am not much into the self-help industry as much as I'm into the self-realized individual, which is you, what matters most to you, how you get there and the obstacles that may be in your way. If you would like to be part of this podcast and part of that discussion, I welcome you here with an open heart, open mind and open arms. So, without further ado, let's get on with the podcast. I appreciate you taking your very valuable time and energy to join me on episode number 97, Navigating Uncertainty: 5 Tools for Managing Stress and Setbacks.

Linton Bergsen:

We certainly know, without any uncertainty whatsoever, that there will be setbacks and stresses in our lives. The question becomes how do you navigate? What is the GPS required for the road of uncertainty? In this episode, I'm going to give you five tools that will help you navigate the road of uncertainty and manage your stress levels and help you get through any setbacks that you will experience in life. The first tool that I'm going to give you is focus. When you contemplate on when you have a setback, when you have stress in your life a lot of times when it occurs, where does your focus go? Ask yourself that question Does it go to fear? Does it go to anxiety? Does it go to worry? If it does, that's normal and acknowledging that now is perfectly normal. But in acknowledging that, you realize, of course, that focusing on those three is not going to help you. And because it's normal doesn't make it all right, because it's not going to help you solve anything. It's going to create a downward spiral in your mental state if you continuously focus on fear, anxiety and worry. Those are not solution-driven focal points. They're going to create in you a situation that you will feel desperate and be stuck in the mindset of what if this was to happen? What if that was to happen? How am I going to pay this bill? How am I going to pay that bill? All of which are real life concerns, all of which we all go through if we lose a job, if we find out that what we have perhaps invested our time, effort or money in is not panning out.

Linton Bergsen:

Now as we thought. Once we accept that our focus has to change from fear, anxiety and worry to solutions of how you are going to deal with the ongoing situation you've now found yourself in and when you begin to really own that as a new focal point within yourself and you begin to target your mind and your self-talk in such a way that you refuse to allow the fear and the anxiety to take a hold of your mind and you refuse to allow yourself to go on that downward spiral and you tell yourself literally okay, this has occurred. It is not permanent, it is temporary. Things always change. They are fluid. Tell yourself this I am in control of whether I make things change for the better or for the worse. That is your focus.

Linton Bergsen:

Managing stress and setbacks and navigating uncertainty depends on you, and where you put your focus will be the result of the outcome of what you're going through. Contemplate on this for a moment. If you consistently and constantly focus, for example, on the career situation that has changed or the financial situation that has changed, not only because of the career situation but maybe because of global situations, you're only focusing on the doom and the gloom. You cannot control what has happened. You can only control what will happen, and the beauty of your life is that you can control outcomes and decisions you make and learn from past decisions and outcomes to have a better life. Essentially, if you look at setbacks and uncertainty which, as I've mentioned earlier in the episode, are going to happen as opportunities, you begin to shift your psychological and physiological well-being. It's mindfulness, it is constant mindfulness of where you are putting your focus, your self-talk, your thoughts and your actions.

Linton Bergsen:

Which leads me into the second tool for managing stress and setbacks and navigating uncertainty, which is managing your time. If you're going to change your focus from working on looking at outcomes and how you're going to have a better outcome and make the changes in your life that you need to, given the setbacks that you are now experiencing, you're going to have to manage your time differently than obviously you did before, because you may have had a job, you may have had certain things that were going on, a relationship or whatever. Now you have that time to do something positive with. If you manage that time for example, looking for a new job, putting your mindset in looking for opportunities, using social media and whatever avenues you have to try to find new opportunities you are now focusing and managing your time in a productive way to manage your stress and setbacks, because you will find that, if you are seeking out opportunities and you are trying to find solutions, that you don't feel as stressed as if you were doing nothing and just letting the current situation wear you down. When you're looking for solutions, you're trying to become successful. When you're trying to do something that is moving you forward, towards new paradigms, new success, your self-talk, your mental attitude changes, because you should have a greater degree of positive expectancy for the efforts that you're putting out, because you're managing your time correctly to create new opportunities for yourself. When you're trying to create new opportunities for yourself.

Linton Bergsen:

It leads me into the third tool for managing stress and setbacks navigating uncertainty which is avoid people and circumstances that won't help you. If you're trying to move forward from a situation and you're trying to get yourself into the right mindset and the right frame of mind, you don't want to surround yourself with people who may be negative and may have gone through similar things that you're going through, and all they can talk about is how difficult it is, how terrible it is, what's going on is awful and that there is no way out, and it's gloom and doom. Your focus and managing your time the first two tools is now greatly affected by the people and circumstances that you surround yourself with. It's called environment so your environment has to match your new focus, how you are managing your time and the people, events and environments that you are surrounding yourself with to manage your stress and setbacks. To pick you up, because if you are not surrounding yourself with people that are positive and you are trying to navigate uncertainty with people who like to be in that negative mindset and have nothing but uncertainty and unhappiness in their lives and they thrive on it because some people do then you are going to drag yourself down that very road with them and all your focus and your time is going to be spent with the wrong people contributing to you getting the wrong outcomes. When you look at moving forward and getting your focus right, managing your time right and avoiding people that aren't helping you.

Linton Bergsen:

You need to get into the fourth tool for managing stress and setbacks and navigating uncertainty, which is don't make assumptions about the outcomes that you're trying to accomplish. Don't make assumptions based upon past experiences. Don't make assumptions about what people are saying could happen, whether it is in the job market, whether it is in the economy, whether it is in life in general. You are not going to make assumptions about anything. Why? Because this gets into a very deep spiritual component of your life, which gets into the meditation part of managing stress and setbacks and navigating uncertainty. Once you begin to understand that you live in your world of peace, you live in your reality of meditation and prayer, that when you are in that place of meditation and prayer and working on your spiritual life which is very important in managing stress and setbacks and navigating uncertainty you are coming from a place of faith.

Linton Bergsen:

I talk about overcoming fear and using faith in episode 12 as part of your life, because if you do not have that as a solid foundation in your life, it's very difficult, in my opinion, to be optimistic because by default, you really don't know what's going to happen. But if you're putting your best foot forward and you're trying your utmost with your focus and managing your time and having the right people around you, then you're not going to start making negative assumptions about outcomes. You're going to have faith and you're going to allow the outcomes to unfold and work with you in a very positive, beneficial, uplifting way, because faith gives you the ability to do your best and leave the rest to something much bigger than yourself call it God, Cosmic Consciousness, whatever spiritual or religious beliefs that you choose to have, but leave it to that force, which is much bigger than yourself, to help you along with your own efforts in peace. And if you're developing that on an ongoing basis in everyday life, before uncertainty and setbacks and stress occur, it will be a foundational part of your life, ongoing, so when you need it, it'll be there. That is why I always encourage, in all of the episodes I do work on your faith and not fear, and work on your intuition and be guided by that inner voice, because uncertainty and handling stress and setbacks depends a lot upon how much work and effort you've put into building your faith, getting your quiet time and already having the resources built in you internally to help you navigate uncertainty, stress and setbacks when they occur. It's an ongoing everyday development into your spiritual bank account, so when you need to draw upon it, it is already there. It is simply one of the most important aspects of your life and will yield some of the best results of any investment that you can make in yourself. If you would like to know more about how assumptions are ruining your life, you can listen to episode 20.

Linton Bergsen:

And the final tool that I suggest that you really work on in order to navigate uncertainty and manage your stress and setbacks is always be working on your physical well-being, exercise, eating the right foods, because, it's been proven, exercise reduces stress. It releases endorphins and positive chemical reactions within the brain. The foods you eat they are very important in how you feel about yourself and how the foods you eat contribute to your well-being. If you are focusing again the number one tool I gave you on eating right and managing your time, tool number two, so you can exercise, and maybe the number three tool, surrounding yourself with the right people who like to be involved in exercise, hiking, biking, whatever you're involved in and enjoy eating well, then you will be able to have this as a natural part of your life, because it is a lifestyle, it's an environment that you have allowed yourself to cultivate. And when you get involved with people who are usually involved in these more positive lifestyles, they tend not to have negative expectations. Because just by wanting to exercise, wanting to eat right, wanting to make the time to do that, it's usually something that people have inside of themselves because they're trying to better themselves. They're in that mindset. It is a more mindful, positive space to live and be in. Now, obviously, there's always exceptions to the rule, but you are going to be very focused and mindful about who you spend your time with.

Linton Bergsen:

In today's episode, I've given you five different tools that you can use to help you navigate uncertainty, manage stress and setbacks. Focus, managing your time, making sure you have surrounded yourself with the right people, don't make any assumptions about what could happen, and exercise regularly. I haven't put these in any particular order. You may already have some of these in place and others you may not. So you decide which ones work for you and which ones you may feel don't, and apply them throughout your life, in every area, as things unfold, ongoing every day, and you will find that even if you apply one or two and you begin to expand out the one or two, it's a domino effect. You'll find that the other three will be affected automatically.

Linton Bergsen:

So start small, but think big. Everything great was started in a small way and no matter what is going on in your life right now, you are no small thing. You are great and you have everything within you to overcome anything that is outside of you by simple application of any of these tools, or all of them if you would like, you will find that life improves and your well-being improves. And after all, isn't that all that any of us want is to have a better life, no matter what occurs.

Linton Bergsen:

It's not impossible, because a self-realized individual, which you are, always knows this. They are their own greatest resource and they've spent their time discovering that, developing that and owning it. So when times of uncertainty, stress and setbacks occur, they know how to navigate them because they already have developed or are developing the ongoing tools and resources notus j o hrive t survivebut. ylistening appreciate ou listening to the podcast please subscribe so do not miss any upcoming episodes. Whatever platform you're on, please leave a rating and review. I would greatly appreciate it. Any additional information on me, Linton Bergsen and my five-star reviewed book, Purposeful Vision, is available at selfrealized. com which is all one word. You can also leave any comments or suggestions on the website. I look forward to connecting with you very soon and take good care of yourself.