60 thousands thoughts a day

Australians have around 60,000 thoughts a day, 90% of these are the same thoughts they had yesterday. The majority of these thoughts are negative.

What that means is that each and every day, we have around 6,000 opportunities to change the way we think, and to think something positive. Positive thoughts are a great way to help manage stress.

"Lifeline recognises the need for Australians to do more to manage their stress levels, and a really positive way to do this is to think about something good, to focus our thoughts on what is going well for us, on what makes us happy," Lifeline's Chris Wagner said today.

Lifeline has joined with award winning author Meiron Lees to help Australians recognise and manage their stress levels. Mr Lees is an Australian expert on stress management and believes that everyone has the ability to stress down, by recognising when their own thoughts are creating stress.

"The notion of stress is extremely subjective; what may be stressful to one person may not seem stressful to another. What is important is that most of the stress we feel, regardless of what causes it, is harmful," Mr Lees said.

"Stress is a feeling and what causes that feeling is what we're thinking. We don't have a stressful feeling without first having a stressful thought. To manage stress we need to be mindful of our thoughts.

"One key to stress management is to make feeling good a priority. We can do this by recognising when we're feeling stressed about something and reaching out for a thought that will give us relief. In doing so we can manage and reduce stress almost immediately.

"For example, if work is your cause of stress, think about something you enjoy doing at home.

"It is also important that we have something to look forward to everyday. There are so many demands placed upon us and we need to counter balance this with enjoyment," Mr Lees said .

One way to stress down is to take part in Lifeline's Stress Down Day this Friday. To register your interest, log on to www.stressdown.org.au. Lifeline's Stress Down Day in on the 23rd of July.

"We are looking to the community to take a day off from stress by doing something fun," Mr Wagner said. "Enjoyment is a great way to reset our internal stress clock."

What that means is that each and every day, we have around 6,000 opportunities to change the way we think, and to think something positive. Positive thoughts are a great way to help manage stress.