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Micro-Exposures
Earlier, I told you life isn’t a battlefield. When you are hit on your Game field, you need to be mentally prepared to handle your own feelings. The biggest thing you are battling is your own mind. It affects how you handle people and situations. People and situations are not battling against you.

Your Game is you versus you. Because of this, you are the only one affected by your feelings. Other people are not affected by your mental responses to your Game. They also don’t intend to feed you specific feelings. Remember, everything is happening for you, so you can learn and grow stronger from it. When you internalize this reality, it becomes much easier to handle things and not react negatively.

How can you mentally prepare for stress and its associated discomfort? Subject yourself to micro-exposures. Micro-exposure reduces the resistance your body experiences. It’s a strategy of intentionally and repeatedly exposing yourself to uncomfortable situations with the aim of eventually becoming immune to them. If you don’t have a strategy for becoming better at managing stress, your mental experience of these situations beats you up every time.

Each time you face stressful situations with baby steps forward, you alchemize the situation and can gradually tolerate a higher level of exposure without reacting. This process works similarly to how hikers at high altitudes must gradually ascend, then pause to acclimatize before ascending further. They can’t reach the top with a direct sprint. If they did this, they’d suffer irreversible damage and need to retreat completely. Their body must adjust to their high-altitude environment. Slowly but surely, they break through the altitude barrier holding them back from getting up the mountain. Slow steps with acclimation is a slow but sure path upward for successfully reaching the summit.

Treat uncomfortable situations in the exact same way. Ease yourself into the situations, bit by bit. Allow yourself to take breaks to acclimatize to the exposure before you allow yourself to experience more of it. Soon, you’ll be able to endure higher and higher doses of this situation, and perhaps even get to the point of not feeling any discomfort. Just as hikers gradually make it to the top, breathing freely and clearly at high altitude, you will breathe freely and clearly in your uncomfortable situation.

Developing a micro-exposure strategy to help you maintain calm in a variety of stress-inducing situations allows you to gain the upper hand in many otherwise uncomfortable situations. Intentional micro-exposure is like putting yourself through a mental bootcamp. Having purposely exposed yourself to uncomfortable and stressful situations, you can face similar situations with calm and ease when they pop up. Because you prepared yourself for this kind of discomfort, you already know how to handle the situation. You do not react emotionally. You do not waste energy. Instead, you respond from a place of knowing and intentionally respond. This helps you win your Game.

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