Everyone knows that stress is not just miserable to deal with; there are many miseries as a result of it. There are so many different kinds of stress and so many serious health problems resulting from it, it’s a wonder that stress management isn’t taught as a basic in elementary schools. Indeed people begin to experience stress from a very early age and the build up and its impacts are often felt quite early in life and continue with increased severity into adulthood. In other words because you grow up without being taught how to cope well with stress, and you are not taught how to deal with your emotions healthfully, you suffer all kinds of health problems. Everything from headaches, digestive upsets, excess weight, even psychological issues, depression, insomnia. And you become disease prone because physical mental and emotional stress depletes your immune system; you depend on your immune system for everything from killing cancer cells to fighting off colds and flu and other infections. Are you aware that stress puts enormous pressure on your whole bio- physiological, and psychological systems, and besides depleting your immune system it creates inflammation and wreaks havoc on your nervous system? No question it hurts.
It’s never too late to learn how to deal with stress more healthfully. One of the first steps is to know yourself and become fully aware of how you respond to stress so you can begin to make positive changes. So I’m going to ask you some questions.
Are you conscious of how you cope with stress? Keep in mind certain emotions provoke bio-phsyilogocal stress, such as anger, frustration, aggravation, and grief. So how you deal with your emotions is crucial to your overall health. Are you consciously aware of how you deal with your emotions? Do you know what coping mechanisms you employ? Are they healthy? Do you feel good about using them? Be honest with yourself: Do you use food or alcohol to cope? Do you smoke? Are you angry and irritable a lot? Are you overly fatigued after a little work or a bit of exertion? Do you suffer sleep problems? Are you depressed? Do you suffer anxiety and tension?
Listen within: Self-awareness provides insights, which in turn offers opportunities to recognize when adjustments are needed in your attitudes, your thought processes, and behaviors.
It’s not all that complicated or difficult to learn how to cope well. First you must recognize what you are doing to hurt yourself.
My Mind Mastery students complete a comprehensive 23 page stress evaluation, which helps them determine what is influencing their stress levels; they learn how to have healthier stress responses. I give them my links in a chain of command for conscious control for their subconscious mind that gives them, among myriad other wonderful benefits, the ability to ward off stress and eliminate its negative effect. I don’t have the space here to include it, however, I’ll give you just a few ways to get in touch with your coping mechanisms and ways to start dealing with stress more realistically and healthfully.
First you need to consciously recognize a simple fact of life: There’s no such thing as an event that is stressful; it is your perception of the event that makes it stressful; though we can rule out real trauma and significant loss from that principle, at least to some extent, the facts remain true to life in almost every life situation. .
Let me give you an example. If you want to be kissed the pressure you feel on your lips is welcome and considered eustress (positive stress), you enjoy it. If you don’t want to be kissed it is perceived as unwelcome, uncomfortable, therefore distress: It is the same pressure on your lips, the same everything except your perception of it.
Think about it for a minute.
When you adjust your perception of the event you immediately un-stress yourself, that is, when you are objective and realistic. For example simply questioning your self whether or not it is worth getting in an upset state about it directs you to a better perspective.
If in any situation you allow yourself, to get hot and bothered by things out of your control, you get tense, and agitated, and frustrated so your blood pressure rises, your heart rate goes up, you produce cortisol’s that damage your body: Very uncomfortable and unnecessary.
So here is where another tip comes in handy: You can decide not to be stressed over things you have no control over. Yes, it’s really that simple. Learn to recognize when you have control and when you don’t: When you accept that you have no control you can immediately begin to get in control for yourself and use your common sense to deal with whatever is going on with much less stress. Trying to control everything outside of your self is a futile and dangerous endeavor. Remember control comes first from within.
So it’s all about your perception of the situation.
Plus knowing that you can consciously decide to deal with the situation positively from within yourself, it is not only empowering , it determines whether or not you are stressed and/or the total impact stress has on you physically, mentally and emotionally.
Isn’t it true that so many of the simplest things work wonders? We a hear all the time how taking a few deep breaths, and the often used advice to count to ten before doing anything else are wise things to do. So remember do it. It not only gives you time to settle down and relax a bit, it takes your emotions away from the issues for brief time, and puts you in a clearer thinking mode; and a clear mind gives you a chance you to use your intellect rather than allowing your emotions to take control. Breathing oxygenates your blood, relaxing muscles and gets more oxygen to your brain as well. So for want of all my Mind Mastery links, I recommend that you simply stop, breathe, and think; ask yourself, what’s really going on here? Ask yourself, honestly, how important is it in the whole scheme of things? What is really at stake here?
Taking heed of how you are processing your experiences and how you have been misbehaving when it comes to dealing with stress will enlighten you and take you to the next step to dealing with stress better: That is to ground your self in your logical mode, so you will be better able to come through unscathed by it.
Take care, and remember, regardless of what you might think and feel, you are in control. Learn how to be in control positively.
TTFN from Elaine
Want more information about how you can be more in control in every aspect of your life? Go to www.elainekissel.com/mindmastery.