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| Stress Reduction and Management How Fear Worry and Obsessive Negative Thoughts destroy your Health and Happiness. Learn how stress can create disease, depression and chronic fatigue. Part 1 of 3 |
Stress has become the ‘IT’ word of the century. Stress reduction, stress
management, adrenal exhaustion or chronic fatigue syndrome – it seems like
everyone is stressed. Many illnesses and diseases are brought on by stress
or at the very least, recovery or healing is impeded by stress. We are told
that families are breaking down under stress and that many accidents are
caused by stress. Anxiety attacks, phobias and depression are often stress
related.
Heart disease, strokes, cancers, chronic fatigue, allergies, high blood
pressure and headaches are just a few of the commonly listed complaints
that may originate from stress. It is now widely believed and well researched
that almost all disease and illness has a stress related component.
Because the word stress has become so overused we appear to be
indifferent to it, or perhaps we don’t fully understand the meaning of what it
is or how its effects relate to our health (both mental and physical).
Let’s first look at stress as a good thing. It is like a fire alarm within your
body. When a fire alarm goes off, you immediately stop what you are doing
and your awareness becomes focused on danger. Your full attention goes to:
Confirming if the fire exists,
Protecting yourself and your property,
Alerting others to the danger and
Preparing to run or fight.
Stress is like the body’s alarm bell. If you are in danger, your stress reaction
not only demands attention, but actually shuts down some of your bodily
functions while speeding up or activating other more urgently needed ones.
When you are under stress your heart will pump hard and fast in preparation
for greater physical exertion, and your muscles will tighten to protect you
from being hurt or prepare you to attack or run. Many chemicals will flood
your body and most bodily functions that are not a matter of life or death will
be slowed down or interrupted.
This is fantastic, as you become super powerful and super alert.
Many people who experience a traumatic event such as a car accident have
no memory of it. Often before a car crashes the mind and body are so
focused on the danger, that the mind goes completely into automatic pilot
and rarely do people remember the actual impact.
You may have heard of or experienced ‘going into shock’. This is another
example of how the mind completely blocks out everything and behaviour
becomes unconscious and automatic. You may not remember a trauma for
hours, days, or even longer, as your mind sorts and gathers the information
to protect you from such an overload.
Stress protects you. In the appropriate situation, it is a wonderful and
amazing thing.
Stress can also be found in happy events; the birth of a child, a new job, a
wedding, holidays, or moving house. If you need to sing or speak in public,
you may also experience stress. Stress in these situations can be very helpful
as it brings about a heightened mental alertness and increased energy.
Appropriate stress is a good thing; it simply means that your reserve tank is
being used for emergency purposes.
Going back to the fire alarm analogy you might imagine a city hospital.
Within the hospital are hundreds of staff members, patients, and visitors. The
purpose of a hospital is to save lives, so you may consider the doctors,
nurses, and anaesthesiologists as the most important people. However,
within the system you also have cleaners, administrators, orderlies, etc. The
efficiency of the hospital relies on all of these systems working together.
Now imagine if the hospital’s fire alarm sounded every day for a month. Every
time the alarm rings all tasks stop and everyone needs to leave the building.
Things like cleaning, office work and meal preparation would become very
unimportant as everyone's attention would be directed to the safety of the
patients.
By the end of the month, the whole system would be in disarray. Hopefully, no
lives would be lost and the priorities within the hospital met, but imagine the
impact on the overall efficiency of the hospital.
Another outcome from this false alarm and its repetition would be that the staff
would become complacent about the alarm. After so many false alarms, you
would find that the staff would be less reactive and perhaps get to the point
where they simply ignored future alarm bells. Certainly, they would not be as
responsive as they were weeks earlier. In effect, the alarm is the same, the
danger is the same, but the reaction has changed.
This is how stress works within our body. Initially, the body will take energy
from the less urgent bodily functions and increase energy to the more urgent
ones. If this is continued over a period of time, those less urgent, but very
necessary functions become greatly affected. The snowball effect of this is that
ultimately, the entire body becomes exhausted, allowing disease and illness to
take hold.
We eventually get to the point where we no longer listen to the warnings or
become indifferent to the stress. Many people live with extreme stress every day,
but no longer recognize or respond to it.
These people feel normal because the stress has become a habit.
Obvious Stress
Obvious stress is easily recognized. Your heart pounds hard and fast, it is hard to
breathe, your hands are sweaty or cold, your body feels frozen or your voice
may sound higher than normal.
Examples of Obvious Stress are:
Lying alone in the dark at night and hearing footsteps outside your bedroom door,
Realizing that your brakes have failed as you approach a red light on the freeway
or,
Having a dentist’s drill touch a nerve in your tooth.
Most of us can cope with obvious stress which is usually over in a short period
of time. It's like having a big brother and a gang of his mates stepping in to get
you out of trouble. Appropriate stress gives you super strength and heightened
alertness. When the danger has passed, you will feel tired, you may feel shaky
and angry, but then you'll calm down and return to normal.
Prolonged Stress
If stress is left unchecked, it will eat away at you over time and will certainly
become a problem. Prolonged stress is stress that you don't take care of as soon
as you should.
Examples of Prolonged Stress are:
Living in a dysfunctional home,
Working in a job you hate,
Long-term illness or pain, or
Constant noise.
Silent but Deadly Stress
Fear and Worry are the most insidious and constant forms of stress.
The most important thing to know about them is, that to your sub-conscious
mind the fears are real.
When you are deep in thought, your mind is processing information visually and
emotionally. The sub-conscious merely records and files information. If same or
similar information keeps coming in, the brain will consider this information to be
important. It may also consider it to be true.
The mind will create emotional or physical reactions to information. Take as an
example when you are watching a thriller or horror movie. Your conscious mind
knows it’s a movie, but your sub-conscious does not. Your heart begins to
pound, your breathing becomes fast or shallow, and you may experience goose-
bumps or even scream. This is because your mind is processing this information
as if it were real.
Watching an erotic movie can bring about a physical sexual response. Hearing a
song on the radio can bring you to tears as you remember an old friend or lover.
These examples show how fear and worry will have you believing that imagined
events are real. How often are you putting your emotions and physical responses
into living and experiencing things that are not really happening?
When you lie in bed at night worrying about bills and debt, your emotional world
is actually living in poverty.
When the kids are out on a Saturday night, you may be emotionally reacting to
fears of them being involved in an accident.
When your headache is imagined as a brain tumour, you are emotionally living
through this belief as if it were real.
Your mind is constantly processing all of your fears and worries and believing
them to be true. Under obvious stress our bodies release adrenalin, cortisol and
other hormones and chemicals. By imagining danger, your body may also release
these chemicals.
Stress also interferes with your immune system, increases cholesterol production
and free radical damage, raises blood pressure, and reduces breathing. The
thoughts are imagined, but the emotional and physical responses are real.
The interesting things about fear and worry are our ability to exaggerate and
expand them. We rarely exaggerate and expand good things, yet at the slightest
suggestion of something negative, off we go!
Consider this: Someone at your office mentions that they have heard a rumour
that there may be staff cutbacks. You go back to your desk and start thinking, “I
bet it’s me”. You imagine telling your husband and kids that you have lost your
job. You imagine getting behind in the mortgage and losing your home. You
imagine your marriage suffering and taking the kids out of school. Your mind
starts up a conversation with your husband and you’re totally lost in an argument
inside your head.
Your mind then shifts to a new argument with your boss. Boy, are you telling
him what you really think!
By lunchtime, you are sitting with a friend and spending the entire hour
discussing your impending dismissal and the hardships ahead. Your shoulders are
tight, you cannot eat and you have a headache. You decide to storm back into the
office and quit.
Luckily, the person who started the rumour catches you at the door and lets you
know that the rumour is untrue.
This is an example of how we exaggerate and expand negativity. It is also an
illustration of your sub-conscious mind producing emotional and physical
responses to fear and worry. Your body and behaviour will react to what the
mind believes.
Click the next button for Part 2 and 3
management, adrenal exhaustion or chronic fatigue syndrome – it seems like
everyone is stressed. Many illnesses and diseases are brought on by stress
or at the very least, recovery or healing is impeded by stress. We are told
that families are breaking down under stress and that many accidents are
caused by stress. Anxiety attacks, phobias and depression are often stress
related.
Heart disease, strokes, cancers, chronic fatigue, allergies, high blood
pressure and headaches are just a few of the commonly listed complaints
that may originate from stress. It is now widely believed and well researched
that almost all disease and illness has a stress related component.
Because the word stress has become so overused we appear to be
indifferent to it, or perhaps we don’t fully understand the meaning of what it
is or how its effects relate to our health (both mental and physical).
Let’s first look at stress as a good thing. It is like a fire alarm within your
body. When a fire alarm goes off, you immediately stop what you are doing
and your awareness becomes focused on danger. Your full attention goes to:
Confirming if the fire exists,
Protecting yourself and your property,
Alerting others to the danger and
Preparing to run or fight.
Stress is like the body’s alarm bell. If you are in danger, your stress reaction
not only demands attention, but actually shuts down some of your bodily
functions while speeding up or activating other more urgently needed ones.
When you are under stress your heart will pump hard and fast in preparation
for greater physical exertion, and your muscles will tighten to protect you
from being hurt or prepare you to attack or run. Many chemicals will flood
your body and most bodily functions that are not a matter of life or death will
be slowed down or interrupted.
This is fantastic, as you become super powerful and super alert.
Many people who experience a traumatic event such as a car accident have
no memory of it. Often before a car crashes the mind and body are so
focused on the danger, that the mind goes completely into automatic pilot
and rarely do people remember the actual impact.
You may have heard of or experienced ‘going into shock’. This is another
example of how the mind completely blocks out everything and behaviour
becomes unconscious and automatic. You may not remember a trauma for
hours, days, or even longer, as your mind sorts and gathers the information
to protect you from such an overload.
Stress protects you. In the appropriate situation, it is a wonderful and
amazing thing.
Stress can also be found in happy events; the birth of a child, a new job, a
wedding, holidays, or moving house. If you need to sing or speak in public,
you may also experience stress. Stress in these situations can be very helpful
as it brings about a heightened mental alertness and increased energy.
Appropriate stress is a good thing; it simply means that your reserve tank is
being used for emergency purposes.
Going back to the fire alarm analogy you might imagine a city hospital.
Within the hospital are hundreds of staff members, patients, and visitors. The
purpose of a hospital is to save lives, so you may consider the doctors,
nurses, and anaesthesiologists as the most important people. However,
within the system you also have cleaners, administrators, orderlies, etc. The
efficiency of the hospital relies on all of these systems working together.
Now imagine if the hospital’s fire alarm sounded every day for a month. Every
time the alarm rings all tasks stop and everyone needs to leave the building.
Things like cleaning, office work and meal preparation would become very
unimportant as everyone's attention would be directed to the safety of the
patients.
By the end of the month, the whole system would be in disarray. Hopefully, no
lives would be lost and the priorities within the hospital met, but imagine the
impact on the overall efficiency of the hospital.
Another outcome from this false alarm and its repetition would be that the staff
would become complacent about the alarm. After so many false alarms, you
would find that the staff would be less reactive and perhaps get to the point
where they simply ignored future alarm bells. Certainly, they would not be as
responsive as they were weeks earlier. In effect, the alarm is the same, the
danger is the same, but the reaction has changed.
This is how stress works within our body. Initially, the body will take energy
from the less urgent bodily functions and increase energy to the more urgent
ones. If this is continued over a period of time, those less urgent, but very
necessary functions become greatly affected. The snowball effect of this is that
ultimately, the entire body becomes exhausted, allowing disease and illness to
take hold.
We eventually get to the point where we no longer listen to the warnings or
become indifferent to the stress. Many people live with extreme stress every day,
but no longer recognize or respond to it.
These people feel normal because the stress has become a habit.
Obvious Stress
Obvious stress is easily recognized. Your heart pounds hard and fast, it is hard to
breathe, your hands are sweaty or cold, your body feels frozen or your voice
may sound higher than normal.
Examples of Obvious Stress are:
Lying alone in the dark at night and hearing footsteps outside your bedroom door,
Realizing that your brakes have failed as you approach a red light on the freeway
or,
Having a dentist’s drill touch a nerve in your tooth.
Most of us can cope with obvious stress which is usually over in a short period
of time. It's like having a big brother and a gang of his mates stepping in to get
you out of trouble. Appropriate stress gives you super strength and heightened
alertness. When the danger has passed, you will feel tired, you may feel shaky
and angry, but then you'll calm down and return to normal.
Prolonged Stress
If stress is left unchecked, it will eat away at you over time and will certainly
become a problem. Prolonged stress is stress that you don't take care of as soon
as you should.
Examples of Prolonged Stress are:
Living in a dysfunctional home,
Working in a job you hate,
Long-term illness or pain, or
Constant noise.
Silent but Deadly Stress
Fear and Worry are the most insidious and constant forms of stress.
The most important thing to know about them is, that to your sub-conscious
mind the fears are real.
When you are deep in thought, your mind is processing information visually and
emotionally. The sub-conscious merely records and files information. If same or
similar information keeps coming in, the brain will consider this information to be
important. It may also consider it to be true.
The mind will create emotional or physical reactions to information. Take as an
example when you are watching a thriller or horror movie. Your conscious mind
knows it’s a movie, but your sub-conscious does not. Your heart begins to
pound, your breathing becomes fast or shallow, and you may experience goose-
bumps or even scream. This is because your mind is processing this information
as if it were real.
Watching an erotic movie can bring about a physical sexual response. Hearing a
song on the radio can bring you to tears as you remember an old friend or lover.
These examples show how fear and worry will have you believing that imagined
events are real. How often are you putting your emotions and physical responses
into living and experiencing things that are not really happening?
When you lie in bed at night worrying about bills and debt, your emotional world
is actually living in poverty.
When the kids are out on a Saturday night, you may be emotionally reacting to
fears of them being involved in an accident.
When your headache is imagined as a brain tumour, you are emotionally living
through this belief as if it were real.
Your mind is constantly processing all of your fears and worries and believing
them to be true. Under obvious stress our bodies release adrenalin, cortisol and
other hormones and chemicals. By imagining danger, your body may also release
these chemicals.
Stress also interferes with your immune system, increases cholesterol production
and free radical damage, raises blood pressure, and reduces breathing. The
thoughts are imagined, but the emotional and physical responses are real.
The interesting things about fear and worry are our ability to exaggerate and
expand them. We rarely exaggerate and expand good things, yet at the slightest
suggestion of something negative, off we go!
Consider this: Someone at your office mentions that they have heard a rumour
that there may be staff cutbacks. You go back to your desk and start thinking, “I
bet it’s me”. You imagine telling your husband and kids that you have lost your
job. You imagine getting behind in the mortgage and losing your home. You
imagine your marriage suffering and taking the kids out of school. Your mind
starts up a conversation with your husband and you’re totally lost in an argument
inside your head.
Your mind then shifts to a new argument with your boss. Boy, are you telling
him what you really think!
By lunchtime, you are sitting with a friend and spending the entire hour
discussing your impending dismissal and the hardships ahead. Your shoulders are
tight, you cannot eat and you have a headache. You decide to storm back into the
office and quit.
Luckily, the person who started the rumour catches you at the door and lets you
know that the rumour is untrue.
This is an example of how we exaggerate and expand negativity. It is also an
illustration of your sub-conscious mind producing emotional and physical
responses to fear and worry. Your body and behaviour will react to what the
mind believes.
Click the next button for Part 2 and 3
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| These articles are now available in paperback. Click the book cover to find out more. Or order directly with Paypal secure payment. |
| EBook instant download available for only $8 |
| Simply Stunning! A beautiful and profound experience 3 guided meditations on one CD. Access higher wisdom, intuition and insights. Change habits, release fears and activate healing energies. Buy Now Full description. Read what others say *Track 3 is a powerful and easy way to bring healing on an emotional level. |
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