Dealing with Stress

I have posted on stress before, but I cannot stress (pardon the pun) enough that stress is a killer.

Perhaps the most pervasive and difficult problem to solve in life balancing is that of stress. Whether you are at work or at home, there is likely some stress in your life, and that stress can interfere with your enjoyment of your career and your social life.

Stress is what we experience when we must adjust to the constant and conflicting demands of our lives. If you like your job and work long hours, if you are very competitive and always trying to win, you may experience a more positive form of stress.

But for most of us, when we experience unremitting stress, and we don’t know how to handle it, it makes us angry, frustrated, irritable, depressed and fatigued. We may get headaches or develop an ulcer, or perhaps we suffer from insomnia. Unless we can learn to eliminate or mitigate stress, we will function poorly on the job, at home and with friends.

Recognize that stress is real and that it can affect your health, your happiness and your relationships. There are lots of ways to defeat stress, and you’ll need to find the right one for yourself.

Here are some links that will get you started:

www.mindtools.com/smpage.html

www.psychwww.com/mtsite/smpage.html

www.hyperstress.com/

www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/DE7269.html

There are any number of other sites that focus on stress, many of them sponsored by universities and containing some great information and ideas about specific types of stress and stressful events.

Depending on where most of your stress is, you may want to focus in a different area.

If your boss is a major stressor in your life, if there is abuse or a hostile environment at work, you have a different problem than the stress that comes from caring for an ailing parent, spouse or child or the stress that comes from financial troubles.

But, regardless of the cause of your stress, the effects are the same. Extreme stress can be short-lived, as in stress after the death of a loved one, or it can be long-term.

You may ask how and why stress figures into your work/life balance goals.

It is very simple. Whether you are trying to balance your time or simply improve the quality of your life, it is important to acknowledge stress and to understand that there IS something called positive stress, and something called negative stress.

Positive stress is the stress you feel when you are planning your daughter’s wedding or when you are about to make an important presentation.

You may be happy about the event and looking forward to the occasion, but that doesn’t mean there is no stress.

That kind of stress is not harmful and can be quite invigorating. But, negative stress IS harmful, especially if it occurs over a long period of time.

Consider on-the-job stress, or stress in a relationship because of poor communication or the absence of focused time spent with a loved one – all of these things can damage your health and the quality of your life.

So, start by identifying the stressors in your life, and looking for the places you feel most stressed.

Then address the source of the stress, if you can. Because, the best way to approach stress is head-on. Later, we’ll talk about how you can relieve and mitigate stress if you are in a situation where you cannot eliminate it altogether.

But first, let’s look at how and when you can take charge and what you can change.

As we said earlier, you have to start by identifying the stressor(s) and taking stock of your reactions to this stress.

Notice the emotional and physical responses you have to stress. Do your muscles tense? Do you get headaches? Do you get nauseous or have stomach pain? Do you get nervous and irritable? Don’t pretend it isn’t an issue. Be objective about your reactions.

Next, figure out what you can change and how you can relieve or eliminate the stress.

Can you take those tasks or situations that cause you the most stress and schedule or spread them out so that you can tackle them when you are prepared and rested, rather than taking them on in a whirlwind with other things going on at the same time?

Can you shorten the time you are exposed to the stress? If your boss is a great stressor in your life, don’t schedule a one-hour meeting with her if you can avoid it. Instead, try stopping by her office to talk briefly, or if you must schedule time, schedule it during times of the day when you are less likely to feel harried.

And keep the meetings short and to the point. Stay on track and don’t get off on tangents that may make the situation more stressful.

If you have times of day or situations where you are under a lot of stress, try to take a break. Walk outside for a few minutes or go to get coffee. Break the pattern and then come back refreshed to finish the task.

If you focus on making changes to avoid the stress – for example, extending timetables to make a project more feasible, or setting more realistic goals – you will hit the problem at its root cause instead of trying to run and catch up all the time.

Try to analyze and alter your reaction to stress. Much of the damage done by stress is not done by the event itself, but instead by your body’s reaction to the event.

Your body and mind perceive danger and react accordingly and everything becomes exaggerated. The danger seems more threatening, the task more daunting, and the outcome more dismal.

Reason with yourself and ask “what is the worse that can happen?” Are you overreacting to the stressor and making your fear and emotional response worse?

Is everything as critical and time-sensitive as you think or are you just overly sensitive to pleasing everyone, all at the same time?

Don’t obsess over the negative factors and predict failure. Stick to the positive and, even if there are issues, focus on the things that worked well and note them.

THEN revisit the places that didn’t work so well, with a more objective eye toward improving the process, and try not to place or take blame. Just be sure to learn from your experience and the next time it will go better.

And remember, everyone makes mistakes!

Whatever you do, don’t go into a project or situation by predicting doom. You will never succeed that way and in the process, you will endure the stress of trying to consider every ‘what if’ and failure in the book.

Learn how to mitigate stress by diffusing it when it happens. When your heart starts to race and your palms get sweaty, take a two-minute time out and try some deep, slow breathing. It will reduce your heart rate and bring your mind back into focus.

Consciously relax the muscles in your shoulders and neck, the muscles around your jaw and in your scalp. Unclench your hands and close your eyes. Just for a moment.

You’ll be glad you took the break and so will your body!

Take care of yourself. Exercise three or four times a week. Cardio-vascular workouts like aerobics, rapid walking or running are great to relieve stress and strengthen your heart and lungs.

Don’t eat fast food. Try to eat a well-balanced diet and avoid stress responses like smoking and drinking. Take frequent breaks. Remember you can still think through problems and get things accomplished while you take a quick walk or go for a glass of water.

You don’t have to be at your desk to get things done!

Maintain supportive friendships and relationships and don’t let them die on the vine. It is this replenishment that will keep you going. Set your own goals and don’t let others force you into situations you don’t like.

You will always have some stress and frustration, but if you know yourself and if you build your reserves to meet these challenges, you will lead a much more balanced life and work stressors will not creep over into your personal life.

What if you’ve done all the right things and you still suffer the effects of stress? What if that stress is not something you can easily change?

Remember, we said that you could always change your reaction to the stress.

But, sometimes, just knowing you have to calm down doesn’t help much.

We mentioned exercise as a way to mitigate stress, but there are a lot of other structured approaches to mental and physical relaxation, from meditation and yoga to biofeedback, and all of these are beneficial.

Pick the one that works for you.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Deep Breathing – Learning to breathe, deep into your abdomen and to slow your body down sounds easy, but it takes a bit of practice.

However, you can do it anywhere. On a bus, train or plane and once you’ve learned it you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

Because the increased oxygenation of your blood brings more clarity to your brain, you will double the benefit by being able to solve problems better, as well!

Biofeedback is a method of relaxation that helps you to control your responses to and change how your body and mind react. Your brain ‘learns’ how to adjust as you use monitoring equipment to track your heart rate, muscle tension, blood pressure, and skin temperature.

Guided Imagery, sounds fu fu I know, but it works. This technique uses affirmations and relaxing images to calm and focus your mind and body, and control your breathing so you are more relaxed.

It is easy to learn and the more you practice the better and faster your brain will response to the cues, putting you into a state of relaxation more quickly every time.

Meditation has become one of the most popular techniques to achieve relaxation. It is not tied to any religious belief, and can be learned alone through self-study or in groups. Meditation changes your brain waves, and alters the response to stress in your mind, your emotions, and your body.

You can start and end your day with a brief meditation, and eventually, you may find it so helpful that you will employ this technique wherever you are, and whenever you feel stress.

Focused Muscle Relaxation teaches the student to tighten and relax groups of muscles in turn until the entire body is in a state of relaxation. It is easy to learn and can be mastered quickly and effectively with good results.

Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that is based on the connection between the muscles and organs in the body, breathing techniques and the combined effects on the mind. The goal of yogic practice is to restore balance to the body and your emotions through postures, stretching and breathing exercises.

Other forms of exercise, like cardio-vascular workouts, running and walking will increase the release of certain ‘good’ chemicals in your brain, thereby relieving stress, frustration and anger and helping you to sleep.

If you suffer from stress-related insomnia, you should consider trying one or more of the solutions we’ve outlined here. It will help you get the sleep you need to function well, and to keep you healthy and balanced.

And in all of this, use music. Neuro Linguistic Programming shows that eventually it will become a trained response that every time you play the music, it will start to relax you as if you were already doing the above activities.

 

For more stress release help Click Here!

9 Secrets For Stress-Free Living

 

Stress-free living is not totally unattainable. As discussed in a previous article, some stress is good. In this article I am speaking about the bad stressors and I’ll give you some tips on how you how you can emotionally de-clutter your life and magnetically pull the things you want closer. So lets get started.

 

1) Accept the problem

You have to accept the situation to fully acknowledge it, you have to accept yourself where you are, no matter what - you cannot solve any problem without first accepting it, and yourself. We spend so much of our time trying to deny what it is that is causing us the stress, pushing it away, which only leads to more of the problem appearing in our lives. Very often simply acknowledging the stressor and accepting that we had a part to play in that stressor coming into our life is enough to see it for what it is, a situation that can be solved.

 

2) Appreciate the Stressor

I know, it sounds weird, but after acknowledging the stressor and seeing it for what it truly is, you can learn to appreciate the situation. Life is about learning. When you see the stressor for what it is worth, you start working out a way to eliminate that stress from your life. One of the fastest ways to attract harmony into your life is by learning to appreciate the good in whatever situation it is that life is presenting you with. Appreciation is the antidote to some of the lowest forms of emotions we are capable of e.g. shame, resentment, etc. By offering thanks to God for the lessons learned, you immediately begin to attract more of it towards you. Also, by appreciating the stressors, you don’t allow negativity about the stressors to depress you.

 

3) Happiness in the Struggle

The experience of working through a stressful situation brings joy when you overcome the situation. Why not start feeling that before the stressful situation is taken care of. Take on the attitude that you know the situation is almost over. Take pride in the small victories that get you closer to eliminating the stressors in your life. Focus your life on having more now-moment pleasure experiences, rather than accumulating reasons or things to be happy about. Life on this planet is short enough without wasting time worrying about future outcomes when it is just as easy to appreciate where you are now. No matter how many stress factors are in your life, there are always more that you could be having, always someone worse off than you, and always a way out of the situation that you are in, so be happy in knowing you are in a place to accomplish much.

 

4) Stay connected to God

Find your own personal way to stay connected to Jesus.  For many, this is prayer, music, song, etc. Get back to nature, memorize a verse a day, whatever it takes to keep you connected to the source of your salvation. Burn out happens way too often, because we give and give and give, while not allowing ourselves the opportunity to just be fed. The Lord of Peace gives us what we need to work through any stress factors that we have. Through Him we have awareness that we are part of a much greater purpose, something else, something higher than ourselves that makes our current circumstances trivial by comparison. Notice that the concepts are so connected even on a linguistic level. People are attracted to God because we recognize that’s where we want to be, we want to have those feelings, we want to experience that energy, because the energy, just by being in His presence, makes us feel better about ourselves.

 

5) Live in the moment

We only have access to our full personal power in the present moment. The extent, to which you are connecting, on some unconscious level, either into the past or into the future, is the extent to which you rob yourself of your present power. You are not going to be experiencing what it is that God wants for you; therefore you are moving your emotional point of attraction, into negative territory. Being in the present moment is the only way you can make an emotional connection to what it is that will get you past your current stressor. This type of emotional alignment cannot be achieved when your thoughts are in the future or past. Living with your thoughts at a future or past moment in time (a.k.a worrying too much on the past or the future), is entirely redundant in the process of being free of stress.

 

6) You can never be enough

You can never be sorry enough to change the situation. You can never give enough to make up for the past; you can never sock away enough to really secure your future. It is only when you allow yourself to give it over to God that you can see the present for what it is, a gift. It is only when you are allowing the yourself to see current stressors for what they really are, that you have the ability to gift it to others. Help others see stress for what it is. When your cup is not already brimming over, it is the fastest route to the emotional poorhouse. Others easily see through empty gestures, compliments, or favors; and, such gestures only blind you from your own emotional misinterpretations of your own stress. They are not useful, and serve no purpose in enhancing your life or others’.

 

7) Be selfish enough to line up with your intentions

This is important because it is only in your thriving that you have anything to offer others. If your own energy tank is not full, you have no business looking after the tanks of others. It is important to limit your own responsibilities to prevent emotions draining of self-worth etc. Remain present and in attendance to your own needs first and you will always give others your best, automatically.

 

8) You are not your accomplishments

Understand that you are not your accomplishments, what you do, what you don’t do, your beliefs, your ideas, your stuff or possessions, those are nothing to do with who you really are, they are the baggage you have picked up along the way, so stop placing so much worry in these things. They are nothing to do with the spiritual you who wants to feel good; and stay connected to Peace. Lose your ego, and take this attitude of freedom with you in your everyday life.

 

9) The journey is the destination

Many times our internal dialogue says “If only I had x, then I would be happy, or, “I’ll be happy when I’ve got…” As you go into the world and experience the contrast of your likes vs. your dislikes, through your everyday experiences, so a new want is born. Being able to see stress in the here and now makes you realize that the journey is the destination. Each day is another opportunity to walk with God and let Him help handle your stress. So enjoy the journey and don’t stress on the destination because we already know where we are going.

 

Bringing it all together

So how do we overcome the various stress blocks to pull greater peace and abundance towards us? Live in the present and take stress one day at a time, never give them more power than they really have.

 

If you have gotten anything from this series on stress or have anything to add, I would love to hear from you.

 

 

Anxiety And Stress Relief - Facing Life's Giants!

 

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday. This last year was a major season of change for all of us; new house,new job for my wife, new school for my daughter...it's safe to say that I have dealt with stress. Anyway, we wanted to make this birthday special for my daughter with all of the stress of the year, but the more we worked on it, the more ideas fell through. As stressful as it was, we came up with a game plan that gave her an enjoyable time as well as her friends.

I led in with that story to say this, life often takes on a David and Goliath feeling. Giants bearing down on you, taunting you, making you feel small.  Enormous footsteps shaking the very foundations of your life bringing stress and anxiety.  Relief from these problems can often seem to be, not only out of reach, but also out of sight.  When bills pile up, family demands are overwhelming, your tasks in hand get out of hand and calamity and tragedy fill the headlines of your news feeds.

 

What do you do when stress giants come into your life?  Who do you turn to for help?  The fact it is you are not alone there is somebody who can help.  There are people you can turn to for support, advice and assistance.  You do not have to face these stressors alone in silence.  If you need help to over come life's problems and are looking for stress relief try one of these:

 

·           Family

·            Friends

·            Counselors

·            Pastors

·           Self-help books

·           Self-help CDs

 

How about calling your regular doctor for advice about stress relief?  Many people ignore or forget about these obvious support channels.  In fact, sharing our stress with someone who will support us should be on the top of our list when dealing with life’s stress.  When life's difficulties becomes too much and you are finding things bearing down on you to the point your stress is compounded by a feeling that you can’t take it anymore, then this is the time to share that burden with someone else.

 

Stress relief information and help should be sought in the same way as any other assistance.  If you broke your arm then you wouldn't think twice about seeking medical help, so you should treat your stress problems the same way. If you don’t have someone close to confide in, call your doctor, see a pastor, or make an appointment with a counselor.

 

It is possible that your stress and anxiety is bad enough that a doctor will prescribe medication to give you some relief, but most of the time, just getting off of your chest is enough to get you back in the game.

 

Make time for yourself

Another way to handle the giants is to step away and regroup. Everybody deserves (and needs) some time away.  Time for one’s self should not be considered an unnecessary luxury.  It is something that we all need.  Find something that you love doing, something that gives you pleasure and take the time to indulge yourself in it.  If your schedule is so overwhelming then start with ten minutes for yourself per day, your objective should be working towards one hour of time devoted to you per day with one day strictly for relaxation and not thinking about any of your stress giants.

 

Taking the time out for yourself does not mean that you are selfish and uncaring.  When people demand so much of you, it is easy to find your personal resources evaporating away and your ability to cope with your own personal stress will diminish.  To be able to give your best and work at your optimum level means that you need time devoted to yourself.

 

So, what are you going to do with this new time that you have devoted to yourself?  How will you use your "me time?"  Here are a few suggestions to help get you started relaxing and regrouping to face the giants another day:

 

·           Take a long relaxing walk

·           Take a long relaxing bath; light candles, burn incense

·           Read a fiction book

·           Write a poem or short story

·            Undertake some light exercise

·           Take up a new sport

·            Practice meditation

·           Enroll in a yoga class

·           Try listening to music

 

Whatever you do begin to enjoy life.  Live it to the fullest.  Consider each moment precious and know that you do have permission to step away from your giants for a short time to regroup; they will still be there tomorrow. Begin to experience life and don't just let it pass you by because you are spending too much time stressing on things.  Stress relief is attainable and within your grasp.  But you must make the effort to reach out and take it.

 

 

 

Good Stress And Bad Stress

 

The stress response of the body, in a way, is like an airplane getting ready for take-off. Virtually all systems (e.g., the heart and blood vessels, the immune system, the lungs, the digestive system, the sensory organs, and brain) are modified to meet the perceived danger that is just around the corner.

 

The Pounding Heart

The adrenaline in our system makes our heart beat faster in order to pump more oxygen to the brain in order to obtain a quick flight or fight response if it is needed. This excited feeling can sometimes overtake us and lead to poor decisions.

 

Become aware of your stressors as well as your emotional and physical reactions to those stressors. As the phrase goes, “Know thyself”. Notice your distress. Don't ignore it. Don't gloss over your problems. Determine what events distress you. What is your body and mind telling you about the events taking place? Determine how your body responds to the stress. Do you become nervous or physically upset? If you do, in what specific ways are you acting or thinking?

 

Preventing Stress

Reduce the intensity of your emotional reactions to stress. In today’s society the stress reaction is more often than not, triggered by your perception of danger and not real life threatening situations. Are you viewing your stressors in exaggerated terms and/or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster?

 

Are you expecting to please everyone?

Are you overreacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and urgent? Do you feel you must always prevail in every situation? Work at adopting more moderate views; try to see the stress as something you can cope with rather than something that overpowers you. Try to temper your excess emotions. Put the situation in perspective. Do not labor on the negative aspects of the situation.

 

Good Stress and Bad Stress

The stress response (also known as the fight or flight response) is critical during emergency situations, such as when a driver has to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. It can also be activated in a milder form at a time when the pressure's on but there's no actual danger - like stepping up to a podium to give a presentation in front of a room full of people, getting ready to ask someone out for the first time, or waiting for test results from the doctor. A little of this stress can help keep you on your toes, ready to rise to a challenge. And the nervous system quickly returns to its normal state, standing by to respond again when needed.

 

By analyzing our stress at the time we are having it, our left-brain kicks in and allows us to take more control of our situation. If you are taking a test, there is no way that the professor is going to attack you if you don’t finish on time, nor will there be any physical repercussions if you ask someone out and they say no. So, once you realize that there is no mortal danger present, you can see that your body is overreacting and you can quickly gain control before doing or saying something that you will regret later.

Your Brain's Response To Acute Stress!

 

Stress is a feeling that's created when we react to particular events. It's the body's way of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with focus, strength, stamina, and heightened alertness.

 

The precursors that lead to stress are referred to as stressors, and they can cover a wide range of situations; everything from outright physical danger to making a class presentation to having a bad dream.

 

Particularly in a normal working life, much of our stress is subtle and occurs without any obvious threat to our survival. Most comes from things such as work overload, conflicting priorities, inconsistent values, deadlines, conflict with others, unpleasant environments and so on. Not only do these reduce our performance as we divert mental effort into handling them, they can also cause a great deal of unhappiness. These mild levels of stress are classified as ‘acute stress’ and we all experience it in one way or another.

 

The best way to envision the effect of acute stress is to imagine yourself in a very base-level, primitive type situation, such as being chased by something in the woods.

 

In response to being chased, a part of the brain called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system is activated.

From here there is a release of Steroidal Hormones. The HPA systems trigger the production and release of two specific hormones Glucocorticoids, which includes the primary stress hormone Cortisol. This particular hormone is very important in regulating and maintaining systems throughout the body that including the heart, lungs, circulation, metabolism, immune systems, and skin in order to quickly with stressful situations.

 

Next, we have the release of Catecholamines. The HPA system also releases certain neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) particularly known as dopamine, nor epinephrine, and epinephrine (also called adrenaline).

 

Today's world is changing at the most accelerated rates ever, and our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits are all being affected by these larger changes.  Many people are feeling a heightened sense of emotional intensity, so we are seeing more stress.

 

Not all stress is bad. It is important that we understand this. Stress, in the right amounts can keep us healthy, safe and more mentally aware. In my next entry I will talk more about this, so until then, God bless.   

 

10 Leading Causes Of Stress

 

The University of Washington first did a study in 1967 that theorized that there was a connection between major life events and physical health. As part of that study, Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe, along with their team, charted all of the major stress factors. In 1967, this chart contained 43 main causes for stress in the average person. Thirty-nine years later, in 2006, that chart was revised to contained 55.  Since 2002 we are even higher yet, now adding on extra stress with traveling, foreign affairs, etc.

It is highly apparent that our modern society, filled with conveniences that are supposed to make our lives easier and less stressed, is finding more and more reasons to feel stress.

 

So, by knowing the leading causes of stress in your life, you can take actions that could minimize, if not eliminate them all together. Do you think it is possible to totally eliminate stress from your life, or will it be part of your life until you die, quite possibly being the cause of your death? Or maybe, there is a middle ground somewhere?

           

Which Are Your Leading Causes for Stress?

 

Death of a Loved One

The Holmes-Rahe Social Scale, that they based on their findings are still pretty accurate in the 21^st century. The scale shows that the death of a loved one, more specifically a spouse, can be one of the most stressful events a person can face. This stress is compounded when that couple owes a lot of debts and the remaining spouse must worry about finances on top of grieving the loss of a spouse. Issues can add up even more if someone loses a spouse while there are still minor children living at home.

 

Divorce

Divorce is another leading cause of stress among men and women, this according to the Holmes-Rahe scale. In addition to dealing with a variety of stressful emotions, divorce usually means that one or both spouses must leave their home. Individuals also may have to deal with disagreements involving division of property, finances, and child support custody issues.

 

Finances

Finances, particularly mortgage foreclosures, are another leading cause of stress ranking at the top of the Holmes-Rahe stress assessment scale. People who live in poverty, and individuals who face overwhelming debt or bankruptcy usually experience high levels of stress.

 

Job

Work-related stress is common among men and women who have demanding jobs and work long hours. Workers also tend to be more stressed during poor economic times when they worry about layoffs or a reduction in hours.

 

Health

Personal health issues can be stressful on both children and adults. Working to get well, worrying about medical costs or dealing with an unexpected health crisis or chronic illness can all bring on stress. The sad part is that stress itself contributes to disease. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that within the next 10 years, stress-related conditions like depression will rank as the second leading cause of disability worldwide.

 

Personal Relationships

Everyone is stressed at times by personal relationships, even when relationships are basically good. Couples argue, parents and children fight and occasionally conflict among friends or co-workers can create stress.

 

Chronically Ill Child

Parents who have a child with a serious health problem or injury frequently are under a great deal of stress. They worry about the recovery of their child, and may find it difficult to see their child suffering or in pain. There can be financial worries associated with a child's illness as well.

 

Childhood Trauma

Some individuals experience long-term stress as a result of a traumatic childhood. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, milestone research in 1998, found that difficult emotional experiences as a child can cause physical stress on the body throughout life. Children who live in abusive homes, or who grow up living with an alcoholic or drug abuser often suffer more psychological stress throughout adulthood.

 

Pregnancy

Pregnancy, too, can be a stressful event. This is particularly true of pregnancies, which were not planned, or pregnancies that result in serious complications for the mother, child or both. Another problem is that sometimes couples realize that they are not as ready financially or emotionally for a child as they thought they were.

 

Danger

Dangerous situations such as fires, automobile accidents or being the victim of crime can cause stress. Any hazardous event that is out of the ordinary for an individual can cause either short- or long-term physical or emotional stress.

 

Stress can be caused by many factors and, no matter how minor, some may be, they can add up to become debilitating. Before you go away depressed and stressed about this post, we will start discussing some ways to relieve stress next time. So be sure to check out my next blog.

 

What is Stress and How Do You Manage It?

 

We all face Stress problems in our lives. But, how do we manage stress and lead a happy life? Recent research reveals that the body has the capability of affecting the mind. Simple things like the way you carry yourself, the way you walk, the way you talk, and the way you project yourself physically, affects your attitude and mind to a much larger extent than we previously were aware of. We have learned more about how our mind works in the last 12 years than in our entire history of neuroscience.

 

This article will, in short, discuss the positives that should be developed in order to have effective stress management.

 

For several decades now, researches all over the world have asserted that what goes on in the mind affects the body, but not until around this last decade, give or take a few years, have we found undeniable proof. Negative thoughts and a negative attitude lead to our feeling low: our heads fall, our shoulders sag, and our breathing becomes shallow. In fact it has been conclusively proven that a negative mind will trigger off a whole chain of physical reactions, which lead to us feeling the way we do.

 

On the reverse, positive thoughts and positive attitudes make us feel good: our heads are held up, we tend to look up, stand taller, breathe deeper and fuller.

 

So you see, the body is directly affected by our mental state. But, consider this: recent research reveals that we can switch the current, so to speak. The body also has the capability of affecting the mind. The way you carry yourself, the way you walk, the way you talk, and the way you project your physical self, affects your attitude and mind to a fairly large extent. If you always stand straight, with your chest held out and breathe in deeply, chances are you will begin to have a better attitude. On the other hand, if your shoulders are dropped, and you have a crouched back, you are probably going to feel depressed.

 

The interesting and potentially very powerful corollary to all of this, on the slim chance that you didn’t catch it, is that we can control our emotions though our bodily actions and postures. That means if we want to feel good or positive all we have to do is change our body posture. Though it may vary only slightly from person to person, the overall precepts for a positive frame of mind are more or less the same: Head high, Shoulders pulled back, deep breathing, chest held out, and of course the all important smile. As Tony Robbins puts it, “Motion creates Emotion”. The way we move changes, the way we think, feel and behave. The rigorous workout to upbeat music down to the slightest movement of a facial muscle has the affect of changing our emotions.

 

Even the simple act of a smile can make an enormous difference to your state of mind. Extensive research in this area proves that the act of smiling sets of a biological reaction that affects all parts of the body. It stimulates the heart and the lungs. It increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain. The body's excretory organs function more smoothly, thus clearing the body of harmful toxins. Imagine such a simple act as smiling to have such a far-reaching effects; in fact many doctors are of the opinion that fifteen minutes of light laughter on a daily basis, can increase your life span by about 5-10 years.

 

The point is that nothing happens by chance. We have all been created in a very scientific manner. Every gesture, every moment in the body has some purpose – some of those moments cause us to feel miserable, to doubt our abilities, and to curse our luck, while others make us feel good, optimistic and positive about life. We have the ability to choose the ones we desire.