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| Stress Reduction and Management How Fear Worry and Obsessive Negative Thoughts destroy your Health and Happiness. If it brings you Grief-Make it Brief Learn how stress can create disease, depression and chronic fatigue. Part 1 |
| Reinventing Myself Articles are now available in Paperback. Download Meditations Click the covers for more info. |
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
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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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.
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.
| These articles are now available in paperback. Click the book cover to find out more. Or order directly with Paypal secure payment. |
| EBook also 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 Sound samples and instant downloads (only about $1 per track) *Track 3 is a powerful and easy way to bring healing on an emotional level. |
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someone who would benefit from visiting these pages - Trust Your Intuition and send them the link.
If you would like to copy an article to your site or blog, you are welcome to do so, but must note copyright
Sonya Green and refer to www.reinventingmyself.com
If you would like to support this site you might consider emailing in suggestions or comments, a small donation,
purchasing a product or visiting the links to our sponsors.