The meaning you give to events in your life and your reactions to them are programmed habits.
In preparation for writing, very often I look up the definition of prominent words to bring a fuller and deeper meaning to the article. Commonly spoken words often lose their meaning with repetition.
So much came up with the word ‘stress’. Too much really to include here, however the most telling one is: “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation” – m-w.com
The stress response that occurs in our bodies is a natural and normal response. Hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released supporting our bodies for fight, flight or freeze. This can save our lives if there’s an imminent danger to our survival.
No time to think. We’re equipped to leap into the appropriate action.
What’s happened however, is we have programs running subconsciously, which create this response even when fight, flight or freeze is not appropriate or useful.
These days it could be bill payments, loss of freedoms, loss of income, loss of loved ones, family arguments, resistance in the work environment, lack of control, betrayals, etc. The fight, flight or freeze response won’t help you, yet that’s what your body has been programmed to do anyway.
Your mind then loops with thoughts about these things. The “what if’s”, “if only’s” and “I should’ve said/done this”, keep your body believing there’s something to perpetually fear. So it’s perpetually responding with the symptoms of fear leading to stress.
3 Steps and Good News!
The good news is you have the power to choose your thoughts. I’ll admit, it’s a process, yet it can be done with mindful awareness. You’ll be exponentially more successful having a guide by your side when you go through these 3 steps to unlearning your programmed reactions to stress.
You can change the meaning you give to the things coming up that make you feel stressed, thereby changing the thoughts you have around them.
1. Listen
Become familiar with the sensations in your body and the thoughts that came up just before the sensation. Your body is listening and talks to you all the time. It’s giving you feedback as to how you’re managing your emotions and choices.
When you’re frozen or burning up in the stress of fear or anger, your body gives you signals well before it becomes a problem. We work a lot with this process in my program, “Harmonized Living™ A Program to Break Stress Patterns and Create More Time For You”. So you'll be able to switch out of stress within 3 minutes.
2. Surrender
Surrender to or accept what is - there’s no point resisting or arguing it. That doesn’t mean you’re powerless in the situation. Far from it! From that standpoint, you can be more powerful because you’ll be in authority to choose your ability to respond (responsibility). It’s far more powerful than just having an emotional reaction.
3. Release
All our emotions are valid and normal, we all have them. So instead of pushing them down or aside because somewhere along the way you’ve made them wrong, work on releasing them. In my Harmonized Living™ program we have a mindfully creative expression which helps you do this in a graceful way.
Energy's natural state is to always be in motion (e-motion). So if you’re not releasing it, the energy becomes stuck somewhere. It can become chronic and lead to dis-ease in the body.
We’re going through one of the greatest times of adjustments our world has ever seen. That requires us to adjust with it.
It's time to learn about the capabilities we're built with and learn the processes to help us rise above the stress of challenges that come up. You are more powerful than you think and more capable than you know.
Join me in understanding stress and how to release it in my new program, Harmonized Living™ A Program to Break Stress Patterns and Create More Time For You! It’s coming September 9, 2024.
When you join the waitlist for this pilot launch, you’ll receive a 40% discount, a 30 minute call with me and the opportunity to help me further refine the program with your insights and comments.
The best part is you’ll learn what’s required to break your stress patterns and learn how to do it in this 3 week program.
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