Taming the Beast - Article 3 - Dialing down the volume with hypnosis and meditation

Article 3 - Dialing down the volume with hypnosis and meditation

Welcome to article three in my new series - Taming the Beast. 

In the first two articles, we examined the drivers of stress, what makes the problem worse in your life. Then we examined different ways to reduce stress factors in your life. In this article, we examine ways in which we can use hypnosis and guided meditation to directly reduce your levels of stress. We will further examine ways we can replace that stress with relaxation.

Dialing down the alarm

 

The loudest and most troubling element of the stress response is the emotion reaction that often accompanies stressful events. It is like the alarm bell within your mind. Like the claxon on the battleship, the alarm can be deafening. And each time it sounds, your body prepares for battle. 

So, one of the simplest ways to relieve stress is to dial down the volume of the alarm bells. By reducing the volume, it allows your mind to cope a little better. It gives you time to think, to work out the solution without the accompanying fear. 

Here is a little trick I have found useful to bring down the alarm bells in the mind. At a time in which you feel stress, I invite you to do the following:

• While in the stressful situation, picture some kind of a volume knob or dimmer switch.
• Turn the knob ever so slightly and picture your stress level changing. First turn it up, just a little bit. Then turn it down slightly. Each time, picture your stress level changing in response.
• Now dial down the volume a little more and imagine your stress level decreasing even more. Continue this as far as you wish and let the feelings decrease to a more comfortable level.
• Each time you use this little trick, as the feelings decrease, touch a finger to your thumb. This can serve as a reminder to your subconscious that it can reduce the volume of the alarms.

In hypnosis terminology, this technique of touching your fingers together is known as an anchor. When the brain detects such an input, the anchor, it can remind the subconscious of an associated feeling or action. In this case, we are associating the finger touch with reducing the alarm level. This offers us a powerful tool to trigger the healing response, allowing you to reduce the noise level of that moment as needed. 

As you repeat this technique multiple times, your subconscious mind may learn to associate stress relief with that finger-to-the-thumb reminder, turning the stress response to a relaxation response.

As with any learned technique, practice makes perfect. The more you use it, the more effective it becomes until, at some point, it might even become automatic, with cues in the world triggering you to touch your finger to your thumb and dial down the volume on your own.

Turning Stress into Confidence

Another way to relieve stress is to remember on cue, a moment of strength innate within you, and then to replace stress with calm and confidence. Regardless of your present life circumstances, you most likely had some moment in which you succeeded, achieved a goal, felt confident and secure. Even if at the moment, those times might seem few and far between, deep within your mind, you have the ability to recall those positive feelings.

So here is another little trick I’ve learned over my years as a hypnotist:

• Pretend that you are back at a positive moment.
• Take a moment to remember what it was like. Recall the emotions. How did it feel? What it was like to experience that successful time and place?
• Just like in the previous exercise, you can once again touch your finger to your thumb. This will associate your memory of that moment with the finger touch – again using our good friend, the anchor.
• Rub the finger against your thumb slightly and let the intensity of the feeling in your finger tip increase. Allow the feeling of calm and confidence to deepen similarly.
•  Repeat this little trick as often as needed, training your subconscious mind to associate the two, the touch stimulus and the positive emotion.
• Now let’s imagine that we’re back in a stressful situation and put our subconscious anchors to use.
• Picture a moment of stress, perhaps when you had that all-important speech, or perhaps a confrontation with your boss. Or maybe a project deadline was approaching. Whatever the case may be, as you recall the moment you begin to feel the pressure. Stress builds up and you again feel that familiar sensation of concern rising within you.
• At the point in which you begin to feel the mounting stress, again touch your finger to your thumb, suddenly recalling the positive emotions you previously captured.
• Picture the less-confident emotions instantly turning into the positive ones. As if by magic, you can begin to recall the calm, secure, confident feelings you had at your moment(s) of success.
• Again rub the fingertip against your thumb and feel the sense of calm and confidence deepen.

Repeat this trick as often as needed, training your subconscious mind to associate the finger touch and the positive emotion. In doing this, we are reminding the subconscious of the confidence you felt at that earlier positive moment. Yes, you can succeed. You can do it because you did do it.

Taming the beast

The techniques described above are just two of many ways to bring relief from stress. There are many other techniques within meditation and hypnotherapy by which we can tame the beast.  

One such additional way is to find the programming, the associations of the events in your life and the corresponding stress responses you experience. The first step is to ask yourself, does this reaction feel familiar? Have you felt this way before, perhaps sometime earlier in life?

Just as when, during a daydream, you might have lost yourself within your memory. Using hypnosis we can recreate that daydream state and return to the memory of an earlier time in which this association began. We can then use the healing technique above, re-invoking the positive emotion anchor we used earlier, to disconnect the negative associations. In effect, we can turn off the programming. 

By finding the right event in your memory, it may be possible to greatly reduce the stress reaction you initially felt, perhaps even stop it entirely. And when this happens, it is as if someone lifted a heavy weight from your shoulders. Fear turns to freedom. Darkness turns to light.

Often, during my hypnotherapy sessions with clients, when this deep subconscious healing happens, I see the client’s shoulders square up. I see the person sit higher in the chair, taking a deep relaxed breath – maybe for the first time in years. It is a joy to behold, and an even greater joy to experience for yourself.When the client emerges from hypnosis, he/she feels far happier, far more confident. At least for the moment, they have tamed the wild stress beast within, set aside the burden and become free.


Summary and beyond

In this brief series, we have looked the stress monster in the eye. We have discussed ways to help tame the beast and hopefully, to bring peace and calm to your life. In the references at the end are some materials I have found useful in managing stress, both for myself and in helping others.

I invite you to try out one or more of the techniques we examined in this booklet. Use them repeatedly and allow yourself to notice the changes. Like any skill, your results will improve with use, so you can feel better regardless of the level of success the first time you use it. Practice makes perfect.

In addition, I have found hypnosis and hypnotherapy to be a powerful tool for relief and healing. I invite you to look through the information available with these references. If you wish, please feel free to contact myself, another hypnotist/hypnotherapist or any physical/mental health professional. Please also feel free to check out my own website, Explore with Hypnosis,[iv] or view my self-hypnosis CDs and downloads on-line at The Hypnosis Store.[v] Let me know how any of these work for you. 

You can also contact me or call me at the address below:

Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist

Minneapolis, MN

763-257-7334

e-mail: craig@craigrlang.com
www.explore-with-hypnosis.com

I wish you the best of luck, smooth sailing and a safe journey down the path of life.

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Credits and References

[i] Mayo Clinic website on stress management: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-management/MY00435

[ii] Stress Management Test: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-assessment/SR00029

[iii] Resources for stress management:

·         The Secret Language of Feelings A Rational Approach to Emotional Mastery by Calvin D. Banyan (Dec 6, 2002)

·         The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay (May 3, 2008)

·         Stress Management for Dummies by Allen Elkin (Sep 29, 1999)

[iv]  For information on hypnosis in general, including articles on hypnotherapy and stress management, I invite you to visit my website at www.explore-with-hypnosis.com.

[v]  I also invite you to visit The Hypnosis Store at www.hypnosis-storefront.com for the latest in self-hypnosis CDs and MP3 downloads to help you boost self-confidence, reduce stress and improve your quality of life.

Taming, the Beast - Article 2 - How stressed are you and how can you reduce that stress?

Stress assessment – how stressed are you?

Welcome to article 2 of my series - Taming the Beast
This is the second article in a series on stress and fear management. In this article, we look at ways to assess the levels of stress in your life, and begin to examine ways to help you reduce them.

So, how stressed are you? How well do you handle the challenges of daily life, especially the ones you cannot take on directly – corporate politics, troubled relationships, etc. For some people, the difficulties of life are minor. They easily navigate their way between the icebergs. Yet for others, the effects are much greater. 


Empirical questions

Mayo Clinic website lists a series of indicator questions[ii] to help determine the level of stress in your life. The following questions are derived from the Mayo stress inventory:

1.   To what degree and how often does life feel out of control?
2.   To what degree and how often do things seem to go wrong?
3.   To what degree and how often do you feel angry, irritable?
4.   To what degree and how often are you less than confident about your life and your abilities?
5.   To what degree and how often do you have difficulty concentrating due to feelings of 
     stress or worry?

If you answered some or most of these questions with “often” and/or “to a high degree,” then you may be vulnerable to the stress monster.

Stress Management –Taming the beast

What are some ways to manage the stress in your life? The literature on stress management is extensive and you may want to read some of the materials referenced[iii]at the end of this booklet. The following is a partial list, derived from the Mayo Clinic stress management page described earlier:

•         Better sleep
•         Better food
•         Less caffeine
•         Changes in lifestyle & Circumstances
•         Healing your present relationships
•         Changing jobs
•         Changing social environment
•         Changes in mental/emotional outlook
•         Meditation and Mindfulness
•         Trusting a friend
•         Counseling

The references at the end of this booklet provide resources to help with stress management. All of these are good suggestions and each could be vital to your well being. In addition, the techniques described in the rest of this series can be an excellent adjunct to this common-sense list.

Thoughts, Feelings and your health

Who or what are the sources of stress in your life? Is it a coworker? Is it a particular circumstance? When you think back on stressful events in your life, is there a pattern to these events? When they occur, is there a sense of familiarity? Have similar things happened before?

There are many potential stress drivers in our everyday world. We live in a fast-paced society. We deal with many demands on our time, many moments of criticism, many roadblocks and frustrations. Why do some seem to cope with stressful influences easily, while others can be quickly drawn into the fight or flight response?

Each of us has our own unique vulnerabilities, our own internal hot buttons based upon our memories, knowledge, beliefs, past experiences, etc. Our beliefs form a lens through which we see the world. For some, this filter may be such that negative influences are limited and reactions to them are low key and collected. For others, the filter may allow too many stressful influences, and too strong a reaction.

When you hear someone speak to you does your mind directly hear the words spoken from the other person? Or is there something in between, layers of interpretation and filtering? Obviously, the latter is the case. 

When you hear someone speak and observe their actions, your senses perceive data directly from the world. However, the conscious mind can process only a limited amount of information. Your mind needs to provide a high degree of filtering and pattern recognition before itcan understand and act on the information from the outside world. Thus, a large amount of interpretation goes on between your senses and the processes within your mind.

Each bit of information is processed and recognized according to our views and understanding of the world, our memories, beliefs and prejudices. The past becomes your template for viewing the present and anticipating the future.

What happens within your mind when your boss walks into your cubicle and asks you why the project is behind schedule? Perhaps, memories from years before come roaring back. While you might hear him (or her) asking about the schedule status, your memory is reminding you of that case many years before, of a man yelling at you, threatening to fire you. So what will your reaction be? In this case, perhaps fear and anger. 

If your past experiences were painful, then to the threat-recognition wiring in the back of your brain, the boss might as well be a saber-toothed tiger. Even if the boss never opened his mouth, even if he just came in to tell you that tomorrow’s meeting will be in conference room B, the first instinct might be to activate the fight or flight response. Your interpretations are based upon the expectations, formed from your experiences.

When you perceive something in the outside world,spoken words, actions, writing on a page, the information enters through your senses and travels to the visual or auditory processing centers in your brain. The sensory centers within your brain decode the information, sending their interpretations on for higher processing. Thoughts and emotions result, and your mind generates words and actions in response.

Your brain interprets the raw data from the outside world. Interpretations give rise to thoughts and feelings, which in turn give rise to intentions and then actions. We in turn perceive our actions as well as their results in the outside world, repeating the cycle. If events in the world are seen as threats, then thoughts and emotions of fear and anger may be the result, initiating the stress response and engaging the fight-or-flight instinct. We roll up our sleeves and prepare to fight – or to get the heck outof there.

So, if you are to change your life to reduce the continuing influence of stressful thoughts and beliefs, and resulting continuous fight or flight responses, you somehow need to break the cycle, alter the programming by which you interpret outside world events. You need to change your life by changing your mind.

Changing beliefs, the mind-body connection

The human mind is probably one of the most complex systems that ever existed. It forms the very essence of who we are. It is the site and sum of our waking thoughts. It is also the location of the processes in our lives, some of which you are aware, but most occurring out of view. Yet in all cases, those hidden thoughts and feelings affect how your conscious mind functions. Thus, it is necessary to access the subconscious mind to correct non-helpful influences.

As information flows into the brain, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind both process it, influencing your thoughts and feelings. Perceptions enter your conscious mind and pass through a barrier, called the critical faculty, into the subconscious.

What is the critical faculty? It is the capability of the mind to reject or control which information you believe. It is disbelief on hearing something that disagrees with what you know to be true. It is your sense of control, knowing where you are and what’s going on. It protects the subconscious mind from the vast universe of information that may be untrue or even harmful.

The critical faculty is that vital shield protecting the subconscious. Yet as part of the finite conscious mind, it has a very limited ability to process information. It filters and rejects much of what you perceive – including any efforts we may undertake for counseling or healing. Yet to access and correct those processes in the subconscious, we need to get around this barrier, to work directly with the subconscious, focusing in on the areas of the mind that need changing or healing. We call this direct interaction with the subconscious hypnosis.


A brief look at hypnosis

What is Hypnosis? Hypnosis is both an everyday occurrence and a profound mental gift.      

• Perhaps you have gotten lost in a good book and completely forgotten what time it was.That’s hypnosis.   
•  Perhaps someone suggested to you that by doing some minor activity, you might reduce some type of discomfort – you tried it and it worked. That’s hypnosis.
• Perhaps you found yourself daydreaming while stuck in a boring meeting – losing yourself in your memory or imagination. That’s hypnosis.

Hypnosis is merely the suspension of one’s own disbelief, along with the willingness to think selectively on that which you desire to focus. Although simple, this gift can offer us tremendous tools for personal wellness. It allows us to work directly with the subconscious mind to quickly resolve the issues that bring vulnerability to stressful influences.

Take a moment to remember a time when you felt one of these interesting little events happen. Maybe you noticed an idea pop into your thoughts, or maybe a name you had been trying to recall for some time. It felt kind of good, didn’t it? Maybe you noticed that time passed a little faster. And last but not least, maybe you noticed your level of stress had decreased a bit.


Hypnosis and Meditation

We have all heard of meditation. I will bet that most readers of this blog have done at least some meditation, either through yoga, mindfulness, TM, or some other form. So, what is hypnosis, and how is it different from meditation?

The similarities/differences between hypnosis and meditation depend upon who you ask. In the meditation world, especially in the purest eastern traditions, hypnosis and meditation are very different. While in the world of the hypnotist and in the world of the neuroscientist, they are probably about the same.

The only difference, in my view, is that while meditation exists in its own right, hypnosis is goal directed. We use hypnosis to allow the subconscious to guide us in whatever work, healing or exploration we we wish to do. 

While some may consider that hypnosis entails giving up control to the hypnotist, in reality, your mind is always in control. There is no more yielding of your control than you would experience when reading a book, watching a movie or daydreaming.

On the other hand, meditation simply is - it is the discipline of quieting the mind, smoothing the waters and becoming more attuned to your higher self. There are many forms of meditation, many traditions and many different experiences. It is a long term process, yet each moment of meditation is simply a moment of peace. There is no goal, no purpose. It simply is...

In my own experience, I find that the experience of hypnosis and the experience of meditation are quite similar. Both entail going inside of my own being. Both entail similar physical sensations. Yet in the case of meditation, I am not working on a goal-directed activity. I am simply going into an inner meditative state - as if in non-purposeful hypnosis.

Guided Meditation

What, then, is guided meditation? Is it meditation or is it hypnosis? 
My answer is that it is both. Like meditation, it exists in its own right. It is an inward journey, an exploration based upon guidance or instructions. In guided meditation, you allow a leader or instructor to guide you into a meditative state.

Arguably, guided meditation is quite similar to hypnosis - and in some ways, it is the same thing. The only difference is that guided meditation is not interactive. The meditator is not interacting with a hypnotist or guide but merely using the words of the guide as a focus for meditation, a set of instructions or helpful keywords for going more deeply within. For some, listening to a self-hypnosis recording is nearly the same experience. It is the same experience of following instructions of a guide, and allowing the process to take you within.

In the ultimate case, hypnosis is fully goal directed. Hypnosis such as one would experience in a hypnotherapist's studio/office, is interactive. The hypnotist and the client are in full interaction, even as the client is in a hypno-meditative state. While the mental/neurological process is arguably the same in hypnosis as in meditation, the goal-directed process is very different. Yet the process of going within, accessing the subconscious allows hypnosis to be an effective tool in subconscious healing.

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

What is hypnotherapy? Hypnotherapy is simply the process by which we use hypnosis tohelp address issues within the subconscious mind. It is using hypnosis to improve your life.

There are many ways hypnotherapy can help reduce your reaction to life stresses.Among them is the ability to help the mind by modifying your internal programming in response to stress. Anoter way is to dial down the volume of the alarms that drive the fight-or-flight response.


Using Hypnosis to reduce stress

Take a moment to again let your mind go inward. Let your mind picture a time when you felt confident and relaxed. Allow yourself to be in that time and place. Experience the pleasant emotions that arose within that moment. 

Now allow yourself to return to the present. You can even let yourself be in a moderately stressful moment. Yet as you do, I invite you to again recall that instant of peace you felt a moment before. See if you can recall it with greater ease, the more you try it.

I invite you to experiment a little bit, to play with this technique and see what you can make it do. In the next article, we will look at more ways to invoke and deepen the experience, and explore other means of reducing stress while enhancing the relaxing response you felt as you remembered that peaceful moment.

Feel free to experiment, explore, relax and enjoy.
See you next time... 

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Credits and References

[i] Mayo Clinic website on stress management: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-management/MY00435

[ii]Stress Management Test: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-assessment/SR00029

[iii] Resources for stress management:

·        The Secret Language of Feelings ARational Approach to Emotional Mastery by Calvin D. Banyan (Dec 6, 2002)

·        The Relaxation and StressReduction Workbook (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay (May 3, 2008)

·        Stress Management for Dummiesby Allen Elkin (Sep 29, 1999)

[iv]  For informationon hypnosis in general, including articles on hypnotherapy and stress management, I invite you to visit my website at www.explore-with-hypnosis.com.

[v] I also invite you to visit The Hypnosis Store at www.hypnosis-storefront.com for the latest in self-hypnosis CDs and MP3 downloads to help you boost self-confidence,reduce stress and improve your quality of life.

Taming the Beast - Article 1 - stress and life

Welcome to my new series, Taming the Beast, a series of articles I'm writing on stress and fear management. The first articles in the series will be excerpts from my upcoming booklet, Taming the Beast, the Little Book of Stress Management. Follow along as we look at ways to make your life a little smoother, calmer and more relaxed.

I hope you enjoy my new creation.
Sincerely,
- Craig

====================================

Article 1  - stress and  life 

I can still remember as if it were yesterday, the emotions from a day many years ago. On that day, my boss walked into my cubicle and threatened me. His voice still rings in my ears, yelling at me about how our project was behind schedule. With painful clarity, I can still see the e-mail memo he sent me later that day, with copies to the director of engineering and the company human resources office. It contained the following words in boldface font: 

Failure to deliver this project on time will result in disciplinary action, including possible termination.

There’s nothing like a little negative reinforcement to darken one’s day. Deadlines and threats, tensions lasted for weeks. The very thought of going in to work made me feel ill. I realized then, as never before, the power of stress to affect one’s physical and mental health.

We’ve all had those moments, those days from Hell.

• Your exam is in two days, and you are nowhere near prepared.
• Your boss is standing in your office, asking you for the quarterly sales report.
• Your marketing plan is due tomorrow morning and you still don’t have the important numbers for page 2.
• Your in laws are coming to visit – tomorrow!!!

In each case, or in whatever your situation may be, you can feel the tension build. Images pile up in your brain – images of failure, images of the awful things that could happen if…

As raging stress hormones course through your body, your chest tightens. Your face feels hot. You want to snap your pencil in half - or maybe punch someone. They call it Stress, and it can make you ill. If left unchecked, stress can kill you.

In this article series, I hope you will find some simple tools to help reduce the stress in your life. Here, we will discuss some of the drivers of stress – what causes it, what aggravates it and what can help you come to grips with those factors in your life causing you the greatest troubles.

Read on, and use this knowledge to help reduce the stress in your life today.

What is Stress, the Nature of the Beast

What is the stress monster? How does it live? Where does it feed? According to the Mayo Clinic website on stress management[i], “Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the ever-increasing demands of life.” 

Stress is a fundamental survival tool of the human mind/body. It helps us fight or flee. It saves us from monsters, saber tooth tigers, muggers during the night and politicians during the day. It is an automatic response, occurring when the mind detects what it decides may be a threat.  

The Fight or Flight Response

What happens when that mugger appears at the opposite end of a dark alley? The human body is an amazing machine, programmed for survival. When a threat appears, when that alarm goes off, somewhere within the inner brain, a powerful cascade of events takes place. The result,a host of resources are mobilized. Human becomes superhuman.

Imagine for a moment, the human body as analogous to a naval vessel - a battleship, submarine or destroyer. Under normal circumstances, life is routine. Regular activities such as maintenance, navigation, daily life and keeping watch occupy the day. Life is calm and routine. Then, suddenly the enemy is detected.A ship,aircraft or submarine appears on the radar. Battle Stations! Routine is forgotten as everyone scrambles to their posts, alert and ready to fight. 

Now let’s imagine the ship is your body, and the enemy is some threat, a saber tooth tiger, or worse yet, the boss in your cubicle. Danger, Danger…
When the inner battle stations sound, within the brain and endocrine system, a complex cascade of events occurs. The body readies itself to confront the danger – either by fighting or escaping.

Like the radar on the ship, your brain continuously monitors your surroundings,watching for threats. Fine-tuned over millions of years to identify dangers in the environment, it is alert and does its job well. It detects something. Within the most primitive inner centers of your brain, your hypothalamus receives signals from the brain’s sensory areas and sounds the warning. The alarm goes out. Your brain stem recruits your sympathetic nervous system, the wiring within your brain and body that increases activity.

On the ship, the crew scrambles to their stations in preparation, alert and ready. Just like aboard the ship, within your body, the scramble begins. A cascade of electrochemical reactions occurs, the fight-or-flight response. Hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline flood into your system. They shut down digestion, focus your attention on the threat, divert blood flow to your muscles and promote the rapid release of energy. Any unnecessary activity is set aside as you prepare for battle


Like that ship confronting the enemy, your body is now at battle stations. Engines are at full speed, watertight doors closed and guns locked on target. You are ready to do battle - or to get away as fast as you can. Either way, your only goal is to fight and survive. 


Stresses, Ancient and Modern 

Unlike prehistoric times, we have very few saber-toothed tigers stalking us today. While there are muggers in dark alleys, thankfully they are rare. Yet the human nervous system is still active, still ready for battle at a moment’s notice. It takes very little to activate the responses needed to take us to red alert. And more often than not, for the cues in the present day environment – those apparent threats such as the boss walking into your office – battle is not the answer.  


Consequences of long-term Stress

As schedule pressure mounts, as the boss walks into your cubicle, as an argument arises during a meeting, it may feel as if that saber-toothed tiger is just outside your door. During your speech to senior management, it is probably not appropriate to hoist a spear and prepare for a battle (much as you might like to). Your actions need to be more subtle, more refined. You need the higher centers of judgment within your brain – your neo-cortex, rather than your more primitive limbic (emotional) system. This is a time for reason and calm, not for battle.  

Stress Drivers in your life

What can happen when we remain at battle stations for too long? How does constant battle-readiness affect the mind, the body and the soul? Like the ship at battle stations, being alert for too long can be exhausting. While guns are at the ready, food is not being prepared. Maintenance is not being done. And worst of all, you are not at rest. You expend energy at a tremendous rate and as time goes on, fatigue sets in. Your mind and body become battle weary.

The mayo clinic site on stress management describes multiple symptoms, signs that suggest you are undergoing long-term stress:

• Headaches,
• Digestive issues,
• Diffuse pain,
• Decreased sex drive,
• Decreased attention span,
• Irritability and quickness to anger,
• More frequent moments of sadness,depression,
• Weight gain or loss,
• Constant worry

Battle is costly. It takes a lot of energy to be ready for a fight. The ship’s crew feels the strain. Guns wear out. Fuel and ammunition run low. Similarly, left unchecked,the consequences of long-term stress on the body can be severe. The most immediate of these are cardiovascular – high blood pressure, strain on the heart and cardiovascular system, general health degradation, and the list goes on. It’s not necessary to describe them here, save to warn you that stress reduction is necessary for your health. If you’re not in battle, you don’t need battle stations.

So, what are some of the things in life that make your brain want to go to battle stations?

Home and Family

What is life like when you get home from work? Are you welcomed with open arms and a kiss at the door? Do pets and children run to the door to meet you? Or are you confronted with bills, problems and arguments? Is home a safe place for you or is it another battlefield?

Relationships

How healthy are your relationships? Do the people in your life support you? Does talking with them, being with them make you feel better? Or do you feel drained, sad, or angry after being with them?

Work
 
Probably the biggest driver of stress in life is your work environment. Schedules, performance pressure, competition, struggles to meet the expectations of your peers and those above you on the company food chain – all present those familiar environmental cues to that primitive nucleus of nerve cells at the stem of your brain. You are in danger. The tiger is just outside your office door.
 

Conclusion

So, now that we have considered some of the biggest drivers, you might take a moment to ask what role each/any of these play in your own life. What elements of your life bring you the most stress? When do you feel the signs and symptoms described above? And most of all, what can you do about them?

In upcoming articles, we will look at ways to secure from battle stations, to relax and let the mind return to a peaceful, resting state. Stay tuned as we look at new ways to bring the stress monster to heel. 

I invite you to take a moment to let the ship that is your body sail on a smooth sea with nothing but clear sky and following winds to guide you. See you next time....

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Credits and References

[i] Mayo Clinic website on stress management: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-management/MY00435

[ii] Stress Management Test: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-assessment/SR00029

[iii] Resources for stress management:

·        The Secret Language of Feelings, A Rational Approach to Emotional Mastery by Calvin D. Banyan (Dec 6, 2002)

·        The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay (May 3, 2008)

·        Stress Management for Dummies byAllen Elkin (Sep 29, 1999)