6 Ways to Reduce Stress That You May Not Have Considered
Our small, insidious daily habits are often the ones that rob us of energy and lead to pain and illness.
Following is a link to a MindBodyGreen article on stress and how small changes can make life more….liveable.
We all know about multi-tasking. We’re all sooo busy. Nowadays there’s too much to get done with never enough time.
In my work dealing with fatigue, pain and chronic illnesses such as IBS, CFS, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, Depression etc. I regularly see how damaging this pattern of increasing busyness and the resultant stress it creates, is to our health.
It is accepted among the scientific community that most of the attitudes we carry through our lives are laid out or set by the age of 8-10. Some of these attitudes serve us, and some of them limit us, or take from us – these are the self limiting patterns. Unless we identify them and break them, they define our lives. What makes it difficult is that they are not easy to identify as they become sub-conscious and habitual by the time we hit our teens. So, essentially our adult lives are defined by patterns set up when we were children and were not capable of thinking as rationally as we do now.
I very often see a pattern set up that involves a ‘sub-conscious relationship between stress and safety’, meaning we habitually and unconsciously make ourselves busy in order to stay ‘safe’.
To elaborate, a young child who is threatened or experiences some pain (physical or emotional) is likely to think, “I don’t ever want to experience this again”. Lacking the rational ability to look at this event objectively, the child then feels that the only way to be safe from feeling this way again is to be ‘on guard’ all of the time – meaning they they stay in fight or flight responsiveness. Once habituated this plays out in adulthood with us being perpetually busy to stay ‘on guard’ and safe – although, in adulthood, it is so habitual that we have no idea that this is why we are alwasy so busy. This pattern keeps us busy to stay safe. It is evident in a very large percentage of us.
And it actually sends a message to our instinctive, pre-thought emotional brain that we are not worthy of balance.
Unfortunately we are the ones that lose as it means that we perpetually internalise stress sending our bodies in overdrive and providing the perfect breeding ground for chronic illness. And this includes more niggly day to day complaints such as putting on weight. We get so busy, we never have time to prepare the ideal food or prioritise ourselves and do regular exercise.
So why not multi-task? We get more done in less time. Right? Surely that will make us less busy?
Wrong. Research has suggested that multi-tasking does not work – it decreases productivity by up to 40% and can shrink your brain and lower your IQ.
The linked article suggests 6 single tasking techniques that will reduce the stress we internalise and help us break free of this pattern.
I particularly like point number 6.
“Carve out regular quiet time.
In a noisy world with 24/7 news, you’re bombarded by distractions as, unfortunately, your brain becomes trained to avoid quiet reflection.
So next time you’re “busy” surfing the Web, ask yourself if you’re really just sidestepping solitude or introspection. And if that’s the case, resist that avoidance, and carve out a little time each day to be left alone with your thoughts.”
Are you guilty of this?
I certainly am. So often we find distractions such as social media, surfing the net, TV etc. etc. rather than selecting quality quiet time or time spent doing things we love. These are the things that reduce the stress load that we internalise and send a message to our emotional brain that we are worthy – that we are perfect as we are right now.
NOTHING MORE TO DO. NOTHING MORE TO BE.