Stress comes from anxiety, fear, guilt and pressure. It is basically a self-evident inability to cope accompanied by a deteriorating sense of self-worth. The inability to cope with stress directly affects our sense of well being, happiness and feng shui.
It causes headaches, earaches, toothaches, chest pains, palpitations, skin rashes and butterflies in the stomach. Stress makes us hold our breath or breathe unevenly, gives us indigestion and diarrhea or causes constipation. Stress leads to an inability to speak coherently and remember basic facts and a tiredness that is not in proportion to our workload.
Test Yourself
Your journey into self-discovery must take into account the stress level under which you operate. Look within to see what causes you to feel stressed. Consider the following stress-inducing situations and see if anything is causing you anxiety.
- Are you feeling inadequate at work?
- Are you feeling inadequate in your love life?
- Do you compare yourself unfavorably with your peers?
- Are you dissatisfied with your marriage?
- Are you having cash flow problems?
- Are you in danger of losing your job?
- Are you feeling bored?
- Are you desperately afraid of something?
- Have you made a promise you cannot fulfill?
- Do you feel stuck in a stress cycle?
In attempting to dissect the causes of stress in your life, you will come to recognize your level of stress tolerance. Different people have different levels of tolerance. Invariably, the cause of all stress can be reduced to three sources:
- People around you who cause you to become emotionally stressed.
- External events which cause you to become physically stressed.
- Lifestyle-related issues that cause you to be psychologically stressed.
If you examine these three main causes of stress, you will see that they all have to do with the way your mind reacts. The key to dealing successfully with stress starts with pinpointing the root of stress. Everything that causes us to feel stressed comes from the mind.
5 Sure Ways To Cope With Stress
- Firstly, generate a sense of mental calmness. Slow down your reaction to people, events and circumstances that cause you stress.
- Secondly, learn to reverse the negatives in life.
- Thirdly, try some physical relaxation methods. Start with deep breathing exercises. Take up simple yoga, chi kung or a few stretching exercises.
- Fourthly, create powerful and positive word affirmations. Think up short, powerful statements that continually enhance your confidence, build you up and convince you of positive outcomes.
- Fifthly, try mental and creative visualization exercises. Picture yourself happy and relaxed, lying on a bench or going for a walk.
Ten Sure Ways To Relax
- Grip your hands very tightly so that your fingers dig deep into your palms and then release. Feel the release of tension.
- Tighten your forehead, close your eyes and contort your face into an ugly frown. Keep frowning until you can’t go any further and then release. Feel the tension lift instantly.
- Open your mouth as wide as your can and make it into a big O. Then, close it. Feel your facial muscles relax.
- Rub your hands together until they warm up, then place them flat against your face. Close your eyes and feel the relief.
- Place your palms flat against a wall and then push. Keep pushing until you cannot push any more and then release. Feel your arms release.
- Lie on your back and put your feet up. Feel the blood rushing to your head.
- Lie completely flat with your back to the floor and systematically flex and release every part of you. Start at the feet and move up through the leg, to the face and even your scalp. Feel tension drain out of you completely.
- While lying on your back, breathe in through the nostrils slowly and deeply. Feel the abdomen expanding like a balloon. Then slowly breathe out through the mouth and feel the abdomen flattening like a balloon releasing air. Visualize fresh, energizing chi flowing in and visualize stale, stagnant chi flowing out.
- While lying on your back, close your eyes and begin to daydream. Think pleasant thoughts and then visualize a positive outcome to something you are working on at the moment. Smile happily to yourself.
- Stretch your arms out horizontally, perpendicular to ground. Stretch them far out until you cannot stretch anymore. Then relax and feel the body relax.
