Energetic Approaches to Stress:Your Personal Healthcare System
As we spoke about yesterday on our radio show, stress is anything that causes you to adapt…and it is a fact of life!
( Listen to recorded show here: http://www.divatoolbox.com/diva-toolbox-radio-/hosts/2007-peg-donahue-and-karen-kallie-living-energy.html)
However, just because it is a fact of life does not mean that we are powerless over it. There are many ways that we can address the stresses of life. We can eliminate some, reduce others and manage the rest in a healthy way!
Positive Stress
There are changes in our lives that are fun, exciting and highly satisfying. These changes do require us to adapt but generally are not damaging to our mind, body and spirits. Still it is wise to be aware and care for yourself when you are going through major life changes as they can still impact you in ways that stretch or strain your energy.
Negative Stress
This is the stress that most are referring to when speaking about stress. Negative stress has ramifications mentally, emotionally, physically and behaviorally. It is important to view your particular response to stress so that you can appropriately address your symptoms. For instance if your typical response to stress is to become physically constricted and tight with lots of muscular tension, then it is important for you to have techniques that address that type of reaction. A person who is more cognitive or emotional in their reactions needs other methods that more specifically address their needs.
It is important to address stress from the inside out
We generally may be aware of the external signs and symptoms of stress…the results. But what we are not unaware of is the multitude of internal changes that occur as our natural fight/flight response is triggered by external situations…or our interpretations of them. Since most of our stresses are psychological and not physical, our natural balancing response does not kick in after a stress is over. The result is that in effect we have flipped a switch ON and it remains on silently wearing us away from the inside out. Over time not only do our state of mind, emotional balance, performance and relationships suffer from this unremedied state, but our health also breaks down. The good news is that there is a lot you can do that is simple and enjoyable to address the stress in your life and not have it eat away at you, your health or your life.
Unnecessary Stress
This is the stress that you can eliminate or significantly reduce. You can look at your schedule, how you spend your time and with whom and make changes that bring more sanity and peace to your world. There may aspects of this elimination process that feel difficult or awkward but what is your life and your health worth?
Necessary Stress
This is the stress that you cannot or do not want to eliminate from your life. You must manage it through changing your response to it. The inner work referred to earlier is helpful in all areas relating to stress, but it is here that it is the most crucial.
What do I mean by inner work? Certainly taking a look at your beliefs, perceptions, emotional style, and cognitive patterns and working to change them to be more healthy and supportive can be helpful. But the really effective antidote for stress lies in techniques such as deep relaxation, energy work and meditation. Introducing a regular practice that includes these methods has a profound effect on erasing the effects of the fight/flight response, building resiliency and enhancing health. These methods also help bring clarity of mind and peace to the emotions that can help to shift other aspects of your being to help you deal with the stress of life in a healthy way.
If you travel to the homepage on www.livingenergyworks.com, you can sample a 9 minute deep relaxation to get an idea of how it feels to learn to releae your stress.
We also offer a free email series that helps you walk through your energy system and look at the energy of mind/body/spirit and how you can work holistically to bring your system into balance to improve all facets of your life including stress!
This series includes a weekly email with information about a specific chakra and how it affects your life. There is a link in each email that leads you to more information, an online journal where you will find questions to personalize the information for you and a recorded relaxation that helps to balance that particular chakra.
~Chakras Unplugged ~ Click here to sign up for Chakras Unplugged our FREE email program
