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How Do You Handle Stress?

How Do You Handle Stress?

 

Stress. In today’s world, this is not easy to avoid. Unless you are a yogi, Buddhist monk or Hindu holy man, you probably are suffering the effects. Stress takes its toll on our health, our mental stability/resilience/acuity, our eating habits, our fitness, our sleep, our attitudes, our outlook, our patience and our families and partners. Stress comes from financial concerns, jobs, home life, relationships, parental responsibilities, time limitations and what we expect of ourselves.

 

And here’s the thing…it’s all in our heads! It’s not physical. There’s no giant boulder sitting on your shoulders. Stress is completed manufactured in our minds. If we choose not to indulge in stress, it doesn’t exist! I do know people who just let everything roll off their backs. They go blithely through life, trusting that everything will turn out fine and choosing not to bother themselves over what other people say and do to pressure them. Most of these people are a lot happier than the average stressed-out person! And certainly spiritual monks, who have divested themselves of most worldly possessions, have managed to find the path leading toward nirvana.

 

But if you are not quite as spiritually evolved as those euphoric spirits who found ways to totally eliminate stress from their lives, there are ways to at least mitigate it in yours. How do you handle stress today?

 

Do you complain to everyone else around; snap at people; suffer from insomnia; cope with stress-induced physical ailments; bury yourself in more work to avoid what’s happening at home; sleep to escape; drink, do drugs or overeat or become depressed? 

Think about it. What behaviors do you have that are your response to stress? Make a list.

 

Now let’s look at better ways to cope. To start providing more constructive, spiritually enhancing methods to respond to stress.

 

·         Ask the Universe to take some of the load. Make a list of all the things for which you feel responsible or that you must do. Then carve out the biggest, more important ones for yourself. Put the rest on a separate list that you ask the Universe to begin handling for you. Then let go of your worry over those items.

 

·         Meditate or have “quiet time” everyday. Find a time of day when you can carve out 20 minutes and just go inside, let go of everything else and just say, “I am at peace.” See radiant blue light flooding your body from above, and going into each cell. Blue is calming and peaceful. This little oasis should open up a more soothing spiritual space in your mind and your heart.

 

·         Exercise. But you probably already know this is great stress relief and good for your spiritual body as well. Try to make time at least three times a week.

 

·         Recover your sleep. Ask yourself “Is this really worth losing sleep over?” It probably isn’t. First set an intention to go to sleep and to release your concerns to the Universe. And if that doesn’t work, try a bit of self hypnosis. Count down from 5, telling each part of your body to relax from the feet to your head. Then say, “As soon as I exit this hypnotic state, I am going deeply, easily and quickly to sleep.” Repeat this three times. Then count from 1 back up to 5, and close your eyes.   

 

·         Curb self-destructive behavior. Whenever you have an urge to do something addictive, sing! Or do something ridiculous that makes you laugh. Tell a joke. Take a happiness time-out. Smell a rose. Watch the squirrels climb the trees.

Go for a short walk. Play with your puppy.

 

·         Don’t deny yourself vacations and time off. Make sure you take AT LEAST two weeks a year, even if it is scattered over long weekends. You must get a break from unrelieved pressure and responsibilities. Take your birthday off and go celebrate! This is spiritual survival!

 

·         Organize your life. Life becomes more frantic and stressful when you can’t find things easily, when your house is a mess, when your desk is a disaster area. Neatness lends itself to calmness…a feeling of not needing control because all is in order.  

 

·         Find someone to give comfort. You don’t have to be alone. Find someone with compassion who will listen and be sympathetic. That person may not have the answers, but just listening will make you feel better. You can be that person’s confession-buddy, too.

 

·         Be compassionate with yourself! When you are being kind to yourself, it’s easier to be kind to others. If you are being self critical and putting pressure on yourself to live up to unreal expectations, you will likely treat others unkindly. Of if your superiors are pressuring you to perform, you might just take it out on your co-workers or your spouse. Recognize that you are doing the very best that you can and be happy with your contribution. Your company/boss/business doesn’t own your soul. You are just loaning the company some of your workday hours.

 

·         Stop worrying! Fretting never made anything better. If you have a sudden brainstorm that solves a problem or lifts a concern, offer it and move on. Don’t obsess. Don’t distress. Have confidence that you’ll be guided to know the answer or have the solution when you need it. Or maybe it isn’t even your problem to solve!

 

So in closing, create a beautiful domed shield around you of golden light and let the stress bounce right off. Your soul needs that buffer. You have a choice of whether to allow your ego to keep you in a stressed-out state, or let your heart put you in a blissed-out state. Which would you prefer?