29 Apr Live a stress free life
Over 15 million work days were lost to stress related issues between 2017 and 2018 in the UK. With stress, anxiety and depression continuing to rise it highlights that the current therapeutics are not working.
If we look at the existing flawed stress management model that is widely used we can understand how we have arrived at this point. One of the two main pieces of ‘research’ in this field was carried out by two friends Yerkes and Dodson in 1908 involving shocking sleeping rats in a maze with electricity. This ‘Law’ has for over 100 years led people to believe that if you put just the right amount of pressure on someone it will lead them to work more efficiently and effectively. That some stress is good for you. Unfortunately this very unscientific study did not consider looking at how the rats might have responded when they were treated well and were stress free, being in a state of positive arousal rather than negative!
The other piece of defective research into stress was carried out in the 1930’s by Hans Selye Again involving rats placed into very stressful situations involving intense exercise, starvation, heat extremes etc. Selye concluded from these experiments that stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand. In the 1940’s a Dr John W. Mason challenged Selye’s findings with more experiments and found that the rats were stressed out because they were upset rather than it being a nonspecific response. Dr Mason wrote some excellent articles challenging why a physiological theory didn’t work and a psychological theory of stress did. Basically it’s not what happens to us it is how we perceive it. It’s your thoughts about what is happening to you, which then change your feelings about the perceived issue. What is a travesty is that Dr Mason’s research were ignored and these archaic experiments by Selye and Yerkes and Dodson are set into law and the cliché ‘some stress is good for you’ cliché.
You will find that the vast majority of stress management protocols are underpinned by these false beliefs.
What we need to understand is that being chased by the sabre tooth tiger did not trigger a fight or flight response, it was the thoughts about the tiger that triggered the response. Which is quite different. It is not your boss that is causing your stress response it’s your thoughts about your boss that are doing it. The great thing is that they are your thoughts and you can change them! You have more control than you thought you did.
Our thoughts control and dictate our feelings
Our feelings control and dictate our actions
Our actions control and dictate our events
One of the rules of the mind is that it responds to the words you say and the picture you make in your head. These thoughts and feelings affect every one of the trillions of cells in your body. Our body is listening to everything you say. We know this because if we start thinking those repetitive negative thoughts it will affect our breathing, we start shaking, our stomach starts churning, our heart starts racing or we become short tempered, can’t sleep. We become overwhelmed emotionally, mentally and physically, creating havoc in our lives.
We can see as our stress, anxiety and depression levels continue to rise along with gp prescriptions and drug dependency. We need to change our approach. The debilitating stress levels affect every area of our lives, our sleep patterns, work, relationships, what we do with our lives and the diseases that it manifests. Research suggests that at least 75-90% of medical visits are stress related.
When we are in a stress induced state it shuts down our immune system as we are put into a hyper vigilant state and because this happens so often in our fear based society we can get stuck there making it harder to switch off and relax.
There are no positive benefits to stress. We need to change this false information that is being perpetuated by doctors, scientists and psychologists, books, the media, courses etc.
We can start this change by questioning our thoughts. Write them down if that helps. Ask yourself is this really true? Does this belief improve my life? Change that negative self-talk to positive, empowering uplifting loving kind self-talk where you are praising yourself. If you continue to do this you will notice the positive changes and benefits.
Meditation is another great way to change your state, with so many amazing benefits it should be something that we all practice regularly. If you have struggled with trying to meditate in the past here is a different way to reach a meditative state invented by Dawson Church, why not try Eco meditation.
Another very powerful way of helping you to live a stress free life is to do something that uplifts you, a walk in the countryside, spending time with people you love, singing, and exercise, whatever makes you feel good and increases your energy.
If you would like to let go of the stress and anxiety in your life and make some dynamic changes quickly and safely and live a more empowered, positive and happier life please get in touch.
