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A few words about stress
by jon tubmen.
My firm belief is that most ailments stem from imbalances in the mind and body, caused by stress, tension, and anxiety. These all exist in our everyday lives, and if their effects are not released, they build up and have a lasting effect on our wellbeing.
Life is accompanied by lots of different stresses – getting threatening letters about unpaid bills, parking a car, making your way through crowds, competing with other people for work, etc.
If you read the newspapers or listen to or watch radio or TV news you can’t avoid hearing bad news - disasters, the economy, assaults, murders, robbery. This all creates anxiety, which may turn into a high state of tension when you are out and about – a continuous state of ‘fight or flight’.
Constantly anticipating attack, verbally or physically, can cause us to harden our attitudes, to be unwilling to engage people with whom we come into contact, and to be continually on the defensive. The effort involved in putting up barriers is very tiring and can lead to a tightening up of our neck, shoulder and face muscles, giving us rounded shoulders, back problems, and a permanent frown, all of which usually have the effect of making us look bad-tempered and/or vulnerable. Thus we may inadvertently be inviting attack..
Once this has happened the cycle repeats itself, and we withdraw further from the moment and become isolated from the rest of society, becoming afraid of life. We may even resort to aggressive responses to certain situations, getting us further into trouble.
We need mechanisms to deal with the underlying stresses, which will take away our muscular tension, our emotional anxieties, improve our posture and generally make us feel better about ourselves – more confident and less likely to find ourselves involved in confrontations – and have an easier path through life.
If you don’t value yourself then this may be apparent to others. You are not necessarily a bad person if someone swears at you for getting in their way, for example – that is their problem. If you have examined yourself and you know that you are not selfish and nasty, then you can use this knowledge for your benefit. There is really no need to feel bad about yourself.
However, if you can identify aspects of yourself that are overly selfish or aggressive, you can do something to remedy them, and afterwards the quality of your life will undoubtedly improve.
Training yourself to understand this is one way to overcome knocks to your self esteem, and remain positive in the face of difficulties. Being in a relaxed state is the key to good health and co-existence with others. Also, when we look happy, other people respond to us in a positive way.
If we have a method for dealing with all the assaults on our confidence and self-esteem, without taking them personally and believing them, their impact will soon be marginal, and eventually non-existent.
Another aspect of stress is physical. People live their lives full of stress and anxiety, but aren’t always aware that they are doing so, and that their body is also being affected. Too much stress puts the immune system under stress, which can bring about dis-ease by causing imbalances in the body.
There are some really easy ways to combat almost all the stress in your life...
1. Exercise. Regular exercise helps you release any pent-up tensions and anxieties. It also helps with your posture and relaxes any tight muscles. You also release chemicals into your bloodstream giving you a natural high. You feel better physicaly and mentally and your self esteem improves. You become more confident and you can deal with situations better and you're less likely to find yourself in confrontational situations. And if you you look happy, other people will respond to you in a more positive way.
2. A bit of Psychology. Have a good honest look at yourself. Try to see where you seem to be overly aggressive or selfish and tone them down as much as you can. But above all value yourself. You'll never be able to rid the world of bad people but by understanding why people behave the way they do can help you realise that it is they that have a problem and not you. They don't know you so why should their lack of self esteem and aggression affect you and bring you down to their level?
3. Forgiveness. Try to forgive people who have in some way annoyed you. Not necessarily for any religious 'getting into heaven' reason but purely for your own sanity and health. Hatred is very counter productive, as you will expend so much energy in hating someone that you will end up doing yourself more damage than their thoughtless behaviour could possibly have done.
4. Random Acts of Kindness. Do something good for someone you know or a complete stranger once a day or once a week and see how good it makes you both feel. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant, just something simple yet thoughtful that makes a difference.
5. Relaxation. Read a book, go for a walk, watch a film and duck out of the rat race for a while. You could also try some meditation, or...
6. Listen to music. Music affects the way you feel and thus invariably your health. There is a lot of research which shows us that music can help us heal by lifting our spirits in times of stress or illness. The therepeutic effects of music that you enjoy are hard to ignore.
And finally, is there such a thing as good stress?
edited 13.8.2003
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wellbeing index
meditation
posture
productions limited 2001-2008