Are You Stressed Out?

Stress has many symptoms and sometimes we take the symptoms for granted thinking they are "just part" of life.  Any way you look at it, stress over certain incidents, or as a life style, affect our thinking, emotions, behaviors, abilities, and physical health.  Stress is about being under pressure and being tense, and it takes its toll physically and mentally causing worry and anxiety.  Right now there are oppressive conditions of physical, mental, social, and economic distress; so many of us are in a state of adversity of danger, affliction, or need.   Some people thrive under stress and for others it becomes a process, or point, at which a person breaks down. We hear that some stress is good for us, implying it keeps us away from danger as it is the body’s reaction to harmful situations whether real or in our imagination. There are stressors that are more major than other ones:  a death, a move, changes in health, and the break up of a relationship.  When people feel pressure that leads to stress, they often try to find ways to escape from it and most often these escapes are not healthy.  People, places, and things may stress us out, but we also can create our own stress by the way we think and feel. Sometimes the best thing do, if we can’t do anything about a person, place, or thing, is to accept the situation, let go of it, and move on. And, not be so hard on ourselves.  A good remedy is to look for things to be thankful for and express gratitude.  Stress can also be from pain in the past that becomes a trigger in the present. Food for thought is what Alan Cohen wrote this morning as his Daily Inspiration:, “If you fear pain in the future, it is only because you are projecting it from the past. But past pain was due only to beliefs in illusions.  Withdraw that belief and the future becomes new and wondrous.”  In other words, live in the moment as the past over, and you don‘t have to bring it’s pain into the future.  We always have a choice as to what to think.