Hey Stress! Man up or Fall Back!
The Global Organization for Stress, GoStress.com, cites teenagers must learn to ease stress or face dire consequences and that 80% of American workers experience stress and many of these adults require aid to grasp how to ease stress too. These are just two bullets points from a grave fact sheet on stress! Considering the implications here, if more adults don't learn healthy ways of living and unlearn the habits that cause destruction on the mind, the life of the individual body and the collective body will continue to regress backwards! According to the CDC, the number one cause of death is heart disease. There is an abundance of fault finding and it's prevalence on the heart. The deterioration of the physical and energetic properties of heart health needs to be in the forefront of everyone's mind. To be clear, we need an upgrade- now! With a happy AND healthy heart, many of the CDC's top 10 causes of death can be greatly reduced. See the factsheet, here.
In work and life we take on too many demands. For the obvious similarity in sound, I like to call these things demons- demons on demand. So how do you actually cast out a demon? You take away its importance. Yep, I just said that! If you take away it's importance, you aren't paying as much, if any, attention to it as you once were. When you stop giving it all that attention, it will slowly fade out of existence or you will finally be open to a fitting solution. Until your head is out of it or you are more solution focused, that demon will be there slowly draining the life out of you in every way you can imagine! Where you spend your time thinking is a personal investment of thought, and just like in the banking world, in the world of energy there is a return yielded. That return is abundance and has a specific measurement of weight. How it is manifested in your life is entirely up to your decisions- the rooms your thoughts enter. How diversified is your investment portfolio? Is your abundance in weight gain, acne, headaches, shouldering too many responsibilities, pain in the necks, busy bodies, set in your own ways, constant stick in the mud, giving others a cold shoulder, having a chip on your shoulder, low back pain, leg cramps, or being inundated with a sense of impending doom in the form of diagnosis or criticism? Seriously, I can keep going- lol. And see that's where you begin to cause the dissipation of this apparition- by learning to laugh at yourself- not other's, but yourself. Laughing at yourself causes you to exhale, letting it go, surrendering. It seems so childlike, but perhaps before we can really learn how to grow up here, we must first learn to be like children.
Children are not plagued with adult problems, until they are surrounded by adults that incessantly discuss and worry over problems. Think about that! If all children hear are stories of impending doom, they will grow up telling stories of impending doom. As adults, we think we are solving problems. But we are not. The evidence is there. Life expectancy is regressing, folks! It's time to wake up and tackle the demands of stress. It's time to man up and focus on solutions or fall back and let those with more experience tackling stress take the lead.
As a licensed massage therapist, empath, and adult with sometimes too many things on my plate, I know all too well what kind of energy people are holding and what they dump on my table. The benefits of massage are numerous, and along with massage therapy, there are countless ways to seek aid in reducing stress. But along with the excuses of, "I can't afford it financially," or "I don't have the time," there are many who are uncomfortable being touched by strangers and loved ones, alike. This discomfort with touch isn't always not wanting to be touched but not knowing how to receive touch, which some, who are in a vulnerable position, may mistake as or desire in an inappropriate manner. When we forget to empathize with others, the walls around our heart are erected. And with these walls, we are prisoners inside our own minds and bodies. Seeing a much bigger picture and deeper need for commonality, in matters of the heart, I implore you to change something. As many experts as there are in allopathic and homeopathic medicine, integrative wellness, and holistic modalities, all those committed to getting better need to see how third party involvement fails. It is not these third party service providers who lack integrity. It is you! It is me! The individual must be held responsible. And we are. When we experience sickness and loss, we are being held responsible for our thoughts, our building blocks of life. If this seems like worlds away in your thinking, shift perspective. While you might have one major ailment or woe in your life, I bet that is not the only one. It started with that one awful diagnosis or predicament, and before you knew it, there was something else, a family crisis, a terrible break-up with a loved one, and so on. And then you find yourself working in a place that does not appreciate you. We all live this story until we start commanding our presence.
What kind of thoughts do you keep? To shift it, start thinking on what you want. You cannot get better without investing your thoughts there. To shift, intend differently. Raphailia Michaels says, "Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it’s a simple concept in theory, it’s something we very often overlook. Good self-care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety. It’s also key to a good relationship with oneself and others." See full article- What Self-Care is- And What It Isn't, here. Self-care isn't forced. Self-care is doing things that give your mind and body recharge. Don't fool yourself into believing that activities that break down the body with overindulgence is recharging you. Enjoying yourself is one thing, but if the body begins to testify of it's deterioration from overindulgence, well, it's time to have a one on one honest conversation. Seeing the suffering of others, not the widespread collective, but the everyday individual inspired me to have honest conversations with myself about my own self-care and how I can better inform others of this.
I'll be honest, I don't like having to work out. I don't enjoy going to the gym! It seems forceful, which is not self-care. The body needs exercise, and there are plenty of ways to get the exercise it needs that don't feel forced and are enjoyable. Everyone is different, but you know what you like and what you don't like. Work with that. Get creative. Are you suffering with stiff neck and that painful spot between the shoulder blades? Let me guess, you probably often feel ignored too? Well, expecting others to hear you while ignoring your own body, because, yes it is talking to you, is a contrary expectation. Listen to your body. If it hurts, attend to it- now! Don't wait. That demon will be there at the computer, when you sit back down. But by listening to your body- getting up and stretching, even for one minute, it will respond with delight! And when it does, your mind automatically eases up and creatively begins attending a solution. It doesn't matter where you are- just start.
By taking one small shift, you begin to create momentum in the opposite direction of your attention. I have created a self-care weekly planner page to help you get the ideas of self-care generating. It's posted at the InFlow blog here.
In the meantime, if this article has inspired you, please subscribe to the blog, like my Facebook page for updates, or shoot, maybe schedule that overdue massage!
I got your back with much love!
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