How is stress affecting your life? What do you do to manage your stress?

What do you think?

June 16,I try not to stree. It just seems like a bad reaction.I repeat to myself "Don't Worry Be Happy", which is one of sayings of Meher Baba. I have seen people make fun of this saying but I think it is quite profound.  Worry and stress show that you lack the assurance that "everything is going to be all right" Worry  is a statement of your lack of faith. ( also maybe you are not seeing your "opportunities ". Do your best ,don't worry and see what happens. Deep breathing helps to. It  grounds us in the here and now. Really good directions for deep breathing are in the book "Yoga for Americans" by Indra Devi. ( She was Gloria Swanson't yoga teacher..You might get it through interlibrary loan.

Worrying about things you can not directly change is useless.  I find my daily bible study and prayer is one way to "get those worries off my chest".

For me a big worry, which I try to let God take care of for me, is the war.  My husband is in the military and I pray every day God watches over him and all who serve.  (including us families).

Other then that, what can you do about these stresses besides plan for financial challange....but this may be a good opportunity to take finances more seriously for me.  I know for our family that is something we need to take more seriously anyway and the current situation is a wake up call to us.  I choose to stay home with out kids for now (with the 4th baby coming in September, we will have 4 at the age of 5 and under)  So making end meet on one salary and plan for 4 educations and 4 weddings...LOL

For politics, let your voice be heard, and vote.  Be informed but don't let yourself be overcome by the drama.  Know the facts not just what the media may feed to you.  There is more to the war and politics then that is given to us by the media. 

So bottom line for me is be realistic in what is going on around you, pray and God will help you sort out what direction you should go in and relieve you of undue stress that you can not do anything about. 

Stress?? Well first I'd like to say little of what you mentioned would I classify as stress - high gas prices, possible recession, the war - to me these are things some people OBCESSS over. Not me, to me these are things, however real, that I have absolutely NO CONTROL over, so - I acknowledge that I can not change it, and think about them very little, these are facts I acce, and move on.  I take them into consideration, I change my life acordingly, like I budget differently & drive less miles per week, but these things are not stressful - they are just annoying.

For me stress is what are the rest of the people I interact with durring the day are going to throw my way to try and upset my emotional apple cart -  and can I deal with it the way I've been schooled and not allow other people to bring me down.  It seems that people like to make other people feel BAD, they like to bring other people DOWN to their level they are suffering at (mental suffering is a choice).  My challenge is to continue having a great day dispite everyone else trying to sabatoge my day or control me. That's all the stress I have in life - I've made it that simple. Thank you TOOLS TO LIFE.

Stress is letting others try to control your life and how you live it.  Over my lifetime I have learned one lesson.  There is no human I have to answer to just to the Lord.  If the Lord and I are happy with where I am then that is really all that matters.  I also go to Him when others are trying to stress me out.  Then I leave it there and go on.

To manage stress I remember that most stress gets intensified by us.

Of course there are extern reasons - sometimes very unfair reasons. But often - especially if it is unfair - we get trapped into a vicious circle. We get obsessed to solve the problem, or obsessed to fight to cause (without solving the situation), or obsessed in running away, often combined with an obsession to complain a lot (again, the situation is unsolved). It takes all our energy and awareness. As a result we forget family, friends, even our own needs.

1) For years now I just stop or slow down for some seconds and get aware of my own breath. I focus very concentrated on inhaling and exhaling slowly and calmly. Nobody sees that. You do not necessarily have to stop your current activity. Just focus … focus on something other than your turmoil. After all what are some seconds if you have the whole day left for fighting?

The result: you get some distance and time to find a new balance point.

2) Just recently I came across another very successful technique. I start listening to all the sounds around me. I just listen and try to hear as many of the sounds that are around me as possible. It is surprising how many things you can hear. Do not think about what you hear. Just listen. No matter where you are and what you do, you can do it everywhere and anytime. Again, nobody sees, nobody knows what you do.

The result: You get a minute off. You get distance, some energy back (you know the famous song text: “…from a distance…there is ...”). For a couple of seconds your problems, your missions are not the centre of your world. You separate yourself from the source of your stress. It makes some difference and by the time the difference gets bigger and lasts longer.

Background: this concept of just listening comes from zen-mediation. However, that sounds too big, too important, too difficult and probably too far away from your religion. It is not. It is just a technique, a way of living that starts with a couple of seconds …of listening. That is all.

Richard Gere says: “…At the start you are almost amazed how much noise is going on there. You have no idea how much monkey stuff is going on, how cluttered it is. You look at that and you're acknowledging what the mind is, you're taming it, and when you have done that you have learned the power of concentration."

Full article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,455393,00.html

Have fun

Pioneer760 

Thank you for your article in response to Coach's "Question of this Week". Perhaps you would consider joining us on the continuation of the Challenge- Stillness Speaks now titled SYBD sit your bottom down... Your awareness of meditation and it's benefit  for Stress would be most welcome. So would anyone else that wants to join our effort to still the mind.

I think the rise in cost of living and gas has skyrocket so high it is a concern to everyone but we need to stay focus on God our source who has everything in control we need to find throught his guidance oportunities to make through and God will surely bless us as we plant seeds of faith love casting our upon the waters we will reap in well time if we faint not.

I think the rise in cost of living and gas has skyrocket so high it is a concern to everyone but we need to stay focus on God our source who has everything in control we need to find throught his guidance oportunities to make through and God will surely bless us as we plant seeds of faith love casting our upon the waters we will reap in well time if we faint not.

hi

the striss is an a deseas we have to treated well and verry well, what we can do ? only to try to overcom of it by/;

1-to forgive any one  don a mistake againest us

2-to deal with it as an a deseas  have to found the correct treatment

this is what i think

STress, It comes up so easy.  I feel like I have done what I can to keep my family going.  I am doing what I can so I won't be ashamed of wasting resources.  I think of all th echildren going with out and wish I could give more.  Teh food banks are understocked and the REd Cross is exhausted form disasters.  It is time to dig deep to help.

I have reduced stress to almost nothing by understanding the importance of living fully in this moment now. When you can stay present ( I still have a long way to go to be present all the time) past upsets can't touch you, nor can you spend a lot of time worrying about the future. Being in the present negates all the things that bring stress on. 

When I find my self slipping away from the now I ask myself these questions,

Where Am I ? Answer "Here"

What time is it? Answer "Now"

I repeat the questions until I feel I am back in the present. So many amazing things happen when you can do this you really don't have time to be stressed.

Nickg 

There is good stress and there is bad stress.  It's definitely the bad stress if left unattended that can kill you.  It's been proven.  There are so many illnesses that can be directly attributed to the stress in one's life. 

Now I know that and I understand it...and I definitely believe in it 100%.  However, I have the knowledge and the theory....but I am stressed to the max and doing absolutely nothing about it.  The angrier that I get with myself, the more stressed that I become.  The more stressed that I become, the more I eat.......and you know the vicious circle that is created it.  I simply wish that something or someone would hit me over the head.....NOW!

Irene

Stress is the result of letting things get in your way.

if you wake up with a smile on your face and keep it there chances are that stress will not find a way to ruin your day.

When I am stressful it is usually because I didn't handle a situation correctly.

if I do A someone will do B and that is a  natural fact.

 When you are stressed and have a bad attitude it is reflected in everything I do. So I try to leave those kinds of things some were else until I can deal with them.  A good way to stop stress is to look around you and see people less fortunate than yourself there is always someone worse off than me. And when I do see others more bent our of shape for what ever reason, I give thanks to the fact that that could be me.

Smile 

As soon as realize that I am  becomming stressed I start repeating All is in Divine Order or make a mantra of Divine Order. I then start being aware of my breathing.

I do not stress over things I have no control over.  I do stress on things like, how am I going to make the grocery money stretch till the end of the month (it always does), is there something going on with a family member that I need to help with or do I stand back and let them deal with whatever it is, is there a situation in my life that needs to be dealt with or do I let it go.