Stress Problems Creating Havoc In Your Life?

by Debra Arko Novotny | Mar 9, 2021 | Mindful Living

It doesn’t matter where you live or who you are, stress problems are peaking during the pandemic. The agony of worry creeps into your sleep, waking you at all hours. It lingers in the back of your mind as you move through your day. Sometimes you think it’s better; then you realize the discomfort in your shoulders or lower back. We hold stress not in our minds but likewise in our body.

Stress Problems In Children

Stress problems are not unfamiliar; we’re better in tune with the notion because it’s all over the news. You’ve likely seen the reports of school children having stress. Parents, singles, and grandparents are more open to talk about stress in their lives. Teens and grade schoolers interviewed talk about losing sleep, feeling sad, or isolated, currently. It’s hard to ignore our own stress.

The Hidden Killer

Often stress hides. We move through our day on automatic, not thinking about stress. Turning thoughts off to relax and sleep can be tough as our thoughts stream like a movie being played. You feel a tightness in your low back for no reason other than your mind racing. Trying to sit still in your recliner seems impossible; laying in bed isn’t comfortable for long. Then there’s restless leg.

Anxiety shows up as worry, making you feel hopeless or a sense of urgency, but we know that beneath it all is fear born from stress. We become numb after a time to the effects unless we realize how we feel both physically and mentally. Then it’s like a flood-gate.

When Anxiety Gets Worse

As the flood releases, we don’t feel better! It’s worse when our stress problems escalate feeling panic. No, you’re not losing it. No, you’re not crazy; this is how stress builds until you to have actual physical problems. Today it might be low back tension and tomorrow it’s low back pain. Then again, maybe your stress problems never cause panic or anxiety. You could feel isolation or sad. Our worries and anxiousness about events in life cause insomnia.

Where is your stress hiding?

Overcoming Stress Problems

Overcoming stress is not always easy. We can’t say, “I think I’ll mediate or take time off from being a parent or working.”

Stress is normal and is good for us in a small dose. It makes us more resilient. When stress is severe or chronic, deal with right away. You may suffer a job loss or dissolving a relationship.

Chronic stress problems have a significant impact on your brain, putting you at risk of physical and psychological issues.

Repeated stress leads to unrelenting inflammation in your body. Chronic stress leads to diseases like diabetes and heart problems. Your brain is protected from inflammatory proteins by the blood-brain barrier, but the wall becomes leaky in repeated stress.

Critical to learning and memory, the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable. When inflammation attacks the hippocampus, the result is a lack of motivation, and you lose mental agility.

I’m all for holistic approaches. The UK Government Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing has recommended evidenced-based ways to mental wellbeing.

Overcoming stress problems naturally involves four commitments to your over-all well-being.

Exercise benefits against chronic stress inflammation. In addition, exercise increases the production of new brain cells called neurogenesis. Daily fitness improves your mood, your cognition, and your physical health.

It’s hard currently to be social with friends and family however, reducing stress involves connecting with people around you. Being with others even through Zoom relaxing and interacting with friends and family will distract you and help reduce the feelings of Stress.

Want to increase your cognitive reserve, education or learning new things gives you a stockpile of thinking abilities, which provides some protection when we have negative life events. Learning helps you decrease depression and lack of focus.

I mentioned meditation earlier and honestly it and mindfulness allow us to take notice and be curious of the world and spend time in the moment. Five minutes once a day is a splendid start. Increase your time to what works for you. Take walks and enjoy being present with nature or notice your breathing—this is mediation. Every time your mind wonders gently remind it to focus on your breath.

Doing charitable work gives us a confidence and pride both reduce our stress problems

Of course, I’m going to recommend acupuncture. Over 80% of my patients share they have stress and that it keeps them up at night, causes digestion issues, or affects their pain.

Stress problems affect everyone leading to illness and disease, but you can reverse the issue by following the six steps in this article.

Our Inner Voice Of Truth

by Debra Arko Novotny | Nov 29, 2014 | Health, Mindful Living

“There is that within me that knows the truth” ` Ernest Holmes.

Some people call it their gut, or a feeling they get. Others know the truth factor as the inner voice that speaks to them once in a blue-moon with a spark of wisdom. Whatever way you hear or experience truth it’s always there guiding us. It is our minds that we must quite long enough to be in present consciousness and guided. So we can pay attention to our inner voice.

The Inner Voice

I remember the story of “Anne”. She was looking for a way to feel more connected to her boyfriend of four years, but she always felt something was off as she put it. Many of her friends encouraged her to suspect the worst.

He had seemed to pull away from her the last few weeks and be more reserved than usual. Just when she thought the relationship would move into marriage, she was convinced he had found someone else.

She had talked inside her head about what he was doing to her, how brokenhearted, and lonely she felt.

Finally, she could not stand it any longer. Anne confronted him.

What Is The Truth?

Anne’s story and the outcome are like many of my clients who pursue Integrative Health Coaching with me. Their thinking affects their wellness and well being. Part of health is listening to that inner voice. Often it’s a process we learned at an early age when told we were too young to understand, or something didn’t matter. It mattered to us. Our developing brains; curious wanted to learn the truth.

Truth is individual, it is divine wisdom and it is different for each person. Soft is the voice of truth. Not because it will hurt or we have something to fear; it is because self-talk inside our heads is speaking loudly drowning-out the gentle whisper of the voice of this inner voice many call, God or intuition.

In Anne’s case she was listening to outside advice and letting her curiosity predict truth. It is much like a dictatorship where truth doesn’t matter.

Our Own Truth In Relationships

Many will argue truth is the facts; it is the will of the majority or what the leadership in our lives in telling us. This is not the truth. My work centers on helping people lead their lives the way they desire. Too often, we give up control to someone else in our relationships or career. The theory I and other follow in my field is that Primary foods for the body first must be our relationships and careers. If these are out of balance, the inner wisdom of who we are is diminished.

It is a spiritual thing. A God thing whether you believe there is one or not. Call it the intuition if that feels best to you. I call it the inner voice. Poets write this soft whisper is the inner voice that guides us. It is the voice outside advice usually puts down, or our heads tell us not to listen to as thoughts race by a million at a time. It is many fail at their dreams and never realize their potential or happiness.

Listening To Truth – Our Heart Voice

When we constantly think in our minds, we block our ability to listen. This also blocks Truth. Practice becoming a truth seeker.

Try to stop the mind from thinking. It thinks twice as much and three times as fast. Don’t try to stop the mind, instead listen for Truth.

Truth feels different. It doesn’t tighten the flow of blood to the heart, for instance, from a health perspective. It doesn’t make the person listening feel fear, anger, or stress. It may come wrapped in excitement, vibrancy, and an inner knowing much like that gut feeling we should listen to more often.

Anne didn’t listen to her gut rather she had experience that most relationships in her life didn’t work. She brought to this romantic adventure fear and doubt. She wanted a warm, loving relationship but used a thermometer of outside gossip to support fears along with a spicy dose self-talk.

Both block that inner feeling or voice that is Truth.

Truth Feels Good

Confronting her boyfriend in a rage, he began to grin as the ‘madwoman’ in front of him and tried to calm her. Once he got her to sit down, he explained.

“I got a job offer in Florida. It’s a promotion and a big raise. But I can’t ask you to move with me. It’s not fair. So I have been looking at rings, searching out possible jobs in your field in the area, and even talked to a realtor about the cost of homes. I wanted it to be perfect when I asked you to marry me, leave your home and job here.”

When Anne told, her story, the guilt was still on her face. She had gut-feelings she had ignored. Her “Jerry” had showed her pictures of Florida homes not the beach. He had told her about the humidity asking if she minded such things. He had even asked her if she preferred white or yellow gold.

Each time he’d done these things and others that little voice had spoken to her. She heard a gentle whisper saying, “this is how love feels.” A relationship feels like this.

Connection

Where in your relationships are you not allowing the truth to deepen the connection? In business, we do it with those that would mentor us sometimes.

“Jim’s” upper level manager gave him a book on leadership. Jim knew it was the manager’s favorite author. Instead of thanking him, he turned and rushed back to his office wondering. Why was he singled out? The next day he began to look for a different job.

Had he thanked the manager and asked a question, “What chapter is most meaningful for you I would like to learn from it too.” He might have found out that this boss was thinking of mentoring him. The book, a gift was the first step to establishing a connection.

How To Practice Listening To Truth

Jim’s manager had been friendly stopping him in the hall to talk. He even went out of his way to include him in several team meetings asking his opinion on two occasions. Afraid he would answer incorrectly he had given short replies. His mind afterward raced for ways he should have done things.

Instead, Jim could have reached out and asked how he could expand his talents. Luckily, the manager saw the potential in Jim and was ready to take him under his wing.

When Jim called, I asked him how he felt about the hallway conversations. What he felt when they happened. What his gut-said when his boss asked what he thought on the topic at hand and so forth.

Grinning he told me, “I felt great. I felt necessary and wanted.” How did this person’s face look? One word. “Pleased”

Wisdom

The next day, Jim went back and thanked the man, asking what chapter meant the most to him. Today Jim and Anne both rely more on their inner-voice or gut. They allow the ‘voice’ of truth a place in their lives. They use it to attract their highest good in life.

Before they jump to conclusions, they meditate and quite their minds regularly. This allows them to practice listening. Any thoughts that come from inside with a feeling of fear or not-good-enough they pass by and listen for their highest potential in the truth that speaks within. They follow their gut feeling. For more mindful living visit my other blog Debra Arko.