Why is Stress a Problem?
Many of my clients list stress as one of the significant issues in their lives. Symptoms resulting from long-standing stress are not good, varying from excess weight to chronic ailments, and nobody wants those!
People often want the same pace of life, especially at work, to continue. You might have been able to cope with the buffeting at an earlier age, but now can’t. After years of ignoring the warning signs, our bodies can’t consistently deliver that. If this is you, now is the time to heed the signs and make changes.
Stress triggers our bodies to enter fight-or-flight mode, releasing adrenaline and disrupting digestion and other bodily processes if it persists for an extended period. It should be a short-term situation that gets us out of danger, and then we can calm down and relax again.
Our general state is ideally calm and measured most of the time, allowing us to have fun and be at our best, rather than the pressured and stressed version.
How to change
Pushing ourselves too hard can become a habit. Habits can be broken by responding to situations differently.
Become aware of your inner chatter. Explore different options to balance the demands placed upon you with your health and well-being.
For example, if we feel inadequate because of impostor syndrome. This drives us to strive for perfection and put on a front to prevent anyone else from seeing our imperfections. This is quite common (and is ludicrous once we spot it!).
Catching those thoughts and reframing them into more accurate, peaceful, and powerful ones can make a significant difference in stress levels and improve performance and energy levels.
There is a lot each of us can do to minimise stress and return to balance, however chaotic our lives are. We all know very busy people who do not get stressed by it.
The most significant difference is our inner chatter about life, and we can change that.
Holistic support
Through my holistic therapies, I support individuals in various ways.
What I do usually enables them to cope better, even if the sources of stress stay the same. Our conversations and my therapy sessions can gently lift them and allow a healthier perspective on the stressors to emerge.
The leading service I would recommend is my bioresonance service, as it is very easy to use (you wear a small pendant near your body, and it does the rest). I have seen excellent results; many clients have said they wouldn’t have coped with some life situations without it.
A different mindset, accompanied by greater self-worth and self-esteem, can and usually does create a life that feels significantly less stressful.
If we change the way we see the world, the world changes.
Dr Wayne Dyer
Changing how others respond to us
Changing our energy field will lead to those around us responding differently. I have seen this over and over. We tend to forget in difficult times that we are energy beings, and others are reacting not just to what we say and do, but also to our inner thoughts about the situation, via telepathy or other means, perhaps.
Clients who have been bullied at work have found that the Bands of Power shamanic rite changes things for the better (I often give this remotely as part of my other services because it is so helpful). It apparently protects the energy field and somehow disguises the vulnerability that others were targeting.
Invisible support
I love working at an energetic level. I learned to do this in my shamanic training and absolutely love this ‘invisible’ realm. Clearing away energetic blockages caused by past events and other factors that hinder our ability to hear our intuition. Providing nudges to enhance the energy field. All are highly beneficial.
The stress-balance pendant (available for purchase from me) is a superb stand-alone tool. When I use mine, it helps me focus on the task before me and get out of the loop of worrying thoughts. It can be used by several people (one at a time). It has helped children and adults deal with many situations where it is necessary to calm down and take action.
Sometimes a significant, brave change is required to eliminate the stress, as was the case for Jane below:
Jane* came to see me because she was stressed and feeling ill all the time with no energy. We discussed her work and identified that she hated the long hours and stresses of being the accountant for a busy and disorganised company. She was constantly jumping to their tune and not able to work at her own pace, often having to work late because of someone else’s inefficiency.
At home too she was in a fairly loveless relationship where her partner ran his business from home and, again, she was looking after the finances and hated it. She had recently started selling a range of products for a network marketing company and really enjoyed meeting people and sharing her delight in the products with them.
After a few e-Lybra sessions Jane was feeling better but hating the work more than ever as she saw how it was draining her. I was surprised, yet pleased, to hear that Jane had handed her notice in. She had a few ideas for her own business that she wanted to try and could see how her health was suffering from the job she hated so knew this had to be done. Her time as an accountant was over.
Now Jane is successfully running her business and a couple of others she’s started since! She looks a different person, much more vibrant, happier, and younger!
*not her real name
The e-Lybra sessions cleared up the confusion, allowing Jane to identify the problems in her life and how to resolve them.
Situations outside of our control
When the cause of our stress is genuinely outside of our control, it is undoubtedly tough. However, finding a more peaceful perspective instead of fighting the truth can make us stronger and build that mental muscle to take future events more in our stride.
For example, caring for a chronically ill loved one. The burden can be overwhelming. Emotions are extreme, ranging from heart-wrenching sadness to anger and frustration directed at the person, the ‘system’, other relatives who aren’t pulling their weight, among many different factors.
Finding a new perspective that brings peace and acceptance is still possible.
Baby steps – find gratitude for the small, good things in life. Find pleasure, or peace, in giving service (whether or not it is appreciated). This may sound far-fetched, but reducing our stress levels and maintaining good health should be a priority.
Dr Wayne Dyer wrote a book about a mother who had lovingly cared for her unconscious daughter day and night for many years after she went into a coma. The book is called ‘A promise is a promise‘ because the mother had promised to be there for her daughter before the incident occurred. She devoted her life to doing that without resentment.
Take a break. Even if only a few minutes are available, there are many ways we can gently recharge our batteries.
Self-help to recharge those batteries
Here are some ideas (in no particular order) you could use to help you find peace and relief from stress.
If stress is preventing you from sleeping, some of these options can also help with that. Please use common sense and only do these things when it is safe to do so!
Audio – Calming music, guided meditations and hypnosis
Playing calming music or guided meditations (perhaps through earplugs if you share the room). I particularly enjoy guided meditations and have a number of them available to listen to when I need to unwind at night.
Examples include Gong Bath recordings (characterised by plinky plonky music) and authors such as Anita Moorjani, Louise Hay, Doreen Virtue, Sanaya Roman, Sara Landon, and many others.
There are also guided hypnosis audios available that claim to retrain the mind to handle things differently.
Breath control
Breathing techniques help calm the mind and body. There are many guided breathing audios or YouTube videos.
Try breathing in for four beats, holding the breath for four beats, breathing out for four beats, holding the breath for four beats and so on. A few minutes doing this can calm the mind.
Visualisation
Useful if you can’t sleep. With your eyes closed, picture yourself in one of your favourite places. Perhaps lying on the beach or in a meadow, or some other peaceful, calm place. Fire up all your senses as you imagine the sights, sounds, smells, how the breeze feels on your skin, and so on. The limit is your imagination.
Relaxing aromatherapy oils
Oils can be selected individually or purchased as blends for specific purposes, such as relaxation, stress relief, sleep promotion, and more.
Valerie Ann Worwood has some excellent books on aromatherapy oils, such as The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy, Revised and Expanded: Over 800 Natural, Nontoxic, and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health, Beauty, and Safe Home and Work Environments.
An oil vaporiser is an easy way to get the smells into the air. These come in simple pottery form with space below for a tea light, or you can opt for sophisticated electric ones that display different colours and release the scent into the air. Otherwise, you can put a drop on a handkerchief or tissue and sniff it.
Take care if you have animals in the room. Some oils are harmful to some pets.
Tapping
EFT—energy tapping—is a superb way to lift any stress (and other emotions, and even pain and physical symptoms) that you feel in your body. It uses tapping around specific meridian points on the body using your fingers when you are out and about. No equipment is required. To concentrate, it is probably best to find a quiet place to do the tapping alone.
There is information readily available on the internet; it is straightforward to do and very effective.
Nick and Jessica Ortner have a great website with free introductory videos to tapping. They have also written some excellent books and created an app that allows users to access guided tapping sessions whenever needed. I have this and can recommend it.
Homeopathy
Specific remedies to calm you as an individual are prescribed after a homeopathic consultation to match a remedy to you and your symptoms.
For self-help, a simple starting point is to use a combination remedy, such as Narayani’s Calming Mix (or Sleep Mix at night). Many of my clients have found these extremely useful.
Passiflora and Coffea are other remedies that can offer calming benefits and aid in sleep.
Homeopathic pharmacies can advise you about these and send them to you.
Essences
I am a big fan of essences. My favourites are the Alaskan and Bach Essences.
Bach Rescue Remedy is readily available in pharmacies and health food stores and is excellent for easing anxiety and stress.
The Alaskan Essence blend Soul Support is another combination of essences for overall support. The four Alaskan sacred space sprays (available from me or online) are also great for lifting the atmosphere in any room.
Do get in touch with me if you would like my support. I offer a free fifteen-minute chat.
