These days, everything seems out of whack. That might include your nervous system.
Adjusting to life with COVID has been stressful, no doubt about it. I’m reasonably resourceful and resillient, but that didn’t prevent me from going through a cranky patch for a while.
It wasn’t just the daily dose of depressing news about social systems falling apart and the ginormous debt the country was accumulating to keep us afloat in the lockdown. Things that were easy now became complicated.
I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. Many of us are experiencing fatigue from the extreme degree of adjustment and adaptation that has been required of us as we learn to shop differently, work in unfamiliar conditions or not at all, and socialize in new, less satisfying, ways.
Last week I shared some soothing techniques from ACEP, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology. Today I have something from the HeartMath Institute.
The video below describes a quick way to reset your system when you’re reaching the limit of your ability to cope. It can be done anywhere, several times a day. Although they refer specifically to health care workers, this simple action can help all of us deal with the daily grind of this on-going pandemic. Continue reading
Stress usually arises at inconvenient times. How useful it is to know what to do about it at the time, on your own!
This post is an introduction to two energy psychology modalities that are self-empowering—easy to learn and you can do them yourself. Both are methods I use and recommend.
What is the Emotional Freedom Technique? How is it used? Does it work? Dawson Church explains…
It’s easy to feel stuck or overwhelmed by the demands of modern life. It’s not a constructive state of mind. It can lead to stress and anxiety.
Daniel Friedland MD is a high-performance leadership trainer. In this video he shares tips on how to shift your mindset so you can accomplish what seems overwhelming. The key is to turn stress into challenge. This shift in viewpoint leads to a different energy toward what needs to be accomplished, resulting in a greater sense of control and a more productive outcome.
It applies to demands in any setting, for people at all stages and in any role in life. When the shift is made, it’s like a weight being lifted—you feel lighter, with a sense of breathing space. Then you can tackle the challenge with enthusiasm rather than dread.
His two key tips Continue reading
Stress is the enemy—to be avoided if possible, and managed when unavoidable.
My weight was now perfectly normal, but blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar were all too high. I was sent on a round of tests. After a few months of tests and meetings with doctors, I felt as if I were unravelling.
I found those months surprisingly stressful. A few days before each appointment, I felt my body seizing up. This intensified when a blood pressure cuff was put on during an appointment, and the readings were considerably higher than usual. And when I got home, my stress was 70 to 90% on the stress app I’d recently begun using. Continue reading
Last week I wrote about the importance of our choices in turning genetic tendencies on or off. What we eat, the way we move, how we process emotions, and what we believe to be true—all of these influence how our genes express themselves. Diet and exercise seem obvious. But thoughts and beliefs? How do they relate to having a healthy body?
Candace Pert was a pioneer Continue reading
In a BBC viewpoint article about the hazards of too much stuff, trend forecaster James Wallman describes an American study documenting what most of us already know—that we have a lot of things in our houses.
According to Wallman, 2 out of 3 people wish they had less stuff. These people are experiencing what he calls stuffocation—an intriguing word that describes the feeling of drowning in stuff. Not surprisingly, the resulting clutter crisis leads to mental stress, which causes physiological symptoms such as elevated cortisol levels. In this way, the mental stress of excess damages our physical health.
I’m with him until he proposes that we solve the problem of excess stuff by spending our money on experiences instead of things. Continue reading