How to Overcome Stress and Bring Back Joy to Your Life
Everyone talks about being stressed, but there are times when this is no longer an everyday phrase, but speaks of a real threat to our health, our wellbeing and our ability to function in social and work settings.
Stress is an intense reaction of the body and all its organs, including the brain. When stress stops being casual, we have to worry: Our body tells us that something needs to change.
If this is happening to you, you will feel that everything is too much, and that your are not who you would like to be and cannot reach your goals, that your body is exhausted and that you just cannot go on like this. Stress doesn’t let you think straight, nor decide anything.
You’ll have to face several challenges:
- Stop doing.Although your automatic reaction is to go faster and do more, you have to stop and take the time to feel what is happening, to find yourself and analyze and understand your thoughts and feelings. This means breaking a deeply rooted behavioral pattern that no longer works for you at this moment, that of “having to act and do to solve a problem.”
- Feel your emotions to find your resources.To take decisions and to take action, you first need to focus on yourself. Often, stress comes from being entangled in the perspectives and expectations of others, your boss, partner, children, clients, friends, the society. The first step to being able to give again and get results, is taking care of yourself and clearly understanding your own needs, limits and values.
- Confront and use your emotions. In order to focus, you will have to learn new ways of handling your negative emotions, including: guilt, fear, pride, anger and despair. You need to understand the function of these emotions and fulfill the need behind them, or they will re-emerge and keep causing stress.
- Solve the root issues.To find a stable solution you will have to get rid of past experiences, the “old” beliefs and emotions that have led you to this situation. You need to liberate and transform the emotional basis in order to remove the automatic reactions that take you to being overwhelmed and having this kind of extreme stress.
- Value yourself.Stress is frequently created and maintained because we don’t love ourselves and don’t take care of our bodies. We feel we don’t deserve – to rest, to receive, to put our own needs before others. In turn, because we don’t take care of what we need, we slide into difficult situations in our relationships because we need the other person to take care of us, make us feel loved, and give us the permission to exist, to receive or to stop. You need to honestly look at your patterns, figure out what keeps you from listening to your own needs and taking care of them, and make a change.
I’ve found that even though we understand that we have to take these steps, it may be really hard to actually do them. We can be caught in a vicious circle of necessities, pressure, trying to go faster and getting to everything, and getting more and more worn out – and worst of all, we believe on some level that there is no way out. We don’t see or accept the offers of help and support – and we always seem to have an unquestionable reason.
When people come to get my help, it’s because they have hit rock bottom – and they just don’t want to live like this anymore. Many times, they only find the strength to embark on a Process of change when they’ve lost all joy and meaning in life and the sense of “having to function” just isn’t enough anymore. Only at that point we are frequently able to accept that we cannot go on like this and that we need to accept help, from friends, family members, or a professional. Sometimes accepting help feels like a defeat, and that’s why we avoid it. How ironic, when all the good help will do is help you feel empowered and in control of your life!
If you choose my 10-weeks program The Power of YOU, stress will be reduced because you systematically work through all the issues listed above. Your consciousness level and physical energy level will rise as you let go of old baggage and change negative mental and emotional structures, and you will be empowered to help yourself. It’s all about uncovering your joy and motivation that bring movement and aliveness to your life. If you choose the option of individual support, you will see that even just one session produces a noticeable difference and can destress and relax you a lot – and the challenge is then to stabilize those effects.
Where ever you are in your process of handling stress, my wish to you is that you may be guided by your inner voice that knows what’s good for you, what you need, and that you are a unique, wonderful, valuable and loved human being who deserves to experience joy and energy every day of your life!
