Strategies for Stress-Free Living

Research shows that if you have been stressed for a long time, then chances are your immunity is taking a pounding.  Lowered immunity can manifest as increased susceptibility to colds and ‘flus, meaning you get them more often and for longer than people around you.  It can also play a hand in the development of more serious illness.  For example, an increase in the frequency and severity of asthma, multiple sclerosis and arthritis and the early development of coronary heart disease.  But why does this happen?

We know that the stress response is an inflammatory response and if present for a long time can lead to the development of various types of inflammatory disease.  At the same time elevated levels of cortisol can reduce immunity related activity carried out by our cells meaning we are more susceptible to viral attack.

However, research undertaken at the University of British Colombia and reported by the Society of Biological Psychiatry in Biol. Psychiatry 2008; 64:266-272 by G E Miller et al, indicates that cells such as monocytes, which are one of our key lines of defence, adapt during long term stress.   As a result of this adaptation, our bodies experience a mild level of inflammation.

It is this ongoing mild inflammation that contributes to the development of stress-related illness.

Tags: Stress Related Illness by Tracy
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Stress starts in the mind when you perceive a situation to be threatening.  However, your mind is unable to differentiate between what is considered real and what is imagined.  What does this mean?  Let me illustrate by sharing a story.

I have a client who is starting his own business.  He is working diligently to ‘land that first sale’.  What is he focusing on?  His primary question is, “what will happen if I don’t sell 100 of these things next month?”  He has already worked it out.  If he doesn’t sell 100 of those things each month, he will be broke by Christmas.  He has got the spreadsheet to prove it.  So as he is figuring this out, he is focusing on that outcome.  “If I sell none of these things, I will be broke by Christmas.”  This is scary, so there is a lot of emotion around this imagined outcome.  Yep, it’s an imagined outcome because it hasn’t happened.  The more he imagines it, the more scared he feels and the more real it seems.  The greater the emotional intensity, the more he relates to this imagined outcome.  If he doesn’t ‘nip it in the bud’, his behaviour will change and he will start to act as if he was broke.  You think, you feel, you act. 

Guess how his business will respond to that new focus.What’s going on inside?  He is suffering from financial stress.  Not because his finances are in disarray but because he is already thinking and feeling how he will feel to be broke at Christmas.  The mind does not differentiate between what is ‘real’ and what is ‘imagined’.  The stress response has kicked off and he is starting to feel the effects.Ok, so here’s the good news.  Just as imagining the worst can make you feel stressed, you can also use the power of your imagination to create a compelling future.  By choosing the outcome you want, emotionally associating with that outcome, your subconscious will work with you to create that outcome.  You think, you feel, you act.

Become aware of your primary question and use your imagination to create your compelling future.

Tags: Financial Stress, Focus and Meaning by Tracy
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Check out Anthony Robbins interview on the Today Show where he talks about what you can do right now to take control of your life when times seem to be tough.

http://www.tonyrobbins.com/TVAppearance/default.aspx?bc=TodayShow

Tags: Emotional Stress, Financial Stress, Focus and Meaning by Tracy
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