Stress Management
The Need
Do you frequently feel stressed out?
In today’s technological world and high tension from stressors such as Covid-19, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and hurricanes, we, as human beings, are exposed to enormous tumult and chaos.
We sometimes feel that if one more catastrophe occurs, it will break the camel’s back… or break our spirit!
Stressors can have deleterious effects on our personal health and on how we feel about ourselves. Eventually, it may cause physical and mental conditions that will slow you down, if not immobilize you.
Reining in emotions has lasting consequences, according to a 2003 study conducted by Gross and John of the University of California, Berkeley. In this study, students were asked how much they tended to control their feelings. The researchers found that those who suppressed their emotions, that is, typically “swallowed” their irritation, sorrow, or fear, were on the average, more pessimistic, less confident, and more prone to depression.
Another researcher, Johan Denoller, from the University Hospital in Belgium, questioned those who experienced heart attacks about their emotional habits. He noted that 25 percent of the participants in the study who reported a higher level of negative emotions and acknowledged a tendency to hold back with self-expression had died ten years later as a result.
In an article in Scientific American Mind, Iris Mauss (Feb. 6, 2006), stresses, “By learning to look at events in different lights, we can positively influence our feelings”(p. 70).
How Is a High Level of Stress Manifested in Your Life?
Do any of the following present current challenges for you?
- Road rage
- Erratic bursts of anger
- Indecision
- A feeling of being overwhelmed
- Inability to focus
- Memory lapses
- Inability to complete projects
- Difficulty sleeping
- Physical conditions, such as high blood pressure
If the answer to any of these questions is YES, as Mauss suggested, maybe it is time to learn to look at events in a different light, so you can positively influence your feelings.
From primitive times, human beings have had an escape mechanism wired into their nervous systems that is triggered under severely threatening conditions. This fight-or-flight response enables us to react to danger to protect our lives. It is accompanied by physical responses that gear our bodies for self-protection. These responses include heightened awareness, increased adrenaline production, rapid heart beat, and increased blood pressure. These physical responses are often accompanied by increased emotionalism, diminished reasoning and judgment, and a sense of feeling overwhelmed. In our primitive past, humans responded by standing and fighting or by fleeing the scene, whichever improved their chances for survival.
In our current stressful times, we often experience these same physical responses and impaired decision-making capacity but without a clear-cut life threatening cause. Over time, we learn to respond repeatedly in the same way to stressful stimuli no matter how severe or inconsequential they may be. We lose our ability to discriminate between all the stresses we undergo in our lives and respond to each of them in the same automatic way. Numerous scientific studies have shown that ineffective responses to stress over a lifetime can cause serious physical and mental health issues, that themselves become truly life threatening stressors in our lives. On a day-to-day basis, ineffective responses to stress can lead to ineffectiveness and unhappiness in relationships and at work. People function at much less than their ideal performances when they are stressed out.
Our Program
Fortunately, these self-defeating habitual responses to stress can be eliminated and replaced with new techniques that increase effectiveness in our daily lives and help us to view stress with a healthy perspective. You will learn to use new tools in our program that will help you to see stress as a challenge that can be dealt with and overcome. Any motivated individual can learn to develop and carry out a plan to effectively deal with stress and improve physical and mental well-being. It is particularly powerful to work with Dr. Silverstein, an expert in the field.
Here is what you will learn:
- Relaxation techniques
- Self-hypnosis
- Visualization
- Positive self-talk
- Mental recall
- Mental rehearsal
- Breathing techniques
- Goal-setting
You will learn to use these tools during our program for rapid grounding and refocusing so that current issues can be addressed with a clear mind. Feedback from you during the program is used to fine tune your application of these techniques for maximum results.
Routine use of these tools in your daily life to reduce stress will provide the following benefits for you:
- A feeling of well-being
- Improved health
- Improved personal relationships
- Effective problem solving
- More joy in your life
Isn’t it time now for you to take the steps necessary to relax into your life? Contact us NOW to begin your journey to success.
Additional Information
This article appeared in Quality Times magazine. It describes the mind-body connection and the effect on human performance.