Perhaps, you may be aware that you are straining under the load — never-ending bills, demanding schedules, workloads, and family responsibilities. All of these accumulating stressors can intensify and may seem inescapable and uncontrollable, and if suppressed or denied may actualize and cause an acute or chronic physical medical condition. Managing the stressors and healing the strains is a wise choice. You can learn skills that are designed to help you clarify and balance your lifestyle.
Find and Heal the Causes of Stress through a Collaborative Project
A collaborative project that you and I commit to is designed upon a platform where I assist you to locate the cause, and to understand and heal past and present stressors that strain you and your bodies: physical, mental and emotional. Together we work with and through willful action to establish self-caring skills to remedy the stress.
Coping mechanisms neither work to understand nor heal the underlying cause. Coping mechanisms usually compensate for unresolved and truncated defense mechanisms. Sometimes they are locked in as symptoms to manage the intense survival energies based in belief systems and syndromes as depicted in the lists of behaviors and characteristics of mental health disorders.
An initial step in stress management is clarifying the stressors. They may be major life changes, a backlog of work, or financial issues. Hidden and chronic stressors can be complicated and most people do not realize how their habits may contribute to their stress.
For example, perhaps work piling up is not from the actual demands of your job but rather due to your procrastination. Procrastination as a habit can be a major stressor.
Together we can explore the stressors and design solutions. To understand and balance an overworked sympathetic nervous system you must clarify and claim responsibility for the role you play in creating your stress. Unresolved stress can weaken your immune system.
Another step in stress management is to identify the hidden weak spots, the areas and conditions in your life that leave you vulnerable to imbalance. For instance, your sleep habits, your diet, your choices in relationships, self medication behaviors, and your daily routine.
There are also myriad areas of human development we can explore regarding how well you have navigated and completed the tasks for each developmental stage of your life. It is possible that some of these stages may have been interrupted by traumatic incidents.
Strategies for Stress Management
Learning and practicing self-caring skills will assist you with managing tension, stress, and strain. Coping strategies muddy the waters of clarity. If you install a belief of "I am coping. I will do this in order to cope," then you are not fulfilling the first step to find the cause. You are covering the cause with a coping strategy.
Once you have found what causes your stress, focus on what you can regulate. Eliminate the actual stressors and develop consistent de-stressing habits that are self-caring skills. (This is where some people may freak out and never start.) Instead of watching TV or responding to texts in bed before sleep - take a walk or have a hot soothing bath. Do something to move into the parasympathetic flow of your nervous system. Maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough quality rest and sleep will metabolize stress and help you relax.
Make a conscious effort to establish a routine for you and yourself to relax together. Get to know each other. This quality time can be whatever you need it to be. Some people like doing activities such as tai chi, yoga, or meditation. You can also treat yourself to something simple like listening to acoustic music, listening to your own breath, or quietly contemplating.
Finally, do not feel like you must solve your stress on your own. Reach out to your family and friends. Whether you need help with a problem or just need someone to listen, find a person who will be there to positively reinforce and support you. If stress becomes chronic, do not hesitate to seek the help of an assistant.
Contact me for assistance in establishing a portal of self healing.