Burying it isn’t a good idea!
While most of us know that stress affects us, we may not know just how much it affects us.
We may think of it as just “having too much to do in too little time.” But, there’s also a lot more to it than that.
Every unresolved experience in your life gets stored in your body as tension.
For example, if you have an argument and walk away saying:
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,”
That stress stays with you until you go back and resolve it.
When you have that happen several times, the tensions build up inside of you.
Anything that you “hold onto” and “stuff” rather than working through it, gets stored in your body.
It includes blaming others and holding onto resentments.
It includes any negative self-judgments about yourself.
It includes any sadness, fear, guilt, shame, and anger that you push down.
If you hang onto any of these mental-emotional patterns they get stored as tension in your body.
What you think you are “ignoring” or “avoiding” gets shoved inside, into your cells and tissues, eventually becoming the 95% of stress-related doctor visits.
So what do you need to
take away from this?
ONE:
Become as aware as you can of all your feelings.
TWO:
Become aware of stress, tension, and conflict arising with others and work through it.
Don’t shove your feelings aside thinking that you’ve got more important things to attend to. Learn what your feelings are telling you about what you are holding onto and what actions you need to take right now to move forward.
FOUR:
Work things out, instead of letting them linger and fester.
FIVE:
Communicate even when it feels hard to do.
SIX:
Handle conflict honestly and directly, as soon as possible.
At the same time, understand that you won’t always handle things well. Other people won’t always cooperate with you or be as ready to communicate and resolve things as you are. (part of the problem of being human)
So, also, make it a habit to practice relaxing your body, calming your emotions, and quieting your mind at some point every day.
Learn to let go on your end, even when others aren’t able to.
It’s so important to both your physical and mental health to minimize the stress in you life.
Some stress is good but too much over an extended period of time IS NOT!
