Powerful stress busters

I met a friend in a beauty saloon the other day while I had my manicure and pedicure. He said that his doctor  told him that he is a living time bomb. He is diabetic, has high blood pressure and heart problem. In fact, he had just been hospitalized and in the ICU for one week.

He confided that his stressful work is the culprit of his ill health. He is based in Manila and lives alone in his condominium. Every time he would feel bad, he would hop in a taxi and tell the driver to drive him directly to the hospital. In fact, he considered himself  a “self-admission”  patient.

According to writer Charles J. Givens, in the “Theosophical Digest 4th Quarter 2004,” that the normal state of the human mind and body is not of tension and anxiety, but of total health and relaxation. He said, “ Much of the stress we experience is self-created and self-perpetuated, through the misuse of our minds and emotions. The good news is that this type of stress can be controlled.”

“Over the years ,” Givens  declared, “I had discovered many stress-busting strategies which are simple and practical. Used on continuing basis, they will keep your system in tip-top shape.”

To prove his point, Givens cites the following powerful stress-busters:

*Exercise for twenty-minutes to one hour every other day. Exercise induces your muscles to go through alternating cycles of tension and relaxation. Both muscle tension and fatigue are stress-related symptoms that can affect the entire body. Forcing your muscles from an abnormal state of tension into more normal state of relaxation helps alleviate the stress.

*Continuously affirm to yourself, “ Its just an event.” Your life each day can be viewed as a stream  of connected events – some positive and some not. The negative events can cause great stress, but they have only the stress-producing power over you that you assign to them. Separate your perceptions, opinions, and value judgments of a negative event . Affirm to yourself , “ It’s just an event,”  and  you will avoid triggering stress reactions. You have total power to choose how you will respond or react to the event, thereby influencing succeeding events and out-comes.

Probably 80 percent of your stress is created solely by your mind. Learn to use your mind correctly and your stress level will be reduced. Stop reacting mentally and emotionally to what is going on around you. Perceive each new situation as a neutral event. Then you can choose unemotionally what response to make. Then, your life stays under control.

*Don’t make value judgment about people or events. A value judgment occurs when you inject strong opinions, beliefs, or feelings into, or about, an event. Value judgments include: good or bad, just or unjust, right or wrong, pleasant or sickening. None of these value judgments exists in the event itself, but only in how your mind chooses to perceive the event. Make a negative value judgment and you become upset and full of stress.

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