Hello there. How are you this lovely Monday? Monday, Monday...mmm...mmm...mmm...
Mondays are my busiest days. I get up, do my meditation, affirmation, visualization, yoga, read my scriptures, and journal thingy, usually by, oh...630ish. Crazy huh? I know, I know. Being an early morning person, people tend to think you are on crack. BUT I AM NOT!!! LOL...
So, on Mondays, before I open my emails (91 this morning, booyah!), I look at my statistics for my blog. The reason I do this is so I can see what posts are being read the most. It gives me an idea as to what people are reading.
Stress is high my friend, especially in the United States. Nearly 90% of my readers are from the United States from this past week, which is somewhat typical but sometimes it can get as low as 75%, particularly in the off season aka Summer Months.
With the election, and the holidays coming, stress is super duper allie ooper high in the United States. People are worried about the economy, who will be President, and their busy schedules for the next couple of months.
So here is what I got for you, if you are stressed out...
In my humble experience, the number one sign of stress is denial. A sign is what the observer can see and a symptom is what the individual describes. Therefore, denial can be the refusal to believe, recognize, or acknowledge something.
In behavioral science, denial is a common unconscious defense mechanism, which is an illusory way to reduce anxiety or other symptoms of stress. In other words, if we are unhappy, and life is not the way we want it to be, but we state that everything is okay, and we declare that we don't have stress, that is denial.
For example, if we are angry and irritable at work and at home and it is affecting everyone around us yet we still say everything is fine, this is denial.
To destress you is to go beyond stress management. When you manage your stress you deal with it, handle it, or cope with it through instant behavioral solutions. When you destress yourself, and go beyond the management of your stress, you discover your stressful habits and replace them with successful practices.
An example of managing stress is when stress causes headaches and then we take pain-relieving medication, or if stress causes gastrointestinal problems we take medication to relieve the symptoms.
When we destress ourselves we discover our stressful habits, the cause of our stress, and in turn create successful habits through education and diligence.
Is stress avoidable? Absolutely not but we can think and act more effectively and with a healthier approach to our stress and that is what it means to destress yourself.
A very important key to overcome denial and destress yourself is to have an open mind. When we maintain an open mind we are reasonable and teachable to different opinions and ideas.
If someone seeks a stress expert in order to relieve their stress and has every excuse as to why they cannot change certain things to make their life better they are without an open mind and full of denial.
When we seek an individual who is a stress authority in order to reduce our stress and we listen to and learn what they have to teach us we have an open mind. When we have an open mind we are willing to accept change in our life and create better habits for a better future.
So, how do you know you have an open mind to destress yourself? First, ask, "am I happy?" If the answer is "no" then recognize, with an open mind, you have stress because unhappiness is a result of stress. Second, ask the people around you, "are you happy with our relationship?" Then take what they say, with an open mind, and look at it from an objective point of view. If the answer is no, it needs a fixen' because something is awry. Finally, after we take a look at the answers to these simple questions, with an open mind, we then can take responsibility for our lives by creating change rather than blaming external circumstances and others.
Taking responsibility includes knowing we create our thoughts, and they are either criticizing or complimenting, encouraging or discouraging, and positive or negative. When we take responsibility for our thoughts, we generate feelings that follow. When we take responsibility for and create good thoughts that generate good feelings, we become energized and full of motivation to be, do, and have.
What all this boils down to my friend is in order to create happiness, energy, and vitality, compliment yourself by focusing on the good that you are, and the good that is around you, encourage yourself by saying, "I got this! I can handle this! I am powerful and unstoppable!" These positive feelings will make you amazing! Because you are amazing!
No matter what happens this season, "YOU GOT THIS! YOU CAN HANDLE THIS! YOU ARE POWERFUL AND UNSTOPPABLE!" How do I know, because YOU are a child of your most high Heavenly Father, and you with HIM makes anything possible.
That is one thing I know for sure! WITH GOD ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
Another thing I know is, if you say to yourself, "This is hard, I can't handle this, I don't have the energy, I am tired, or this is too much for me." Then you my friend will be a self fulfilling prophecy, just as easily as if you say, "I got this! I can handle this! I am powerful and unstoppable!"
But PLLLLEEEEEASE, don't believe me, try it for yourself. Be your own experiment, and just see how unstoppable you really are.
That's all I got...
HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVER!!!
HAPPY HALLOWEENIE!!!
ps...thank you for the book requests, I have emailed the baker's dozen, and will provide a discount price for all of my readers. I wrote that post the night before and scheduled it to go out at 4 a.m. the next day, and when I opened my email at 8 a.m. that following day I had over 60 emails, so forgive me if I have not gotten back to you...
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elizabeth Stanfill
