Stress
 

Stress is a silent killer, and by the time it is recognized it may have already done some damage. The thing is to recognize it before it grows. One of the early warning signs for me when I am under stress, is that I begin to curse. I don’t usually curse, but when I am under stress curse words come out of me.

Everyone has their own red flags, something that tells them they are under stress. Given this pandemic, quarantine, etc., people out of work, there is a lot of stress out there, or more correctly within us. Even as spiritually oriented people, doing relaxation techniques, meditation, etc., we can still experience stress.

The more meditation we do the greater flow of energy, and the more potential for greater stress if we don’t stay open to that flow. Stress is a mental thing that can cause all sorts of physical ailments. It starts on a mental level, can cause great emotional distress, and can move into our physical body causing inflammation and other physical ailments.

People with high blood pressure or hypertension, or have some other pre-existing condition, are more susceptible to stress. I might guess that a number of people are turning to alcohol or other drugs to cope with the effects of this pandemic and the stress it brings. I don’t advocate using alcohol or drugs to relive stress.

So what are your particular warning signs, or red flags, that tell you when you are stressed, and also what remedies do you use to relive stress. It might also be interesting to hear how other people collect stress. We all hold stress in various parts of our physical body.

Some people get tension headaches. I hold stress in the back of my neck and shoulders, and others may hold it elsewhere. Stress is widely overlooked by many and when it is, it usually leads to behavior problems. Different people handle stress differently and some don’t handle it at all. I thought given all the stress people are under right now, it may be helpful to compare notes on the subject.:smile:

First I'd like to say this is an awesome post Starman because people all over the world are under their own each individual and unique stress levels right now for various reasons. I stress the most when I go out to a store (mask up of course). I feel that the tension all over my body increases along with my heart rate. Then after I'm back home, if I can, I need to take a nap.

I am a person that has had low blood pressure my whole life up until the last year. Private stressors along with the obsession I have with watching too much news has driven my blood pressure up. I take my blood pressure daily and when I feel myself getting dizzy, agitated and breathing fast that's when my blood pressure is at it's highest - too high. I even had to go on a low dose of blood pressure medicine, which I'm not happy about, but it helps.

For me I have to avoid too much news and practice breathing exercises to feel more relaxed. I don't meditate like I use to, but the mini naps are helpful.

This is a nice topic and thank you for starting it.

I recently realised that some people need this constant pressure in their lives. These people don't function if there's no stress and pressure involved, and the biggest reason is our life in the modern world. When I don't have any problems, I usually need to find one, in order to maintain this level of stress.

I've started to meditate recently and I can feel certain benefits already. Usually, I felt very stressed when my parents text me and blame me for many things, because I'm not changing myself the way they want me to. I was suprised when I realised that it doesn't stress me that much after practising meditation and pranayama breathing technique.

As you already mentioned, stress can be very harmful, both to our physical body and our mental state.

It has been established that we all need a certain degree of stress in our lives; else we may become lethargic. But the level of “good” stress is different with each person. One person’s stress can be another person’s energizer. There are adrenaline junkies who feel energized in what might be a stressful situations for others. The important thing is to know our limits. Know our bodies and our emotions, what works and what does not work for us as and individual.

I have lived a very high stress life, especially in my youth. An army combat medic in war, then and ambulance paramedic, then working in hospitals, etc. Later working as a counselor doing crisis work, etc. I ran through life at high speed, and while I gathered a lot along the way, in retrospect I long to have slowed down and smelled the roses more. Which is what I am doing today in retirement. I have roses in my house and back patio.:biggrin:

When you go out you are probably more apprehensive and alert then when you are at home. There is a tense alertness and there is also a quiet peaceful alertness, one is more stressful than the other.

I think it is also wise to pay attention to how much we may view the news, and other media. Especially since we are stuck at home for long periods. I have found this is a great time to be more creative with my time. I want to stay informed but I don’t want to overdose on the news.:smile:

I have a blockage that I can't clear.

Have you ever screamed into a pillow thinking about the issue?

Acupuncture, maybe acupressure massage, or even a chiropractic adjustment, may help. But most of all journaling and meditating to try and understand what the blockage is related to. Blockage is the symptom and treating a symptom may only bring temporary relief. The cause of the blockage is something deeper, which a closer examination of one’s life, or lifestyle, may reveal.

Blockage usually means we are tightly holding on to something that is impeding our flow of energy. Blockage may come after a long period of mental or emotional tension. This can also cause stress. Energy plus blockage causes friction. Self examination of polarizing feelings or thoughts, positions held in our mind, etc., might reveal the cause of blockages. Thus journaling does work; it can help us look at our patterns.

Pre-pandemic, I used to go camping every month, this was a stress reliever for me, but with the pandemic that has been postponed. Sometimes I would go to the Mojave Desert in the fall and winter months, and at night build a campfire, get naked, with my Native American tom-tom drum in my hand, and yell and dance while I drummed. A great stress reliever.

I am using TENS (Trans-cutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), have three different units, and other methods, like working on muscle triggers with “The Stick,” during this pandemic because, like most everyone else, I am stuck at home. The Stick is a very good tool, just put those words in your search and look it up online.:smile:

Nice chart.

Thanks for providing it.

Very thoughtful.

Nice to see another person who likes the TENS unit.

That's great you're in retirement now! From what you've done in life it must be a welcome relief. I feel from your posts that you had a counselor background as you come across very knowledgeable about mental health and you show much wisdom and compassion. Thanks for sharing this information about you.

Interesting, thanks and much appreciated, Starman :hug3:

It's a blockage internally - of energy - I have had it for years and whereas most things I could easily clear in meditation, this one just holds emotion and thought.

Do you recommend that method of hearing it out and reflecting on it.

I will review the other methods you mention but chiropractic help cannot because it's 'inside'. Love the naked drumming, YO!

:hug2:

No, I haven't. It's more like a physical thing but when I go into it, I do feel emotions and thoughts...perhaps it's all a clue :hug:

Yes, I do recommend journaling. When I was in my forties I wrote my own autobiography, it took many months to write, and I tried not to leave anything out as to how I felt about certain periods of my life, etc. Weeks after I finished I re-read what I had written and it revealed patterns to me, physical behaviors, and ways of thinking and feeling, that I had which I was not aware of. My autobiography helped me put a lot of things in perspective.

I have also done psychological analysis of myself by taking various personality tests, etc., having worked in the mental health field such tests were readily available to me. I also did some esoteric tests on myself using various occult tools. All of these helped me gain perspectives of myself that I probably may not have considered. You know you have and internal blockage but you don’t know why you have that blockage.

I feel like if you want to get rid of it, it might be helpful to try and understand more about it and why it may be there in the first place. The work we have to do on ourselves can sometimes be difficult, but the greater the matter, the greater the release and experience of liberation, when that matter is removed. This internal issue might have worked its way in from outside, external circumstances, etc. You really won’t know until you investigate it.

It may be blocked energy that holds emotion and thought, or patterns of emotion and thought that blocks this energy. There are lots of treatments available for unblocking energy. Look into Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, or homeopathy, etc. But again, don’t just treat the symptoms, get to the root of the matter. If you have had this for years then it has become rooted in your conditioning, and meditation alone may not alleviate it. Although shinning a light on it through investigation, journaling, etc. may reveal its true nature. :hug3:

People that work with energy, especially at the Aura and Chakra level, can, at times, make some impressive 'healings' dealing with blockages. But if the blockage is removed and the issue(s) dealing with how the blockage came about are not resolved, the person generally can expect the blockage to return.

Exactly BJ, and you said it perfectly in less words then I did. Unfortunately most people are only treating symptoms and it becomes a maintenance task of reliving symptoms. To get at the root cause requires more work. I spent decades, a good portion of my life working on childhood issues, that were interfering with the relationship I had with myself as and adult. Blockage can create stress, and stress is a very important thing that many people do not even look at or acknowledge.

There are people who take their own life because they are under tremendous stress. This pandemic we are in is a great time to do work on ourselves; because isolation or even quarantined with others, can bring up all sorts of things that some might blame on the pandemic, but actually these are things that were probably always there within us, and the pandemic amplified them. When something is amplified we can see it, investigate it, and learn about it, as well as learn from it. People will do things under stress that they don’t normally do, but everything we go through in life can be our teacher. Class is always in session and the subject of learning is ourselves.:smile:

People usually can not think clearly when they are under stress. For most it triggers a fight or flight response. Technological evolution has outstripped biological evolution and that can be a great source of stress.

There are two types of stressors; specific events and situational conditions. But there are many stress mediators, physical relief, psychological relief, spiritual relievers, etc. The strains of stress psychologically include fatigue, headaches, depression, irritability, mood swings, and a sense of feeling threatened. Physiologically a person may experience an upset stomach, high blood pressure, and, or muscle twitching, among other things. Spiritually we may lose our creative ability, feel stuck, worn out, hopelessness, and an inability to enjoy life. This is the short list.

The symptoms of stress can be similar to the symptoms of grieving. The old school of psychological thinking says that type-A personality people may experience stress differently than type-B personality folks. Type-A people usually have a normal sense of urgency for just about everything. They often confuse doing with being, and they feel a need to be in control of everything at all times. So when a stressful event or situation comes along these characteristics are amplified.

Type-A persons can reduce stress by realizing what is within their control and what is not in their control. The type-B personality can regulate stress by focusing their attention, watching their diet, and exercising regularly. Either personality type can regulate stress by the way they think, our diet or intake, exercise, massages, relaxation techniques, and relaxing baths, among other things. Hugs work too, but unfortunately physically hugging is curtailed during this pandemic. How about a virtual hug.:hug2:

I learned about four stages of stress response symptoms some time ago:

STAGE I:
The person may experience mild anxiety, nervous sweat, tense muscles, heartburn, headaches, feeling on edge, increased heart rate, irritability, sleeplessness, worrying, short tempered, and, or crying.

STAGE II:
Stomach cramps, or stomach ache, feeling shaky, intense anger, backaches, chronic tension in the body, shortness of breath/hyperventilating, cramps in legs or arms, severe or chronic headaches, and, or chronic insomnia.

STAGE III:
Depression, raging frequently, eating a lot when not hungry, stomach tied in knots, loss of sexual desire, heart pains, lowered self-esteem, diarrhea, migraine headaches, skin eruptions, heart palpitations, and, or easily exhausted.

STAGE IV:
Heart attack, ulcers, cancer, feeling suicidal, stroke, and, or rheumatoid arthritis. Stages-2 and 3 can make a person a candidate for serious illness, if those symptoms are allowed to persist.

A person may have symptoms from all of the stages at once, or a mixture from one or two stages. It is important to know when you are under stress, and to do and intervention on yourself as soon as possible. Having a stress program for yourself even when you are not under stress is also a good idea. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Hey thanks Starman and BigJohn, much appreciated.

Namaste. :smile:

Starman,

Good points.


What I have noticed is also the fight or flight response and something else, which I never noticed, and that is the 'freeze' response.

If a person is good at working at the Chakra and Aura level of healing, they can at times feel the 'headache' caused by stress and can move it around and/or take it right away. This also applies to other things that manifest as a result of stress.

You are welcome, janielee.

Some excellent points. How we can move things around within us using our own consciousness, or more accurately, using our own attention. If we can do chakra work using only our attention, and also our imagination, then we can also delve into energy blocks that same way. The “freeze” response to stress, which is something that is not talked about much, probably has a lot to do with a paralyzing fear. Excellent point BigJohn.:smile:

THANKS FOR THE NICE COMPLEMENT

I came to realization of the 'freeze' response' when I experienced two different times of a car driving into a building. I would go out and stop the driver from living but noticed, virtually everybody else was frozen for the 'moment'.

One way I got to see my own Chakras was from meditating. I meditate with my eyes open and rock side to side. After a while, I would notice a 'ripple' when I would breath. It was my breath rippling thru my Aura.

I think I understand what you mean, but you said “stop the driver from living,”
or did I read that wrong. Bad eyesight and all.

You read it right, I wrote it wrong.
I meant to say "Stop the driver from leaving".

I've done a variety of things over the years. Zumba, Tai chi, Yoga, deep relaxation techniques. I'm still not the greatest at meditation, but I know people say that helps, too.

If a person can feel 'energy', they can go and feel the 'headache' in the Aura. From there, they can move it or just plain get rid of it.

Each of what you wrote about can bring about a relief from stress.

Okay, big self disclosure here. I know what it is like to feel crazy, I’m sure a lot of people do. These days when I am visited by craziness, I can feel it approaching, and dissolve it in my mind before it grows and overtakes me.

If, as you say, a person can be sensitive to energy, they can feel a headache, or stress elsewhere in their body, approaching, and dissolve it, or move it out of their way. It takes a keen sensitivity to our own state of being.

I can also relate to what GlitterRose has said. It is not so much all of the things that we have tried as it is our ability to settle into those things and have them be of use to us. Some people find meditation and inner peace boring. It is and acquired taste. When I used to do drug and alcohol counseling, I’d ask patients how come they did not get into treatment sooner, and most of the time they would reply, “I had not reached my bottom yet.” It is said “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” The search for what works for us, as and individual, may be long with many twists and turns.

NICE COMMENT.

I am pretty sure we have all felt 'crazy'.

I could tell you a couple of stories that might have the hairs on your back standing up. Taking away a gun from a person who was going to shoot me isn't an example, but being so mad that I held the hammer down, turned the cylinder hoping I broke of the firing pin and then committing the insane act of retuning the gun back to its owner.

I don’t want to get into my war stories, got to keep those at a distance. But the craziness that can come from stress, when you can‘t see or think straight. A dark storm cloud over your head, that seems to be raining only on you, with fierce lighting bolts striking, and no one else can see it or feel it but you. That kind of craziness. Where there is no self governance. Often bought on by intense debilitating stress.

The line between saneness and insanity is very thin. Post trauma stress, and other kinds of intense stress, can cause a person to have and emotional breakdown, even be hospitalized. I’ve got lots of war stories I can tell about my military tour during the Vietnam War, but the greatest war has been the one which I have had in the past with myself. To win that battle and realize that the only true victory is in our heart.

Hi Starman..... A little tale related to me by my son only a week ago.....my father , his Grandad ... Opened his heart up and told my son that he was suffering from PTSD .... And as a result had been seeing a counselor. But after only 2 sessions he had refused more as he didn't feel " comfortable" talking to a stranger about his personal issues. My father is 86. He has been through a lot during his life. A fire officer/ chief for 30 years...prior to that, a police officer .... Prior to that , a soldier in Africa fighting the mau-maus..... So you would think that his PTSD probably comes from Africa with all the horrible things he witnessed..... But no. It comes from beyond that...to his mum being blown up by a bomb aged only 26...and him being only 6 with 2 younger brothers. He never got over that.

Elfin,
I doubt most people get over something like that.

Tragic.

.... He loved his mother with a passion. His father was always away at sea.... But at aged 6 he wanted to be "involved" ... He wanted to attend his mother's funeral ....but they wouldn't let him, as it wasn't the "done thing" .....

Well look who’s here.:hug: The story you have shared does not surprise me. Your dad had a traumatic experience as a child that left and indelible mark on him, but as far as his wartime experience in Africa. Some soldiers handle war better than others. Having seen his mother tragically killed at a very young age, no other trauma could compare with that. PTSD can come from so many things. I salute your dad as a brother soldier. I have served along side British soldiers, Australian solders, South Korean soldiers, etc.

The major feature of my PTSD was survivors guilt. I was 19-years old when I went to Vietnam, that was the average age of American troops in Vietnam, and I saw lots of people die. Held many in my arms as they took their last breath. I had no previous reference for that. So it left and indelible mark on me. There are different levels of severity in PTSD, some have a mild case while others may have a more severe case. It depends on the person, what they are exposed to, and have been previously exposed to in the past.

....HEY YOU too...... Glad to see you still alive and kicking !!! ... Yes with what you say about war and PTSD.... You were 19..my dad a similar age .... My eldest son , believe it or not, I believe was still suffering PTSD from a past life with regard to "bombs" and being "blown up". He expressed all of this from being 3ish... To 7 ish.... I had to sit up with him all night many times to help him through those dreadful nights. So any one that says "past lives" are nonsense.... I do what I always do to the "enemy" .... Poke them in the eye with a stick.... But hey, that's just me ! But I'm being serious here, my 3 boys, and I CANNOT imagine anything worse than any of them telling me they are going off to war. I would rather they became boxers, my 2nd biggest fear for them !!! ....

Growing up in the slums of New York City back in the 1950’s going into the army seemed like my best choice back then. I did not immediately go to Vietnam. I was stationed in Germany for little over a year, then sent to Japan for awhile, and then Vietnam. They did not tell me that I was going to Vietnam and it was not in the public consciousness when I went. They just told me to get on a plane; I had taken military planes all over the world, but this time when I got off the plane I was in Vietnam. My mom had no idea where I was until I informed her by letter. We did not have access to telephones, and cell phones nor computers, had not been invented yet.

Bed time, have a happy good, and a good happy.:smile:

TRAGIC!

Something like that happened to me when my Grandmother died when I was about 10. As for me, I was close to my Grandmother. She was the only one I knew. The other died when my Mother was 12.

The book I have almost finished writing, is a 'past life' with my life coming to a conclusion by a ball of fire and imprinted into a wall for all to see ......... Hiroshima.