(Blog) How to Shape-Shift Stress

I heard recently that ‘Stress’ is now the most searched health word on Google in most of US, and the 2nd most searched one in the UK.

It’s not surprising, for most of us feel that life seems to be getting faster and faster paced with little time to pause, relax, smell roses and enjoy the small things around us. This causes stress…

Stress comes when we feel overloaded, are struggling to cope with situations that feel threatening around relationships, money, work, climate, politics and many other issues. It then increases even more if we feel our safety or lifestyle threatened, even though these may be perceived threats and not even be real.

With these feelings and thoughts inside us, our body reacts to this perceived danger with fight, freeze or flight reaction to try and protect us, and our body reacts. Our stomach can become upset and when it is unbalanced we ‘worry’ about life, and this causes us to see things around us as even worse than they may be. Or we may find ourselves rushing all the time, or getting more tense in our shoulders and neck, trying to control life around us.

There are so many ways stress affects our bodies emotionally and physically – but the bottom line is, when stress becomes chronic and we feel it all the time, this is very harmful to our health, our heart’s ease and our chance to relax and enjoy our life.

So what can we do instead?

There is a small shift we can make that can change the stress in our life…

It’s in the way we look at and think about the world around us. For in each moment our usually has an opinion about each passing thing – how we want a situation /a person to be – and these opinions add mountains to our stress level for the world around us is living its life and may not align with our wants and wishes.

If instead of reacting to the situation, we can find an easy relaxed place inside us so the outside doesn’t disturb us – then we will be more ‘present’ in each moment. I sound simple, and in fact, it is but it’s a knack and takes awareness to increase it in your life.

This is what is described as mindfulness – it’s about being present at the moment, watching it, without listening to our mind’s judgments.

From here you can find space from your thoughts, not take them, or yourself too seriously – as the India teacher Osho used to say when I was in his ashram and listened to his talks each day,

‘Accept what is, even what seems a negative situation…Stress comes from us wanting the reality you are seeing at that moment to be different from it seems to be – yet we do have a choice about how we view life unfolding around us, and this..’

This is not saying you shouldn’t wish things to shift, but before you focus on that, try dropping back into the moment you are in, the ‘present’, just be in it and feel what is happening around you now.

Then you can take action if you wish but keep connected with the moment you are in, and this will reduce feelings of stress. For our body feels more stress when we leave the present moment, and focus on the future or past.

So if a situation is starting to trigger stress within you – pause, take a deep breath, and breath out slowly, feel your body and then see how you want to respond to the situation rather than react. For only when we are relaxed can we can be aware, and in fact, in that space inside yourself, it is easy.

So what can we do when all this is going on?

If we can respond to the present, to just what is happening around us, rather than reacting from past assumptions, then suddenly there is ease and space in our body, heart and mind…

As the spiritual teacher, Ekhart Tolle said…”Stress can be defined as the ‘resistance to what is’ and the desire for life to be different”.

So letting ourselves go into each moment, dissolving into it, moving away from our eternal focus on the future, and this will begin to allow your body to deeply relax, and stress will let go. And it continues through your day and those following, you will find yourself reacting less and feeling less disturbed by the world, and instead feel more at ease in yourself…

With love,

Cassandra Punita

P.S. Would you like to experience how to drop out of your busy mind into your calmer body, and start deeply relaxing? ……. To feel your body’s energy, and tap into your ‘feeling’ sense, to relax your heart, and start to learn about the structure of your energy body and how to start healing with this energy….

These are just some of the things you could be learning if you join my friend Chiara and I for the AcuEnergetics Level 1 – Skills for Living training that we are offering on a residential retreat weekend near Bristol in November.

To find out more – Click Here, or leave a comment and I’d love to send you details.

Note – The Early Bird Special expires midnight Thursday 31 October! – so if you are interested you probably want to contact me before then.