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Eliminate Stress With This Easy Stress-Buster Technique

By Michael McGrath

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 05Feb2008
Word count: 1499
Viewed: 1454 time(s)

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All of us live in a fast paced world. The latter part of the 20th Century brought with it fast food, fast cars and fast living. Now that we have entered the 21st Century things are getting even faster. In our jobs we are expected to get better results faster. We are expected to learn faster, perform faster and quickly beat the competition. Well with all this speed and tension comes the inevitable strain that it puts on the mind and body. Stress is the result of this strain and tension!

So in this fast paced world that we now live in how can we learn to eliminate stress?

Well, in order to eliminate stress we should first have a thorough understanding of what stress is and where it originates. If you look up the dictionary a typical definition will explain stress as "a force exerted when one body presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body." When you experience stress in your life I am sure you will agree that it often feels as though an external force is pressing against you. Certain sayings sum this up such as "feeling heavy with guilt", "feeling the pressure", "it feels like a ton weight has been lifted off me" etc.

Stress and the pressure we feel behind it can exert, what feels like, a very real physical force. So where does this force come from? What is generating this stress? Is it the events in our lives or just our perception of them and our reaction to them?

Most stress finds its root in unwanted harassing thoughts and negative emotions. These thoughts and emotions cause imbalance within the mind. This eventually causes an imbalance in the body which will probably lead to illness or at least a shortened life span!

Do you know that scientific studies have found that the mind does not know the difference between a real event and an imagined one? When they hooked-up athletes to sophisticated monitoring systems they found that the same neurons in the brain fired when a person imagined an event as did when they actually did it. Similarly the muscles of the body responded as though they were actually performing the event!

So when we redefine stress we can give a clearer definition of it as - a state of heightened emotional and mental imbalance caused by internal or external forces in one's life whether real or imagined.

So what external forces can possibly be responsible for causing the emotional and mental imbalance in one's life? Well this question may appear to be almost impossible to answer in one sentence because there can be numerous causes of stress. These causes range from pressure at work to a possibly life-altering dramatic event. However, regardless of the actual event itself when we study the cause of stress closely enough we always come to the same root cause. Stress is caused when we wish circumstances, situations, people or things to be different from the way they are.

Stress always occurs when you want things to be different from the way they are but they just remain the same. Let's go back to our dictionary definition - 'a force exerted when one body presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body.' This is exactly what is happening to you. When you want things to be different but they just stay the same, you experience stress because it is as if the situation is pushing against you. You use your force of 'will', by wanting it to change, and thus exert force on the situation but it resists and pushes back. In such situations it is your desire that becomes compressed or twisted. Basically your stress has its root in your desire to change things that cannot be changed!

Do not get me wrong, I am a great believer in achieving the seemingly impossible. I know that by setting goals and through determination, persistence and a positive mental attitude we are all capable of achieving great things. However, some things cannot be changed, for example the past! It is when we want to change things that are impossible to change, or when we are not experiencing the changes we want, we experience stress!

So, if stress lies in the desire to change things then to remove stress all you need to do is remove the desire. This does not mean giving-up on your goals. Nor does it mean never attaining your desires. It means releasing the grasping, clawing, lusting from the desire. When you do this not only will you feel less stressful but you will be in a more receptive productive state to acquire what you want. It does, however, mean giving up the desire to change things that cannot be changed!

Fortunately, a way of eliminating such desires was developed known as 'releasing'. This is a technique which is highly effective but little known in the western world. Let's once again return to our refined definition of stress to see how we can use it to 'release' stress instantly in any situation. Our refined definition of stress states that it is "a state of heightened emotional and mental imbalance caused by internal or external forces in one's life". We now know that it is you're wanting to change this external force that is causing the stress so a better definition would leave out the "external" bit of the sentence. The definition of stress becomes this - a state of heightened emotional and mental imbalance caused by internal forces!

So how do we use this knowledge to eliminate it?

Well let's do a little experiment to get you used to this. Pick a time when you were slightly uptight, agitated or annoyed. Stop whatever you are doing to complete this quick exercise. It will only take a moment and once you have the hang of it you can do it on the spot and with little effort while you are doing other things. But for now, while you are learning it, give it your full attention. Once you have the annoyance in mind ask yourself the following question - "what do I want to be different in this situation/person/event and what would I like to change about it?" By doing this you are identifying your thoughts behind the annoyance. After you have identified your wants behind your annoyance ask yourself the following question - "how does that make me feel?" By doing this you are identifying the emotions that are driving the wants behind the annoyance. Now for that moment stop suppressing the emotions and allow yourself to fully feel them. Allow them to come up and be fully expressed in your body. You will find when you do this the emotions reach a height and then start to fade away. This is you naturally 'releasing' the emotion. Once it is gone it is gone for good!

Here is an example of how to use this. You are at work and your boss wants you to get all your work finished by 5 o' clock. However, you are well aware that this is an impossible task yet you feel the mounting pressure to succeed at the task and try to get it done. You then find yourself rushing around doing ten things at all at once while you experience more and more stress caused by your impending deadline. So, you ask yourself the first stress-buster question - "what do I want to be different in this situation/person/event?" Let's say the answer that comes to mind is something like, "I want my boss to stop putting me under pressure". You have just identified some of your thoughts and desires behind the stress.

Next you ask yourself the second stress-buster question - "how does that make me feel?" You may answer, "I feel frustrated!" You have now identified one of the emotions behind your thoughts and desires about the situation. Then you proceed to the last stress-busting step and for the moment you stop suppressing that emotion and allow yourself to fully feel it. You delve into the feeling and allow your body to experience it fully. You may even imagine it is as a spent force escaping through your stomach, chest, neck, face or wherever you are feeling it in your body.

You can use this approach several times, as it only takes a few seconds to do. Within a few moments you will start to feel your stress completely fade. Keep asking the questions as there may be several reasons behind your stress or you may need to release a particularly deep-seated emotion a few times before it is gone.

Do not let the simplicity of this technique fool you, it is highly effective. Try it; you may just be surprised at the results! If you wish to know more read the full review of this stress releasing technique by following the link below.

Free review of the best Stress Busting product we tested. Find out what really works! Stress Management. The site that teaches you how to 'release'.

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