Embrace Stress and Let it Go - How do you Relieve Stress

Our everyday life is filled with all kinds of stress. Whether it is is in the home, the office, our friends and family or dealing with a plethora of issues in our daily lives, stress happens. What is stress by the way? Our bodies react to common stressors in response to what is seen as threats to our system. In response to this perceived stress, our nervous system infuses our bodies with sufficient stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, as a protective mechanism. These hormones are supposed to help us deal with the threat by arousing and readying our bodies for action. Our senses are heightened, blood pressure goes up, our breaths become shorter as our heart beats faster.

You may have heard it said over and over again that stress is not all bad. In fact, without stress, we may not be able to deal effectively with threats or take action on important issues that affect our daily lives. Stress, therefore, should not be feared, but embraced.

The problem, however, is when we don’t know how to let go. One can only hold an embrace for just so long, regardless of how good or bad the embrace feels, without getting sick and tired. Think of lifting a set of 5 pound weights. You are fairly comfortable doing so. You know that you are working your muscles and therefore it is quite beneficial to your overall well being. However, there comes a point when those 5 pound weights begin to feel like 10 or 20 pound weights and the longer you keep pushing it you start to get diminishing returns. There is a point where you have to let go, put the weights down at least for awhile and start again.

Stress is no different. While it may be helpful in preparing our bodies to deal with real or perceived threats, we may find that increasingly our bodies become conditioned to dealing with “perceived” rather than “real” threats. Preparing for an interview, meeting with the boss, confronting someone or going to see the doctor can all create feelings of doom and gloom causing our stress levels to go through the roof. Feelings of stress and anxiety about what could be the outcome of an event only creates more stress. In other words we are stressed over being stressed.

Much of what contributes to increasing our stress levels have to do with our reaction to the event. You may start to panic before a meeting with the boss based on wild imaginings about what the boss wants to see you about. You create scenarios about maybes which you act out in your mind all of which creates unnecessary stress. By the time you see your boss and it is good news, you have already started on a path of anticipating the worse which becomes a difficult habit to break.

To reduce stress and prevent it from controlling your life, you need to let go. This may be easier said than done, however, there is no harm in trying. Drop the weight and pick it up again if you really need to. By dropping the weight( consciously letting go of the thing or thought that is causing you stress) will bring instant relief. By embracing stress, you are telling yourself that it has no power over you, that it is a natural reaction to a stimuli and