Are you living in a constant state of stress?

Are you living in a constant state of stress? Sometimes, if we are not careful, we begin to let the fear of the future &/or the negativity of the past rule our present lives. When we do this, we are training our mind & body to live in survival mode. Survival mode keeps us in fear, keeps us releasing stress chemicals & soon enough we are living in “fight or flight” 24/7 - having horrible effects on our body & mind over time, leaving little room for anything positive.

Our minds, more specifically, our thoughts, tell our bodies what to do & how to act - including what chemicals & hormones to release. Have you ever been talking to a friend and told them a story of how another person really pissed you off? If you really got into the details, recalling every moment that upset you, you could actually feel your body reacting to the thought just as it did to the actual event. Now you are wound up and just as upset as you were when the event actually took place. But is that what we really want? Do we want to constantly stay in a state of anger and hurt? Or maybe you’re an expert in anticipating the future and your expertise is to react to something that hasn’t even happened yet. You rehearse all of the stress & negative emotions before they are actually triggered in your body by an outside event. Instead, you trigger them with your thoughts alone, in turn, experiencing exactly what you want to avoid before it even happens, (or if it even happens - all of that may be for nothing!).

What a wild way to live, right? Causing the pain for ourselves that we are trying to avoid. Rehearsing our stress response to something that may never come to fruition. Reliving the past that we claim we wish never happened. We can all agree that this sounds less than ideal, but we do it so often. So my challenge to you this week is to live in the now. Stay out of thoughts of the past or future & stay in the present. Whenever you feel yourself drifting into thoughts that produce stress or negativity, stop and evaluate…is this happening right now? Or is this a past or potential future event that I am responding to emotionally? Stop where you are and look for things in the present moment to be grateful & joyful about - a cool breeze, the sun shining, the roof over your head, your lungs that are able to successfully fill up with air. These are not things that should be taken for granted. As you’ve heard before, what if you woke up tomorrow with only that which you were grateful for today? So moving forward, let’s guard our thoughts & create the states within ourselves that we want to live in - joy, happiness & love.