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Stefan Molyneux/Podcasts

 Are You Ready to Live a Less-Stressed Life?

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Are You Ready to Live a Less Stressed Life

 Are You Ready to Live a Less-Stressed Life?

Hi

Whenever you experience stress, your body goes into action. You get a flood of chemicals and hormones that are designed to help you deal with the stress. In addition to that, your body speeds up other internal processes in order to prepare you to face whatever it is that you need to deal with.

You might feel your heart rate speed up and you might feel a surge of strength from the adrenaline. Once the stressor is dealt with, everything goes back to the way that it was before in your body.

The problem that can occur is that the body’s response to stress can be addictive. When you’re facing stressors and your body kicks it up a notch, it gives you an “on guard” feeling.

Your senses become more alert and you feel ready for action. This is a type of high that the body gives you. If you feel this natural high as a reaction to stress every now and then, that’s not usually an issue.

But it becomes an issue when you start to rely on that high more and more in order to function. The reaction that you end up having is identical to someone who’s addicted to a substance like alcohol or drugs.

You might even find that you deliberately and subconsciously seek to create stress in order to get the body to respond and give you that burst of adrenaline. If you allow it to go on, then it can adversely affect you.

Quitting Your Addiction to Stres

If you’re someone who’s caught in the cycle of stress, that doesn’t mean that there’s no way out. There is hope for you to be able to break the addiction to stress. Start by stepping away from what makes you stressed.

This might mean that you need to take a break and go cold turkey from something like your workaholic tendencies or social media. You’ll find that at first, you’ll crave whatever you’re pushing aside, but give it time. Those cravings will subside.

If the stressors in your life are people, limit the time that you spend with them or take a break from them for a while until you feel stronger. This can help you induce stress cleanse and allow you to think clearly.

Replace the stress addiction with a stress reliever. This might be something like exercise or joining an organization where you have great social interaction. It might be volunteering somewhere or using a meditation program.

Change is something that you can achieve because you have the potential to overcome stress addiction and break free. Hold onto your potential and on difficult days accept that though you may be a work in progress, you can still move forward.

Keep your focus on one stress reducer at a time. Exchange one bad habit for a good one. Make sure that you plan to do something fun and positive every day. Choose to live in the moment.

 Are You Ready to Live a Less-Stressed Life?

Get Ready to Confront Your Emotions

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Get Ready to Confront Your Emotions

 Get Ready to Confront Your Emotions

Hi

Your emotions are your barometer in life. They let you know when all is well and they tell you when it isn’t. When you get stressed, your emotions can turn from happy to angry.

You can feel blue. If you don’t address your emotions, they’ll impact your thinking and your health. Most people push their emotions aside and act stoic because they haven’t learned good coping skills and avoidance is what feels comfortable for them.

But if you want to find stress relief, one of the first steps to take is to deal with your emotions. It’s not enough to try to address the stress in the moment that it happens.
By addressing the root cause of the emotions, you gain stress relief.

The problem is that like others, you may not enjoy confronting your feelings. It’s not comfortable. Sometimes, there can be fear there – or pain. And no one really wants to dig around in topics that make them uncomfortable.

But you’ll have to do that if you want to eliminate stress. If you turn away from your emotions, that might seem like it’s the best way to handle them. You might think that if you don’t have to deal with what you feel, then you won’t be stressed.

Pushing your emotions aside does work – but only for a little while. You can bet that eventually, they will come back the next time you’re stressed. Only by then, they might be tougher to deal with and you’ll feel even worse and have more stress.

Maybe you haven’t wanted to confront your feelings because they’re in an area you can’t face. You’re struggling in a relationship and it’s so stressful. Your emotions are up and down and you’re losing sleep.

Putting off confronting the emotions over that relationship might feel like it’s the best course of action, but it’s not. Everything will get worse. You might have a friendship where there are issues that keep you stressed but you don’t want to deal with those emotions because you’re afraid that might be the end.

Quitting Your Addiction to Stres

When it boils down to it, you really only have two choices in life. You can confront the emotions and gain real stress relief or you can keep doing what you’ve been doing that clearly isn’t working for you.

When you confront your emotions, it helps you learn how to handle your feelings so that they’re not used to hurt you when you’re stressed. You won’t beat yourself up, and you won’t have guilt.

Confront your feelings, but be gentle with yourself when you do so. Allow yourself to understand why you feel the way that you do. This will help you determine if you need to take action in a situation or with a person.

When you confront your emotions, it builds strength that’s more powerful than stress. That’s because emotions can give you mental strength, but stress drains your energy.

Get Ready to Confront Your Emotions

Stress Is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

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Stress Is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

Subject: Stress Is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

Hi

Shame is a side effect of stress. People who have stress and want to get help with it often feel awkward talking about it. They’re afraid that using stress relief tools, programs or strategies will make them appear weak to others.

This kind of label creates a stigma in the mind of the person who wants relief from stress. They give themselves a label and conclude that it means they’re different from other people who don’t seek help – weaker.

You might think that having stress is something that you need to be ashamed of. Maybe you try to hide your stress and don’t want anyone to know that you want help because you feel embarrassed.

Maybe you feel awkward about it or you feel shame because you do the comparison game. You look at other people’s lives and think that their struggles are so much worse than yours.

They’ve got their act together and they’re so successful. You know they’re stressed, yet they seem fine without help while you’re not. Just because something seems a certain way doesn’t make it the truth.

You don’t know what goes on inside someone else’s mind. This perception you have of yourself and allowing that shame comes through outside sources as well as inner insecurities you may have.

Quitting Your Addiction to Stres

You’ve believed things about the stress that isn’t true. It’s not something that you can just “shake off” and move on. Stress can be debilitating because it’s so powerful. It can rob you of your sleep, your appetite, your relationships, your job, and your health.

It’s an act of extreme courage to admit that you need help. The right tools can support you, so don’t be afraid to do whatever it takes to get better. There are so many resources you can turn to for help.

You can seek professional help from a counselor. You can use meditation or other self-help tools. These things can teach you how to manage the stress you have and calm the anxiety or other emotional things that are going on.

When you learn the right coping methods to deal with stress, it protects you and makes you stronger. This is why it takes a formidable person to seek help. Feeling stress shame can make you believe that you’re not good enough and that’s a lie.

Don’t let this rob you from what you need. Seeking help for your stress is never something to be ashamed of.

Stress Is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

How Many Stress Relievers Have You Tried?

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How Many Stress Relievers Have You Tried

How Many Stress Relievers Have You Tried?

Hi

It’s better for your physical and mental health if you find a way to relieve your stress rather than learn how to just live with it. When you eliminate your stress, you’ll find that you have more energy, improved mental clarity, and you don’t experience as much anxiety or sadness.

But you have to find what works for you. You can try different methods and it can be beneficial to keep a stress log. This way, you can identify when you feel stressed and what the circumstances were.

By identifying the stress relievers you used, you’ll be able to pinpoint what was most helpful to you. You can try meditation. When you meditate, this helps calm the chaos that may be running through your mind.

Plus, you’ll regain your inner peace and that boosts your mood and makes you feel better physically. There are different kinds of meditation you can use such as visualization, deep breathing, and guided imagery.

The upside is that this stress reliever can be used at home or at work discreetly. Some people use the Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT as a stress reliever. This is a resource that uses the energy you contain in the meridian points to get rid of stress.

You can also try yoga. Certain types of yoga use a combination of moves and breathing to induce calmness. This eliminates stress and many of the physical symptoms that are linked to stress.

Quitting Your Addiction to Stres

Exercise can alleviate stress. Whenever you exercise, you get a release of the feel-good chemicals in the brain. This stabilizes mood, boosts your energy, and eases mental stress.

Plus, it can also help ease the physical symptoms of stress. Aromatherapy is a good stress reliever and so is taking supplements that are known to restore calm. Sometimes, a stress reliever can be found in pursuing a hobby such as drawing, knitting, or coloring.

Whatever option you choose to try, you’ll be able to tell if it’s working or not because you won’t notice a significant difference in how you feel. Your stress level may not change at all.

Don’t force yourself to stick with any one method just because someone says it worked for them. What worked for someone else might not work for you. It’s okay to try more than one stress reliever.

It’s also okay to need to combine more than one. For example, you might find that exercise is helpful to you, but that you still struggle with moments where the stress isn’t relieved by working out.

You might find that by adding aromatherapy, you do find the relief you’re looking for. By writing down what your stress symptoms are and how you approach getting rid of them, you’ll be able to put together a plan to deal with the stress in your life that works at any time.

How Many Stress Relievers Have You Tried?