The Most Effective Stress Remedy is Free and Available To All

It is a good thing to learn to handle stress after it has already triggered your blood pressure, but it would be much more helpful to be able to prevent it beforehand. Dealing with stress is like weeding a garden; you need to get at the roots rather than just trimming off the stems and leaves. The only effective Stress Remedy is one that uproots the problem completely.

The good news is that it is not all that difficult to do once you understand the concept of visualization. When you learn to utilize the tool of visualization, you can create a buffer between yourself and the situation that threatens your stress levels.

Place Yourself In The Driver's Seat 

Visualization is acknowledged as an effective Stress Remedy by all cognitive psychologists because it is clinically proven that behavior and feelings are mainly the products of our own mental imagery and perception. But of course, cognitive psychology is a complex and deep science that centers around complicated matters of the human mind in areas such as problem solving, memory, and language. So I understand that the illustration of a link between "thoughts and feelings" is a bit generalized and simplistic, however it will suffice for our purpose of comprehending the concept in relation to What Causes Anxiety.

Basically, the concept is similar to the Raja Yoga meditation techniques which teach that by filling your mind with positive and peaceful thoughts, you will form a defense against stressful triggers. Only instead of just implanting feelings, you are re-evaluating existing feelings and perceptions.

Stress; The Monster Under The Bed

Stress, when it is manifested by physical and mental symptoms, is caused more by our perception of the trigger rather than by the trigger itself. Visualization is a prime factor because our perceptions are greatly the result of memories of previous experiences. Even though our past experiences play an important role in our feelings and reactions, we can either empower or defuse those experiences according to the thoughts and beliefs we hold about the memories.

Here are some examples that may help to clarify this concept further:

The loss of a spouse can be a very traumatic experience for anyone, especially if it is sudden and unexpected. But most of us will never go through that more than once in a lifetime, and most young people will have no experience with this type of situation. Most of us would attribute the inexpressible sadness and shock we feel to the external event being the death of our loved one. But our feelings and reaction to that life event has more to do with our own inability to adjust to the loss and our fear of the future. So the stress is mostly a result of shattered expectations based on a belief that life would continue as usual rather than the death itself. The remedy for this type of stress would be to learn to recognize that we have control over our future and are not limited by our past expectations which are dependent upon someone other than ourselves.

Consider another example; adults who were abused growing up as children generally feel worthless and victimized. An adult, who finds themselves to be a product of this mistreatment, will normally experience depression, feelings of inadequacy, and lack of worth due to their childhood experience. Visualization empowers us by making us realize that we do not need to be victims of our past experiences. Because when we understand the role that our thoughts and feelings play, we can remove the negative power behind them and replace it with positive reinforcement. To use an simplistic but effective analogy; ghosts will no longer scare you when you cease to believe in them, or cease to be afraid of them.

What; Me Worry?

So rather than fretting about a real or imagined danger, try to focus on action steps you can take to address the situation. Fretting is counterproductive and causes stress, while considering the problem analytically gives you the power to make a choice and find a solution. Your Stress Remedy lies in never allowing a problem to have power over you. External circumstances only have power over you if you give them that power. But you might say, “What if someone is holding a gun to my head?” True, you may be powerless, but that is beyond your control. You do not need to fret about it because there is nothing you can do. Although the outcome may be tragic, you are not going to improve it by sweating bullets so to speak. Recognize that your control is limited, but that you need not be a victim in your mind for any reason.

Knowledge is power. Just gaining a knowledge of this reality gives you the power to act upon it.

Face your problems head on and resolve to find an answer. Do not allow yourself to be a deer in the headlights, paralyzed by fear and inadequacy. If worse comes to worse, you will have the peace of mind of knowing that you did what you could, and let the chips fall where they may. Learn to visualize the situation from the perspective of you being in control. Your past is over with; you now have the freedom to react to it as you wish. So consider the outcome that you desire and focus your attention on how to achieve that.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough touble of its own” Matthew 6:34

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