Let’s talk about stress, baby
Stress, we all deal with it on some level every day. Anything in our lives can cause stress. The difference is how we allow ourselves to react to it. As prior military, stress was life. If we weren’t stressed, we weren’t doing our jobs. Stress comes with the territory of being in the military. The thing that was most detrimental to myself and my brothers and sisters in arms, was the lack of tools we had to deal with the aftershock of stress once relieved from active duty. My baseline of stress was so high, for years, it made me physically sick. I learned through health and wellness, there are so many healthy tools to help combat stress and put that energy in a different direction. Don’t get me wrong, I still allow stress to take over me at times, but I have learned how to take a step back and analyze the situation and use those tools to bring me back.
Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash
As humans, we want to be able to control so many things in our lives and most of them we can, however, those things we can’t control, we must learn to calm our mind bodies and souls so that we don’t create this revolving door of stress within ourselves. General adaptation syndrome is the process our bodies go through when we are exposed to any kind of stress both positive and negative. If the stress is not resolved, we as humans can create this never-ending process and it has been studied and confirmed that this can lead to physical and mental health problems for some. So how do we go about that? Taking a step back and assessing the situation is a great first step. This allows our mind to sift through the stress. Meditation, working out, doing something you love i.e hobbies, (gardening, hiking, reading a book, puzzles) anything that brings you joy. As far as meditation, there are many different types. Typically, we are aware of the style of sitting, resting our minds, and the “ommmmmmmm”. That’s great but it doesn’t work for everyone.
Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash
There are 7 different types of meditation one can utilize to help reduce stress. These types include mindfulness, movement, mantra chanting, body scan, breath awareness, loving-kindness, and transcendentalism. I have found in my past experiences that just about any way I use to reduce my stress is a form of meditation. Always remember, you are not alone, no one is perfect, and we all suffer from stressful situations in our lives at some point. Reaching out to others and specialists who specialize in mind-body and soul approaches can help you develop tools to combat those hard situations in life.
