STRESS RELIEF – A personal EXPERIENCE

http://www.stressmanagementonline.co.uk

Stress comes at you from all angles anytime, any day. It does not wait for you to be ready for it. If you are not balanced or grounded then the tiniest thing can make you feel fatigued, tense, fed up and sometimes just weighed down!!!

I have lived with these types of sensations in my body for most of my life. Strangely enough when I explored my history from birth it was not surprising that I discovered that I had been exposed to the experience stress since I was born….though I have only realised this in the last few years!

I was born to very loving and caring parents, but at the time of my birth my mum was dealing with her father’s health deteriorating from lung cancer while my dad was trying to cope with his mother’s failing health. I was only 6 months old when these two grandparents passed away within a month of each other. It turns out this type of grief in a family is a lot to cope with but at 6 months of age it ends up being a lot of grief for a new little mind body system to endure.

During my child hood I experienced other events that put stress on my body such as the Ash Wednesday Fires where I snuck into my parent’s bedroom to peak out the window only to see the hills on fire.

Then there were the YEARS of emotional manipulation and physical hurt which was topped with the daily bullying at primary school…..and I wasn’t even 12 years old yet.

I could go on and on and in fact when I told ‘My Story’ to my peers during my 4 year Psychotherapy and Counselling course I realised exactly what my system had endured for those previous 32 years. I realised I hadn’t been managing my stress, anxiety, depression, overwhelm and tension, I had simply being pushing it down, ignoring it and not really letting people get close.

Whilst you may not consciously be aware of all the stress you have endured throughout your life, your mind body system is aware. It stores these experiences in the system and can trigger a state-dependant response at any time without warning. More often than not you wont be aware why you react a certain way to a situation or why a smell makes you feel a certain way BUT your mind body system remembers and knows.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/reife014/myblog2/2012/01/the-mind-body-interconnection-of-college-stress.html

With my experience it all felt ‘normal’ to me…..though through awareness that the mind body system remembers I began to wonder what had I done with all this stress? I thought I had just been pushing it ‘away’, sure I had, I had pushed it away down into my body which had to find its own way to express it and be heard.

Somatisation.

For those that are not aware somatisation is a tendency to experience and communicate psychological distress through the physical body. My expression of choice…..an temperamental nerve disorder, mouth ulcers, chest infections and a poor immune system. The phrase “you’re always sick” has been a common statement to me for years.

Thankfully before I realised all that my system had endured I had been introduced to some Stress Relief Techniques. When I was first introduced to Meridian Tapping, I would use it daily and the Bi-lateral stimulation music would be in my ears for up to 8 hours a day on some occasions, yet still my body craved more. It craved to be heard.

• What do you do with your stress?
• Are you like I was and ignore it, hope it will go away, think a walk will be enough to dispel it?

If you have had years of enduring stress and your body is starting to act out, I urge you to do something about it.

Meridian Tapping has helped me to control many things in my life and I use it most days. It helps metabolise the stress response in your body so that it is discharged from your body. Naming the issue, belief or stress can be a powerful thing on its own but when combined with the Mindful Meridian tapping it can make a lot of difference. Even with something as simple as noticing the present issue and your breath at the end of the tapping sequence can make you feel calmer and release tension from your shoulders.

So now that I know that I have resources and skills to call upon, my response to stress looks very different, most of the time. I have to remember though that I am not perfect and that some situations and comments can still cause stressful responses. This is OK.

I am often confronted with this at work (I have been a Clinical Researcher for over 11 years at a large internationally recognised medical institution and work with some chronically ill children). I now find my first point of call is to take a moment, put my hand on my belly and just breathe, paying attention to the breath as it moves in and out of my body. It gives my mind and my body a chance to pause for a moment allowing me to apply mindfulness to the situation. My initial reaction is often altered by this simple act and I usually choose to stand up, walk out to the balcony, take a few more mindful breaths and then return to where I need to be. I return to be in ‘the moment’ which allows me to deal with what needs to be dealt with.

On occasion where I need to release something quickly so it doesn’t continue to affect me I will rub the NLR (Neuro-Lymphatic Release) point and state something like “I release all the built up stress and tension from my body with each exhalation”. I may say it to myself or out loud (if no one is around), but will always say it 3 times or more.

It happens less often now but occasionally something will stay with me after I leave work or something that has particularly bothered me, which I know would create stress to be stored in my body, then I use the Meridian Tapping to ensure I release it. I still have some stuck stress to work through and now by listening to my body I know when it needs a break or some work and will utilise the techniques I mentioned either by myself, with my therapist or with a colleague.  I am sure you have all heard of the expression “You’re like an onion, one layer comes off but there are more underneath to get through”.

It appears that some people have a great threshold for absorbing what life throws at them, they don’t need help, and being able to talk to friends or family is enough. But if you are someone like me who absorbs the stress into their body, who has a short fuse at times, that always feels like their shoulders sit near their ears and who hears the statement “but you’re always sick” then perhaps you could benefit for learning some Stress Relief techniques. It really has changed my life and I shudder to think how I would be if I had not learnt the Meridian tapping, mindfulness, received the bi-lateral music, or discovered the amazing NLR.

About the author:

Julie is a qualified holistic counsellor and clinical researcher. She is counselling clients in private practice and facilitating Stress Relief Workshops. Check out our next Stress Relief Workshop at https://www.facebook.com/BringingCalmToTheBodyAndMind It will be an interactive and experiential afternoon where we provide you with some skills to help cope with daily stress, tension and anxiety. While also providing you with some techniques to energize yourself on those days when you just ‘don’t have the energy’!!!

For more info call Julie at 0417 355 761 or

email her at bringingcalmtobodymind@gmail.com

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