Do you need a plumber?

Getting rid of the destructive effects of stress on your life is not that difficult. It does require knowing what actions to take and a commitment to taking those actions. Stress is a little like having a bathtub with a clogged drain and the faucet is on full blast. If you don’t do something immediately water will be running over the sides. Eventually the structure of the floor will be compromised and if the tub was on the second floor, you may find yourself taking a bath on the first floor.

Stress affects your ability to think, focus, problem solve and so can interfere with your productivity and success. Just think about your last stressful incident. How productive and creative were you? Were you able to think or were your thoughts like a runaway train. Your emotions are run ragged and this affects your perceptions of joy and happiness. Do you become sad, depressed, feel frustrated or angry when you get stressed? Each of us is different and, but each of us loses our ability to control our emotions.

I refer to one of the best remedies for turning off your internal faucet and stopping the increase of unwanted hormones coursing through your veins as the Attitude Adjustment Routine. I call it this because it stops the downward spiral of losing control and turning you into a victim of the situation. The steps taken in the Attitude Adjustment Routine include closing your eyes, taking several Breaths of Life, massaging, stretching, or shaking any tense areas in your body, smiling, and then committing yourself to the task at hand.

Seventy-five percent of the stimuli we respond to on a daily basis is visual in nature. Stress dilates the pupils and so unconsciously adds unnecessary information to be processed. Closing your eyes re-constricts the pupils. Slow, deep, rhythmical breathing can remove up to ninety percent of stress hormones and their toxic by-products from the body. A deliberate focus on your breath also stops you from mentally thinking about the cause or consequences of the stressful situation. This step helps you get back into the present so you can focus on appropriate information.

Energy can become blocked as a result of the stress response and this creates tension in different areas of the body. Massaging, stretching, and shaking the affected parts releases that energy and the deep breathing will remove the toxic chemicals that caused the tension. Where do you experience stress? Is it in the back of your neck or shoulders and lower back? Do you grit your teeth? Do your legs feel heavy or feet become sore? Or do you experience stress in other parts of your body?

The simple act of smiling releases chemicals that counter the effects of the stress hormones and puts your nervous system back into a non-stressed state. You don’t have to be happy to smile. Smiling when you’re stressed out is quite difficult (and probably something you don’t want to be doing at the time) but very important if you don’t want to give in to stress. With the stress controlled you can open your eyes and get back to the important things that must be taken care of. Worrying about the causes or consequences of the stressful situation does not help you alleviate the situation that caused your stress in the first place. In fact, it only stresses you out further.

You won’t need a plumber if you use the Attitude Adjustment Routine every time you find yourself in a stressful or adverse situation. You will be simply turning off your internal stress faucet. With practice you will be able to change your attitude from that of a victim to one of control. You may not be able to do anything about the situation that caused you stress, but you can do something about how you respond to it.

This is just one remedy for the immediate response to threat. There are more. We also must do something to our internal drains that have become clogged with toxic chemicals from log-term exposure to unresolved stress. But that’s another day. I hope this helps. You can live Stress Free.