The Art of Stress Free Living

I had the opportunity to attend a phenomenal lecture while I was at Kripalu. It was on the topic of stress, which as a yoga therapist I’ve read and heard a lot about, but this presenter's approach was a bit different and helped to me understand all the information I already know on a deeper level.

Susan Lord is a MD and has an intense interest in spreading the word about stress and how it affects our bodies. From the yoga therapy perspective we believe that stress is the root cause of most disease. Many of the techniques that she spoke about we do as yoga therapists, but she had one very good point that even I struggle with. We know when we have stress and with time we see that stress accumulating in the body. At that point we want to do something about the stress, we are aware of it. We will try various things to reduce the stress (meditation, yoga), but somehow it doesn’t go away. Here is why.

We can’t will away our stress. Being aware of your stress and the impact on your body is important, but you can’t think it away once you know it is there. I’m guilty of this too. I will start to feel my anxiety build and will take some deep breaths and think, this will calm me down. But it doesn’t always because I’m more focused on waiting to see if I calm down then I am on my breath.

The other reason we fail is that we aren’t consistent. We must practice daily on reducing our stress. Not just when we feel it overwhelming us. We have to train our bodies to react differently to stress, to see it and let it go, not hang on to it. It takes 90 seconds for an emotion to move through our bodies. Within that 90 seconds we usually feel the emotion, than start to think about the emotion and then become obsessed with it and that is when it causes us stress. Instead, try feeling the emotion, look at it a bit, then let it go and in a few seconds it will be gone completely. If it comes back into your mind, just let it go. It can’t hurt us if we let it go.

Dr. Lord’s recommendations to letting go of stress are simple. Here they are:

1.       Build self awareness. You can’t fix it if you don’t know what it is that is going on.

2.       Express your truth. When we don’t say what we want or feel it causes us stress. You need to have these conversations even if they are difficult. Find a way to have the conversation that gets your point across but without harsh or blaming language. If that person rejects you, see it as a blessing that they weren’t meant to be in your life, they are negative energy. We only want positive energy in our life.

3.       Make a list of thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Get to know them and work with them. Start to eliminate all the negative ones.

4.       Experimentation. Change is hard, especially if you are told for example not to have a drink when you are stressed. When you’ve had a bad day instead of having a glass of wine, stop to think why you had a bad day and how you could have made it better. Solve your problem. It is ok to have a drink, but make sure you are drinking it because you enjoy it, not because you are using it to get away from something.

5.       Be present. Don’t live in the past, let it go. You can’t change it and it will only suck your energy. Same with the future, it's not here yet. If you are living for tomorrow you are never truly living today.

6.       Judgment. Don’t judge as you never fully know the life someone is living. Don’t be quick to make a decision about something or someone. Stop and listen fully to what someone is saying without interrupting. Get all the information. This may open you up to more possibilities such as a better relationship with the person.

We all have stress , but it doesn't have to rule our lives and adveresly affect our health. By doing these simple mindful living techniques we can make a profound difference in our lives. We will be healthier both physically and emotionally.