Affirming Your Commitment To Reduce Stress In Your Life

The language you use and the exact order of your words contributes to helping you feel calm and centered versus stressed and anxious. There is a definite connection between the words you tell yourself and the feelings that result in your body. Why not use empowering language to help you to feel your best in the present? Why not send empowering messages that strengthen your immune system into the future?

When it comes to words, can you think of any words that you seem to have a strong, immediate, and full-body reaction to? Words can activate our Fight/Flight autonomic nervous system. We not only go into the stress state due to the overload of too much stimulus and of having too much to deal with, we also go there due to a sense of threat or danger. When the cortex signals "Danger!" to the thalamus, that lower part of brain and nervous system, our physiology activates a whole series of events that puts us into a state of stress. In this General Arousal Syndrome (or Fight/Flight Syndrome), blood is withdrawn from the brain and stomach and sent to the larger muscle groups. Adrenalin is released into the blood stream to fully energize the muscles. Eyes dilate. The heart beats faster; the lungs pump harder.

Typically the sight, sound, smell, and feel of someone or some thing posing a threat or a danger activates this stress response. But with the development of language and conceptual states, we can signal threat and danger based on concepts rather than actual physical threat. This gives us the ability to totally freak out over ideas.

The opposite is also true. Using words, symbols, and various linguistics we can cue our mind-body connection to go into a state of relaxation, eustress, and the release of stress buildup. Words therefore are not neutral. By intentionally using words with precision, we can induce our neurology into a wide-range of states. Sometimes this can work in such a powerful, immediate, and pervasive way that it can only be described as "magical." So finding your own magical words— the words that most powerfully allow you to relax deeply and fully, to completely release tense and anger and threatening emotions, to stay calm and centered even in the midst of hectic, working experiences.

Think about the phrases, words and language that you can repeat to yourself to stay calm and centered during your day.

Just for a moment, think of a stressful time in your life. Allow yourself to live out that experience. See, hear and feel the pictures, sounds and emotions both internally and externally. Notice your breathing pattern. Is it shallow and from the chest? Are the back of your shoulders and your neck starting to feel tight and tense?

Now switch gears. Think of a happy experience. Allow yourself to get lost in the experience and notice your internal feeling of happiness. When you ask yourself how you are feeling inside, note your breathing. Chances are your breath is now much deeper and arises from your abdomen. Feel how much more relaxed your neck and shoulders are.

Trusting the process and expecting your journey to be pleasurable is part of your birthright. We can evolve to the point that we can experience our feelings and then stay detached. Accept each person into your life for their own individuality; know that each person has their own timetable to find their passion. Being patient and kind and caring to others and yourself is the greatest gift you can offer.