Take Charge of Your Family Stress - What Now?

Posted on May 5, 2010 12:00:00am, by Gerrianne Clare

Yesterday, I held the first of many webinars on "Taking Charge of Stress".  I have come to the conclusion that people are unaware of how much stress they and their family is under.  This lack of awareness is creating havoc on our health, our relationships and our performance.

Many people are resigned to the fact that their life is stressful and there is really nothing that they can do about it.  After all, we need to pay the bills, feed our children and make a living.  This is all true, but what many people fail to realize is that it not "What we have to do" that creates our stress, but our reaction to "What we have to do".

Between the stressful event and your reaction to it, you have a choice as how you can react.  Many people do not know any other way to be so they often act from anger, frustration, withdrawal or complacency.

How do you react to stressful events?

Do you feel your blood boiling, your heart rate increasing, your muscles tightening in your neck and shoulders?  Do you carry this negative energy around you for a while until you blow up at a colleague, your child or your spouse?

Or are you able to let it go.  Realize you have done the best you could in the situation.  Put in some corrections for next time you are faced with this situation.  Be gentle and loving with yourself.

These two reactions are opposite sides of the coin and what they do to your body also have different impacts.  When you are angry, feel the physical sensation in your body, you are causing a series of physical responses that impact your thinking and your emotions.  When the stressful event has passed you have a hangover of sorts from all of the excess adrenaline and cortisol that was released during this reaction.

When you can give yourself permission to calm down, go with the flow and not fight what you cannot control you have a calming set of hormones that are generated in your system.  The truth is we can find ways to change our physiology if we learn some tools.  Throughout these blog posts you will find a variety of different tools and strategies to try.

Today I read a great blog "How to use a blog to Accomplish Any Goal".  I always find Snirivas messages powerful and insightful.  Check it out. 

The time is now to Take Charge of Your Stress!!  If you don't start now, the negative impact continues to build and that leads to many symptoms.

Take care and I will blog with you soon.

Gerrianne