THIS WEEK’S FOCUS:
Life after Stress v Stress Kills!
It’s that time of the year again – everyone seems to stressed out! Then again, 2014 seems to have been a really tough year for virtually everyone I speak to, wherever they happen to be in the world.
As far as stress goes, it appears there is good news and bad news! You see, from what the neuroscientists say, there appears to be different levels of stress. No surprises there! Stress stage one, they say is normal, and is in fact good for us because it keeps us focused and conscious. Stress stages two and three, however, are normal stress gone wrong and reflect our mind and body’s response to stress. “Even a little bit of these negative levels of stress from a little bit of toxic thinking has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health,” says cognitive neuroscientist Caroline Leaf.
It’s true we cannot choose the stimuli we encounter in our personal and work lives but we have the ability to choose our responses to them – and remember our discussion last week: a huge number of studies reflect that between 75 and 98 percent of mental and physical illnesses come from our thought lives.
So it’s not stress that kills, but the way we respond to it. Best we drop our toxic responses and choose more appropriate responses as we deal with this stressful period of our lives!
Monday Morning Perspective: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James
Kind regards
Lauron
