It is especially relevant today as so many unpleasant events are a big part of our lives. Is it possible that we might have a part in creating them?

I am personally learning to take responsibility for all of the difficult situations that have transpired in my life over the past few years and that ownership has created new levels of freedom.

Is it possible that you might have created certain events in your life that might in some way be serving your growth?

There are scores of people in the world who seem to be magnets for calamity. They live their lives jumping from one difficult situation to the next, surrounded by unstable individuals. Some believe themselves victims of fate and decry a universe they regard as malevolent. Others view their chaotic circumstances as just punishments for some failing within. Yet, in truth, neither group has been fated or consigned to suffer. They are likely unconsciously drawing drama into their lives, attracting catastrophe through their choices, attitudes, and patterns of thought. Drama, however disastrous, can be exciting and stimulating. But the thrill of pandemonium eventually begins to frustrate the soul and drain the energy of all who embrace it. To halt this process, we must understand the root of our drama addiction, be aware of our reactions, and be willing to accept that a serene, joyful life need not be a boring one.

Many people, so used to living in the dramatic world they create, feel uncomfortable when confronted with the prospect of a lifetime of peace and contentment. The drama in their lives serves multiple purposes. Upset causes excitement, prompting the body to manufacture adrenaline, which produces a pleasurable surge of energy. For those seeking affection in the form of sympathy, drama forms the basis of their identity as a victim. And when drama is familial, many people believe they can avoid abandonment by continuing to play a key role in the established family dynamic. The addiction to drama is fed by the intensity of the feelings evoked during bouts of conflict, periods of uncertainty, and upheaval.

Understanding where the subconscious need for drama stems from is the key to addressing it effectively. Journaling can help you transfer this need from your mind onto a benign piece of paper. After repeated writing sessions, your feelings regarding the mayhem, hurt feelings, and confusion often associated with drama become clear. When you confront your emotional response to drama and the purpose it serves in your life, you can reject it. Each time you consciously choose not to take part in dramatic situations or associate with dramatic people, you create space in your inner being that is filled with a calm and tranquil stillness and becomes an asset in your quest to lead a more centered life.

When we have to give a talk to a group of people, we feel anxious and experience the bodily fear responses that do not make sense now: The system is not meant to function in this safe context.

As a psychiatrist specialized in anxiety and trauma, I often tell my patients and students that to understand how fear works in us, we have to see it in the context where it evolved. Ten thousand years ago, if another human frowned at us, chances were high one of us would be dead in a couple minutes. In the tribal life of our ancestors, if other tribe members did not like you, you would be dead, or exiled and dead.

Biological evolution is very slow, but civilization, culture, society, and technology evolve relatively fast. It takes around a million years for evolutionary change to happen in a species, and people have been around for about 200,000 years. Each of us, however, sees drastic changes in our lifestyle and environment over a matter of a few years.

Let’s compare the life for which this body and brain has evolved with the life we live, from my perspective as a scientist and a physician.

What we eat

We evolved in a context of scarcity, and had to walk or run for miles and scavenge to find food; we had to work for it. When we ate, we did not know when the next time would be. When we had it, we were better off eating the high-calorie food that increased our chance of survival when hungry (greasy food feels appealing). Food was not quick to digest, stomachs also had to work hard for it: meat, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. None of these contained “easy” sugary calories. The body that was prone to starvation, evolved to eat it all when available, and store it, and be stingy in its use.

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For many, life is a hodgepodge of never-ending commitments. Yet few of us can be truly healthy or happy without regular periods of downtime. While there is nothing inherently wrong with busyness, those of us who over-commit or over-extend ourselves potentially face exhaustion and burnout. When you feel overwhelmed by your commitments, examining your motivation for taking on so many obligations can help you understand why you feel compelled to do so much. You may discover that you are being driven by fear that no one else will do the job or guilt that you aren’t doing enough. To regain your equilibrium and clear the clutter from your calendar, simplify your life by establishing limits regarding what you will and will not do based on your personal priorities. 

Determining where your priorities lie can be as easy as making two lists: one that outlines all those obligations that are vital to your well-being, such as work, meditation, and exercise, and another that describes everything you do that is not directly related to your well-being. Although there will likely be items in the latter list that excite your passion or bring you joy, you may discover that you devote a large portion of your time to unnecessary activities. To simplify your schedule, consider which of these unnecessary activities add little value to your life and edit them from your agenda. Remember that you may need to ask for help, say no firmly, or delegate responsibility in order to distance yourself from such encumbrances. However, as you divest yourself of non-vital obligations that cause you stress, serve no purpose, or rob you of opportunities to refresh yourself, you will feel more energetic and enthusiastic about life in general.

If simplifying your schedule seems prohibitively difficult and you still feel pressed to take on more, try imagining how each new commitment will impact your life before saying yes. When you consider the hassle associated with superfluous obligations, you may be surprised to see that your schedule is impeding your attempts to grow as an individual. Your willingness to pare down your agenda, no matter how gradual your progress, will empower you to retake active control of the life that defines you.

From DailyOM

This helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce stress and anxiety.

Anytime you want to hack your vagus nerve to reduce stress or improve decision-making, a simple self-talk script could be: “I’m stressing out. In order to calm down so I can perform better on this decision-making task, I’m going to take two minutes (right now!) to do 10 rounds of vagus nerve breathing based on a 4:8 inhalation-to-exhalation ratio.”

During the four-second inhalation phase, I’d recommend breathing in through your nose—as you relax the back of your eyes and visualize filling up your lower diaphragm with oxygen—and slowly count to four. Then, I’d recommend exhaling through pursed lips (as if you’re blowing out lots of candles on a birthday cake) as you slowly count to eight.

Remember: If you’re feeling especially stressed out, you can increase your rVNS breathing time to five minutes or a total of 25 twelve-second 4:8 breathing cycles. Repeat as needed.

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From Psychology Today

They can be the loving companions that love us no matter what we look like or how we feel…AND…they can be emotional helpers – sharing and processing our emotions (both positive and negative) to help us feel better.

When I work with animals using biofeedback, I see that the emotions that I pick up in the pets are often the same ones from their owners! I will tell the owners what I found and balanced, and they will often say “WOW, that is my stuff!”.

After a long, stressful day, cuddling up on the couch with your pet might be just what the doctor ordered. While there’s a good chance a cuddle session with your favorite furry friend will help cheer you up, they might be feeling just the opposite when you bring stress into your home environment. According to a new study published in Scientific Reports, dog owners who experience stress for long periods at a time can actually transfer their anxiety to their pups.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed 58 people who own border collies or Shetland sheepdogs. They examined hair from the dogs as well as the owners, looking specifically at concentrations of cortisol. Cortisol — often referred to as the stress hormone — is released into the bloodstream and absorbed by hair follicles in response to stress.

Researchers found that cortisol levels in the hair of dog owners were a close match to the cortisol levels of the hair in their dogs throughout the year. The pattern suggests that the stress levels of dogs and their owners are in sync.

The study also showed that the link was stronger with competitive dogs. While they aren’t exactly sure what causes the synchronization, researchers believe the bond formed between owner and competitive dogs during training may increase dogs’ emotional reliance on their owners.

When it comes to pets, you may have heard the saying, “They might only be a part of your life, but you are their whole life.” While you have other social networks, your pup only has you. You are the central point of your dog’s life, which is why researchers believe the stress influence only works one way — they found that several human personality traits can affect canine cortisol levels.

Previous studies have shown that your pet is able to sense your moods and emotions, so this new study doesn’t necessarily come as a shock. As stressful as your day might be, you can be sure that your loyal canine companion is waiting anxiously to spend time with you when you get home. So whenever possible, try to leave your stress at the door and spend some quality play time with Fido. There’s a 100% chance you won’t regret it.

From Mercola

Stress accounts for more than 92% of ALL CHRONIC ILLNESS – so would be wise to consider some of the ideas in here.

Stress affects most of us to one degree or another, and that even includes animals. My lab studies early-life stress in pigs and how it impacts their health later in life, specifically in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Pigs, whose GI tracts are extremely similar to those of humans, may be one of the clearest windows we have into researching stress, disease, and new therapies and preventatives.

In my study of how stress makes humans and pigs vulnerable to disease, I have seen the profound impact that stress-related chemical substances, such as hormones and peptides, can have on a body’s tissues. I’m hopeful that our research in piglets could eventually lead to treatments for both people and animals designed to mitigate the adverse effects of stress on GI health.

How stress can save your life

Not all stress is bad. When we perceive a threat, our hypothalamus – one of our most basic parts of the brain – kicks in to protect us by triggering what many recognize as the “fight or flight”response. It is a primal evolutionary response programmed in our brains to help us first survive and then restore us to a normal set point, or what feels like stability.

What actually is happening has to do with something called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is at the core of the stress response. During stress, the hypothalamus, a region in the brain, makes and sends out a chemical called corticotrophin-releasing factor, which signals for the pituitary gland to release another chemical, adrenocorticotrophic hormone.

This stimulates the adrenal gland to release adrenalin and cortisol. Adrenalin and cortisol, two of the most well-known stress hormones, power our bodies to react during the fight or flight response. They can heighten our response time in a fight. They can pump blood to our extremities when we flee. They can boost our immune system to protect against pathogens. That stress response gives us what we need to resolve the situation.

How stress can harm your life

Fortunately for many of us, we don’t have to deal with life-threatening situations on a regular basis. However, we still experience stress.

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Some days, it seems as if nothing is going right. It may be a lot of little things adding up or one major thing bothering you, like a difficult project at work that’s not coming together, an argument with your significant other, or worries about a health issue. But whatever the cause may be, it is essential to recognize when you’re getting frazzled and do something to ease your stress. And achieving that relief might even be easier than you realize. According to new research, all it may take is a little time spent in nature.

The study, which was conducted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, found that spending 20 minutes or more in nature is linked to a significant drop in stress hormone levels.1 These results are based on an investigation that included 36 men and women with a mean age of almost 46, all of whom were residing in urban areas.

Over the course of eight weeks, the subjects were given a mandate to visit an outdoor setting where they would feel as if they were encountering nature. They chose the locations themselves and decided when they wanted to go within the guidelines that it be three times a week for a minimum of 10 minutes per visit throughout the duration of the study. The volunteers were discouraged from engaging in certain activities that could affect their stress levels while out in their nature spot, including exercising, having conversations with others, reading, and, need I say it, using their cell phones.

At four random times, the researchers collected samples of the participants’ saliva both before and after one of the nature sessions. The levels of cortisol—the “fight or flight” stress hormone released by the adrenal glands—were measured and were found to be an average of 21.3 percent lower per hour after interacting with nature.

Interestingly, a length of 20 to 30 minutes spent outdoors appears to be the ideal duration to achieve the benefits of reduced cortisol levels. Longer periods of time in nature remained beneficial to the subjects, but the dip in cortisol was lower. The investigators also checked levels of alpha-amylase, which is an enzyme in the saliva known to be a reliable biomarker of stress levels. They discovered that those who chose to simply sit in their nature spot or did a combination of sitting and strolling had a 28 percent per hour reduction in alpha-amylase.

This study is obviously limited by the very small size of its population sample, which makes it difficult to say whether the results could be replicated in a larger, more diverse group. Yet despite that, its findings seem to be very much in line with those of other similar research. For example, a 2010 study at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom showed that just five minutes of exercise in a natural setting improves mental health.

And it would certainly do us no harm to start communing with nature a little more. We should “stop and smell the roses” for a reason. It is healthy for us to spend a little time outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air, admiring the beauty of the vast natural world that surrounds us. People who live in more urban environments might reap greater benefits since this is not a typical setting, so it would be good for you to find a nearby park or garden that could be your go-to place for nature time. Suburbanites and country dwellers might not need to make as much effort but should still reserve some time throughout the week to take a stroll around the neighborhood, or at least sit on the porch or in the backyard just taking in nature’s bounty without a cell phone in your hand.

If you have trouble getting to a nature spot regularly, a mural of a nature scene or images of flowers as your screen saver might be the next best thing. No joke. A 2008 study at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found that looking at pictures of nature offers cognitive benefits similar to that of walking in nature.2

From Jon Barron

• 1.Hunter, MaryCarol R.; et al. “Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers.” Frontiers in Psychology. 4 April 2019. Accessed 10 April 2019. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722/full.
• 2.Berman, Marc G.; et al. “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature.” Psychological Science. 1 December 2008. Accessed 11 April 2019. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x.

When we become overwhelmed and things are not going as planned, it is natural to hold tighter to our goals and try to force things to go our way. In the process, we tie ourselves in knots, tensing our shoulders, jaws, and muscles throughout our bodies. Our mind tells us that this is how to get a firmer grip on a situation that feels out of control, but as we create knots in our bodies we are blocking the flow of our energy, exhausting ourselves by exerting more effort yet accomplishing less. At these times, though it may seem counter intuitive, our higher selves know it’s better to let go. 

This may not be quite as easy as it sounds. After the relief of our first decision to release, if we allow questions about how to get everything done to start again, the knots will be back before we know it. So we need to be aware that this is a process to breathe through. First, we need to let go of our idea of what the perfect outcome should be, and allow that the intelligence that drives the universe knows better than we do how everything fits together for the highest good. Then we might have to release our imagined consequences and realize that, in most cases, the worst that could happen really isn’t that bad. We may need to remember how to relax, first by taking deep breaths, then by meditating, and then perhaps seeking help from a loved one, massage therapist, or energy healer to clear the underlying knots.

We can ease our mental stress by prioritizing what we truly want to accomplish, and then delegate the rest to someone who has more enthusiasm for those things. When we relax and let life’s energy flow through our minds, bodies, spirits, and lives, we will find that we can accomplish more with less effort and feel good doing it. We don’t have to tie ourselves in knots. Instead, we can let the ribbons of our energy unfurl to gracefully direct us through life’s abundant flow.

From DailyOM

It not only supports the adrenal glands (the organ most helpful in balancing stress), but also quite a few other body systems.

Email me if you’re interested in getting one of the best quality products at a reasonable price.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

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From Mercola