Easy Ways to Manage Stress

Stress is defined as a response of our bodies to challenges of everyday life. This response can be mental and physical, and can often be triggered by many different factors. There are two types of stress, one that presents opportunity for growth known as Eustress. The other type is negative stress called Distress, which can result in deliberative strain. Negative thought that come with stress, manifest into chemical reactions that bring more stress into the body and lowering the immune system. Most people are not aware that stress can cause the immune system to get weaker by reducing the ability of the natural killer T-cells. The natural killer-T cells get destroyed or reduced by the adrenal hormones who's levels get elevated during a prolonged periods of stress. During the flu season, most visits to the doctor or urgent care are due to flu-like symptoms, which in most cases turn out to be upper respiratory infections. Those who are prone to upper respiratory infections should consider stress as a likely cause of illness.

Since there are so many causes of stress, thankfully there are also ways to reduce, manage, and even eliminate some of the stress out of the day. First step in managing stress is to identify and reduce the sources of it. It is important to take time out and breathe; breathing can alter the psychological state. It is okay to say "no" before overloading yourself with too many commitments, this will also give you better control of your life. Exercising is highly recommended. It increases the secretion of endorphins, which are naturally produced substances that induce the feelings of peacefulness. Make time for one fun activity daily. Do not underestimate the power of a good laugh.

Laughter can make it a lot easier to cope with difficult situations, it is also know to ease pain, so please do the "lol" - laugh out loud. Pets are always a good companion and something as easy as petting your dog can be beneficial for both. It may not seem like it's a big deal, but if you pet your dog for a few minutes your body will release feel-good hormones like Serotonin, Prolactin, and Oxytocin. Orange juice is suggested during flu season for its vitamin C, but it can also boost the immune system due to the fact that vitamin C lowers the levels of stress hormones like Cortisol. However, if the stress levels are to high to handle, and they begin to interfere with your life, professional opinion may be necessary. If it affect your sleep, appetite and begins to cause anxiety, it is okay to ask for help.

Lower the stress levels not just for the psychological and emotional, but also for the physical reasons. It will improve your health and the quality of life. Laugh often, relax, enjoy the small things, and take control of the stress, do not let it control you.

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Relieve and Manage Stress Using the Power of TFT, EFT and QEPR

Stress, Anxiety and the 'tapping' therapies

What is stress and anxiety? How does it affect you? It is a common and normal fact of life that no matter who we are, where we live or how old we are most of us experience some form of stress and anxiety throughout our daily lives. Be it work pressures and deadlines, getting the kids to school on time or some memory that continues to bother us.

Stress and anxiety affects us all to one degree or another. Some people even say they need an element of stress in their lives, to motivate them to take action, to give them an edge, to work on something or to perform better.

Whilst a certain amount of stress is fine, and in-fact probably beneficial to protect or motivate us to take action, it can sometimes be too much and too relentless. Even to the point where it no longer stimulates us to take action but in-fact brings about fear or stagnates us, leading to in-action and procrastination.

Stress and anxiety has huge effects on our lives, it can lead us to drink, makes us gain weight, smoke, quit our jobs, fight with a loved one, feel depressed, perform poorly, or lack general motivation and energy and creates aches, pains and muscular tension.

How does stress and anxiety affect your life?

Apart from the emotional and psychological effects of stress it has been shown to greatly affect us physiologically too. It is estimated that 75% of all doctors visits are due to stress related ailments.

Stress and anxiety affects the immune system and can often influence the onset of, or the susceptibility to illness and disease. It can also affect the progression of illness or disease, and of course can greatly affect recovery time.

It affects the heart, increases the risk of coronary artery disease, elevates blood pressure, increases atherosclerosis, increases the risk of myocardial infarction, increases the risk of diabetes and increases the likelihood of obesity.

Stress has been linked to:

? cancer
? diabetes
? breakdown in the immune system
? auto-immune diseases
? alcohol and substance abuse
? cardiovascular disease

Therefore as you can see stress plays a major part in both our emotional and physical health.

'There's a strong connection between emotions and health' Dr. Joseph Mercola - New York Times Best-selling author 'No Grain Diet'

Baby shampoo of therapies!

TFT, EFT and QEPR - the baby shampoo of therapies? A client of mine once called them this after I reduced the sadness around the loss of a loved one, noting the 'tapping' was a very simple and effective technique that was both gentle, safe and tearless!

According to Dawson Church Ph.D author of 'Genie in Your Genes' - 'This (EFT) maybe the most important new therapy to arrive in both medicine and psychology for a century'

As you will notice when you visit a practitioner or use them yourself, EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), TFT (Thought Field Therapy) and QEPR (Quantum Emotional and Physical Release) are simply to apply techniques that quickly relax you. They will help to reduce any stress or anxiety easily from your life, and because they can easily be self-applied they're extremely convenient being available for you to use day and night, whenever and wherever you need them! You will be in control of your own emotional well-being, benefiting not only you but all those around you.

However, by using the techniques mentioned will no longer have to exclusively rely on time consuming and expensive therapies or countless medications for help, and it doesn't take years, days, even hours of practice to be able to gain substantial emotional relief.

'Your sub-conscious mind needs to get re-programmed' Jack Canfield Co-creator 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' and featured in the hit movie ' The Secret'

Proven Effective

I am always very excited and passionate whenever I have the opportunity to talk or write about TFT, EFT or QEPR. Not only because they are techniques that can safely reduce or as in most cases completely eliminate a wide range of emotional or psychological problems from fears and phobias to general stress, anxiety, worry and grief, but because they are generally so easily learned and have been proven effective on many thousands of people's problems worldwide from doctors, and top CEO's to movie stars and sports personalities.

I know in this ever increasing fast paced life of ours there are many demands on our time and we want things easier, quicker and cheaper, and this is what makes these modalities stand apart from most other techniques. They are immediately accessible wherever you are, and when self-applied at no cost.

Therefore, it is my wish with a series of easy to read and understand books and videos to make TFT, EFT and QEPR as simple and straightforward as possible, so that you can within a very short time start gaining relief on any emotional problem you may be facing.

'EFT is the best thing I've found - hands down!' Dr. Eric B. Robins M.D

Paul Emery is an internationally-renowned therapist who has helped thousands of people from all walks of life from doctors and movie stars to royalty. He is winner of the recent AsiaSpa award for - 'Holistic Treatment of the Year' for his 'Quantum Emotional and Physical Release (QEPR) therapy. He has worked at the worlds top health resort, appeared on Australian TV series 'Celebrity Overhaul', is featured in the best-selling book 'Ultimate Spa-Asia's Best Spas and Spa Treatments', in international newspapers and magazines including 'Luxury Spa Finder', 'Travel & Leisure', Gala, Harpers Bazaar, the 'Financial Times' and 'Wirtschafts Woche'. He is a counselor, EFT Trainer and NLP Master trained by celebrity therapist Paul McKenna and a qualified TFTdx advanced practitioner. Visit http://www.quantumepr.com/ or http://www.paulemeryeft.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Emery

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Thoughts, Feelings and Emotions - Manage Stressful Situations and Gain Emotional Freedom Today

Are you feeling overwhelmed by stressful situations? Do you feel there too much going on in your head? This article will help you tell the difference between your thoughts, feelings and emotions, and set you on the path to personal peace.

Thoughts are located in the brain and our what make up our 'internal dialogue'.

We are conscious of our thoughts and despite what many people believe we do have control over them. However, many people get into patterns of thinking, which become subconscious over time, it's only when they become aware of these patterns that they realize how much they are affecting them.

Emotions are much more physical in nature. They are believed to be situated in the limbic system of the brain - something that all mammals share.

We can think of emotions as very primitive evolutionary mechanisms that we share with animals. Experiences such as anger, sadness or fear originate from the body as a primordial response to a physical situation.

We can consider feelings as how we actually experience emotions. We might 'feel' fear as a tightening in the stomach, or anger as a hot sensation in the head. Heartache has it's name because of the literal ache around our heart we experience when we are deep in grief or loss.

One of the problems in managing stress is that sometimes our emotions can actually be caused by thoughts rather than physical situations. Psychologists call these 'secondary emotions'. When we think of a scary situation we become scared. What stated off as a thought quickly becomes a physical reaction in the body.

One of the major tricks in learning to deal with stressful situations is to learn to separate thoughts, feelings and emotions.

The next time you are stressed or feel out of control, go into what you feel. Close your eyes and ask yourself, where am I experiencing this?

If your experience is mainly a sensation in the body, you are probably dealing with an emotion. Explore it, go into the feeling and experience how it feels in your body. You may often find that just by bringing awareness to the feeling it will dissipate.

If your experience is mainly in the head - then you are dealing with a thought. In this case you need to break the pattern of thinking that is causing you distress. There are many tools to do this, but often just becoming aware of what is going on in the present moment will do the trick.

But careful, you may be dealing with a secondary emotion - an emotion caused by a thought, not a real situation. Although you may feel this in the body, you will need to focus on stopping the thought in your head rather than the exploring the physical sensations of the experience.

You can tell the difference between primary and secondary emotions by watching what happens when you stop the thought. If the physical feelings resolve then you are most likely dealing with a secondary emotion. If they remain then the emotion is probably primary in nature.

Emotional Freedom Technique can help you deal with a wide range of emotional problems including depression, anxiety, confidence issues, self esteem problems and much much more.

For more information in using EFT to deal with thoughts, feelings and emotions please visit http://www.eftapp.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Bichara

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