Surmounting Stress

Surmouning stress in today’s world can seem impossible. Dr. Sheehan weighs in on his own view of stress and what we can do to master our it and live more relaxed and productive lives.

So what exactly is stress?  Where does it come from?  What effects does it have on my body, and my soul?  What can I do about it?  To answer all of these, and more, we must first talk about the three types of stress, so we can adequately determine what type(s) we have, and then we can determine what to do about them.

Let me start off by saying that there are lots of different ways of dealing with stresses, this is not the only way.

Let us start by splitting stress into 3 different categories:

1. Physical stresses-this is type you feel in your body, and comes from nutritional deficiencies, and incorrect eating habits for you. This is the one that we will primarily deal with tonight.  Physical stress will make the other stresses less manageable.  Your body sees stress in an additive way, in other words, it all adds up. If you have 10 units of physical stress, 4 units of mental stress, and 3 units of Spiritual Stress, you have an overall stress index of 17.
2. Mental stresses-this is type you usually feel in your head, although it can be felt anywhere in your body, and comes from someone or something either stopping you from doing something, or forcing you to do something you do not really want to do (but usually feel that you have to).
3. Spiritual stresses -this comes from not doing something you know you really should do, or doing something you shouldn’t be doing. It’s more self-imposed than mental stress.

Just knowing the three types of stresses makes most people feel better already.  It also makes dealing with stress less of a Herculean task.

So how do we deal with stress?  In a nutshell, here’s the way to deal with the three different types:

1. Physical stresses-We use Nutrition Response Testing to deal with this. In a nutshell, cut down on sugar and carbs, up the protein and fats to balance blood sugar, and stress hormones.  Address nutritional deficiencies in the body, especially those affecting the heart, liver, adrenal glands, brain, minerals, and hormones in the body.  Also make sure that there in not a neurotransmitter imbalance that can be helped by organ support, herbal and amino acid supplementation.
2. Mental and Spiritual Stresses-there is a fair amount of overlap of these two, so it’s better if we lump them together. Make a list of all the things you want to do in your life.  Really do this, write it down.  Are you doing them?  Answer that question first.  If you are not doing them, why not?  If the answer is a person or a thing that is keeping you from what you are doing, that is a mental stress.
3. Is there anything you should be doing, but are not? Make a list, like you did in #2.  Like are you smoking, and know that you shouldn’t?  How about overeating?  How about exercise?  How about meditating?  The list can go on and on.  Bringing awareness to this subject though, is often quite illuminating, and often helps us.  You get the idea.
4. Another thing get stressed about a lot, and this can cause spiritual and mental stress, is repetitive thoughts they have, which are stressful. A friend I know who was very into stress reduction decided one day to write down his thoughts all day.  To his amazement, he wrote the same four things, over and over all day!  Our minds are perpetual motion machines, and when they have nothing to do, they just keep working, working, working, and it’s not usually something nice and positive they work on.  As a quick exercise, if everyone could hear your thoughts, would you be embarrassed, scared, or very proud of your evolved mind?  You get the idea.

So to deal with these stressful thoughts, I often turn to “The Work” by Byron Katie. If you don’t know who she is, look her up on YouTube, or better yet, buy one of her books, such as “Loving What Is”.  You can also look up her website.  She gives very clear instructions on how to do The Work.  Oftentimes, doing The Work, will help illuminate the answers to the three types of stress I have listed above.  I did The Work along with a facilitator for 4 years following an extremely stressful event in my life.  I can’t say enough good about it.  If I feel stressed, or can’t sleep (I’m a chronic insomniac, although it’s 85% better), I do The Work, and I totally chill out.  Just ask my wife.

From the above, it should be obvious to you that it’s easier to deal with some stress than others.  Here’s the trick to the whole thing though, that most people don’t know.  You’re body and mind add together all stresses, and count it as one number.  You can also deal with it in the same way.  Sometimes it’s hard to deal with the mental and spiritual stress, but relatively easy to deal with the physical stresses.  In this case, deal with the physical stresses, which will bring down your overall stress load, and make you feel a lot better.  Then you’ll naturally deal with the mental and spiritual stresses easier:  it won’t feel as overwhelming to you.  In fact, that’s why we deal with primarily physical stress in our clinic, it makes it easier to deal with mental and spiritual stresses.

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Photo Credit: Scott Koring