by lotusstressrelief

Stress is often blamed by many to be the robber of energy; however, stress can often be the perception we place on events. For many, stress occurs when we place a negative perception on a future event. When you are feeling stress, learn to use it as an indicator of how you are interpreting the events that are happening around you. Learn to make those reactions friends of yours rather than enemies. Begin to accept the conditions that you choose to not only react to but also sometimes choose to over-react to. Practice one of the following yourself when you feel engulfed by emotion:

1. Is my response reasonable and appropriate?
2. Do you want to invest my energy this way?
3. Is someone from the past “telling” you to react this way?
4. Practice shutting down your tapes from the past.
5. Is anyone else encouraging you to react this way?
6. Does the person who is encouraging have the courage to respond to the event honestly? Why are surrendering your power to someone else?

All stress isn’t negative. Positive stress helps to keep us focused and energized to act as a motivator for us. Negative stress drains our energy.

Make lists of things that give you energy and those things that sap your energies. On those things that sap your energy, ask yourself if anything is happening positively by your energy being drained.

Set daily habits to deal with stress:

1. Play each and every day!
2. Take short breaks in task that feel will never end.
3. Set 2-3 priorities each day rather then 15-20. I once saw 3 filing trays that were labeled: today—tomorrow—and maybe never.
4. Develop triggers to relax—maybe when you enter your car, get a drink of water, every time you look at your watch, or while waiting at a red light.

Stress is one of the 16 main topics I will be posting about. Leo Babauta at Zen Habits has these 20 Ways to Eliminate Stress From Your Life:

1. Identify your stressors.
2. Eliminate unnessary commitments.
3. Proscrastination.
4. Disorganization. late.
5. Controlling.
6. Multitasking.
7. Eliminate energy drains.
8. Avoid difficult people.
9. Simplify life.
10. Unschedule.
11. Slow down.
12. Help others.
13. Relax throughout the day.
14. Quit work.
15. Simplify your to-do list.
16. Exercise.
17. Eat healthy.
18. Be grateful.
19. Zen-like environment.

By Hamed Saber

These books are incorporated in our Changemaker Library. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. We include the title of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and an Amazon link if you choose to order the books yourself.

The following books are about peace of mind:

Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychology to Overcome Depression

John McQuiad and Paula Carmona

ISBN 1-57224-366-X

Amazon link

Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart

Brian Luke Seaward

ISBN 0-471-67999-2

Amazon link

Serenity in Motion: Inner Peace: Anytime, Anywhere

Mary O’Hara

ISBN 0-446-69085-6

Amazon link

Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions

Thich Nhat Hanh

ISBN 1-59448-134-2

Amazon link

Turning the Mind Into An Ally

Sakyong Mipham

ISBN 1-57322-345-X

Amazon link

By tiarescott

One of the best writers about A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson’s newest books is titled The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life. It is for sale here.

According to the author, A Course in Miracles, is a “self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy”. In this new book, she advocates her readers to begin a thorough plan of change from the inside out.

The main learning from Course is that there are only two emotions: love or fear. She advocates that love can transform anyone.

The ten bridges of transformation that we can experience are:

1) From forgetting who we are to remembering who we are,

2) From negative thinking to positive love,

3) From anxiety to atonement,

4) From asking God to change the world to praying that He changes us,

5) From living in the past and future to living in the present,

6) From focus on guilt to focus on innocence,

7) From separation to relationship,

8) From spiritual death to rebirth,

9) From your plan to God’s plan,

(10) From who we were to who we are becoming.

One of her more powerful suggestions is that wherever we find ourselves—that is where we should be. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Other books by Marianne Williamson:

Letting Go and Becoming

A Return to Love

Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and Making Miracles

Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychology to Overcome Depression

John McQuiad and Paula Carmona

ISBN 1-57224-366-X

Amazon link

From the introduction:

“The motivation to write this book certainly comes from the desire to help the many people we have seen suffering from depression. But this is not a book getting rid of your depression. Our more earnest hope is to give you tools to help transform your life. Transformation doesn’t happen by merely getting rid of a problem. Transformation occurs when you have the capacity to greet problems in your life with an open awareness and a keen interest. Learning how to be open with life and face painful problems is at the heart of our interest in exploring

how mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy can be tools of transformation. A life shaken by depression is also a life open to the possibility of deep transformation. We hope that this book provides a useful foundation and skillful means to help you move beyond a life where depression is your shadow.”

The chapter headings are:

1) From depression to hope

2) The combo plate

3) CBT and mindfulness meditation: first steps

4) Core belief framework

5) Understanding and changing depressed thinking

6) Activities and mood

7) People and your mood

8) People skills

9) Depression and exercise

10)Acceptance is not defeat

11)Stages of change

The stages of change from chapter 11 are:

Precontemplation—is what generally is called “denial”. In this stage we have trouble acknowledging a problem. The denial is actually used as a defense to not face reality.

Contemplation—occurs as we move into an emotional area of becoming willing to own a problem or situation.

Preparation—is the emotional space where we balance staying where we are or moving in a new direction.

Action—is the stage that we begin implementing changes in our lives. The changes adopted here should be small and slow so that we may learn how to recognize what helps bring on the problem.

Maintenance—is achieved according to one (James Prochaska) of the authors (James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente) of how we change as “a sustained long-term effort and a revised lifestyle”.

Termination—does not mean that depression leaves forever. Instead it means that each sufferer has learned his/her own relapse prevention and used the maintenance tools introduced here to continue life without deep depression. With practice, the sufferer becomes less and less willing to stay in denial.