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Stop Multitasking To Reduce Stress, Part 1

Stop Multitasking To Reduce Stress, Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Most people are overwhelmed by the amount of distractions in their lives. When you’re trying to work, you’re interrupted by phone calls, texts, or a problem suddenly needing an immediate solution or decision. All of this diverts your attention and keeps you from focusing on one thing at a time.

You’re trying to multi-task to be more efficient and you’re accomplishing exactly the opposite. Your attention is split between all of the distractions, and nothing gets your best effort. So everything suffers from a lack of your full capabilities.

Unfortunately, your fast-paced lifestyle promotes stress and anxiety. This engages the Fight or Flight mechanism that causes you to be in survival mode. Everything that happens is then considered to be a threat. You can’t keep things in their proper perspective.

For instance, let’s say you’re expecting a busy day at work. In the morning, you take the trash bag out of the trashcan and the bag breaks. Now you have to clean it up before you can leave. On the freeway, you’re caught in an unexpected traffic jam and get to work late.

You’d planned to have plenty of time to print out a report for a meeting. But because of the morning’s delays, you’re hurrying to get it done. The printer jams and you’re ready to throw it through the window. Due to the accumulated frustrations, an insignificant problem (the printer) has been blown up out of proportion. It takes on monumental importance, when it actually may simply take a couple of minutes to fix.

When your mental reserves are completely used up and you’re in survival mode, stress monopolizes resources in the brain. It’s like a huge program that consumes all the available memory in a computer. There’s nothing left over to make rational decisions.

Being stressed and in overwhelm means that you can’t think straight, be creative, resourceful, or plan effectively. You’re reacting from your past experience and conditioning and can’t choose a different response.

Read part 2 of Stop Multitasking to Reduce Stress.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Reclaim Your Power From Anger, Part 2

Reclaim Your Power From Anger, Part 2

by Linda-Ann Stewart

It’s time to reclaim the power you’ve given away. Don’t let a past situation govern your life or choices any longer. You can’t control others or what they do.They have their own opinions and perceptions that may not agree with yours. And you don’t want the thought of them to continue to affect you and your emotions.

Realize that anyone who upset you probably didn’t target you personally. They may not have hurt you deliberately. Even if they attacked you, they might have just randomly picked you as a the target of their hostility. Maybe you accidentally triggered a sensitive area for them. Who knows?

When you get angry, mentally step back and reassess. You can then make rational choices instead of reactionary ones. You can decide what’s best for you in the long run. Lashing out and making snide remarks won’t resolve the situation and will probably make it worse. When you’re able to stay cool, you’re in control of yourself and the situation. You can stand up for yourself, and for your rights, calmly.

Decide what you need to learn from the circumstance. Should you trust them less, not let them so close, or were you expecting them to be different from who they are? Whatever the lesson, as long as you remember it, you can fulfill the purpose of why you got upset. Establish boundaries and decide how much contact you want with this person.

Hallie was a very unhappy woman. Only when you’re willing to let go of your anger do you have the space to allow happiness in. Peace of mind, empowerment, health and harmony reward you when you learn the lesson from anger and resolve it. Your mind is then able to expand to a greater level of its potential.

Affirmation:

I recognize that anger is counterproductive if I hold onto it. It also hands my power over to those I’m angry at. When I reclaim my power, I seek rational methods to deal with the situation. As I do, I access more of my potential. It also allows me to channel my energy to the successful fulfillment of my goals.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Reclaim Your Power From Anger, Part 1

Reclaim Your Power From Anger, Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Hallie prided herself on holding grudges. She never forgave anyone for any real or imagined slight. Once someone had offended her, she’d cut them out of her life. This attitude caused her to be exhausted, and negatively affected her health and her relationships.

Anger is a survival instinct that lets you know that some right has been violated. When you get angry with someone, it provides protection so that the other person will think twice about acting like that again. Once the situation has been dealt with, it has fulfilled its purpose and anger fades away.

However, if you continue to hold onto your anger, like Hallie, you’re trying to protect yourself against a threat that no longer exists. Anger then twists into hostility, a bubbling cauldron of antagonism. Studies have shown that hostility depresses the immune system and harms cardiovascular function.

Antagonism ties up energy that could be used for something productive. This affects you physically with increased stress, tense muscles, an upset stomach, and shallow breathing. It also ruins relationships and contributes to the self-destructive habits of smoking, drinking, overeating, and others.

Anger is energy. As long as it’s moving and released, it can actually help make constructive changes. But if it gets stuck, it turns to hostility and becomes a black hole that sucks in more energy. “Energy flows where attention goes.” When you’re focused on holding onto anger, it diverts energy from manifesting good. The Law of Attraction causes it to draw more disharmony and frustration to you.

When you’re angry, your mind functions at much less than your normal potential. Chronic anger greatly reduces your ability to think, make decisions and tap into creativity.

If you hold a grudge, like Hallie, you’re trying to control a situation that’s in the past. It’s a reaction against feeling helpless, but it keeps you in a victim cycle. You’re letting the past rule how you feel and act. You might think it makes you stronger and more powerful than the other person. Instead, you’ve just handed control of your emotions over to them.

They may no longer even think of you, but they’re still very much a part of your thoughts. Maybe you’re trying to punish them. But you’re not hurting them at all. The only person it’s harming is you. You may think that you’re protecting yourself, but you’re actually keeping yourself immobile, unable to learn from a situation and move forward.

As long as you continue to be angry, you’re holding that person and situation to you like glue. The relationship or situation isn’t over for you. Every time you think of it, your subconscious thinks it’s happening all over again and it revs up your anger all over again.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

“How do we determine what our lesson might be?”

“How do we determine what our lesson might be?”

Question: I realize that we have to go through various experiences to grow and learn a particular lesson and then move on, but what happens if we do not know what the lesson was supposed to be?

Answer: It doesn’t matter if we consciously know what the lesson is or not. Subconsciously we do, and so does our Higher Mind. When you have a challenging experience, you do the best you can with it. (Hopefully you’ve also been able to stay in alignment with your principles.)

Most of the time, you’ll have the same lesson appear over and over again, in different aspects. It’s to “help” you explore different ways to deal with it, and/or to give you an opportunity to master it. In the mastery of it, you may get to experience all sorts of different sides of the issue.

For instance, a person might have a lot of critical people in his/her life. The challenge would be to deal with the criticism in a way that would emotionally support him/herself. But s/he might not know that. All s/he knows is that people are always picking at him/her.

Once s/he begins to stand up for him/herself, the critical people begin to either fade away or change their attitudes. One of his/her issues would be to realize that the critics are simply echoing what is already going on in his/her mind.

In AA, they say that if a partner of an alcoholic doesn’t heal what attracted the alcoholic in the first place, that the partner will continue to attract alcoholics, even if they leave the original one.

If you’re wondering what the lesson could be, assess how you felt during it. Think about other challenges in your life. Is there anything similar about the feelings, or the thoughts you had during it that you’ve had before? With life lessons, there will always be some sort of pattern. The situations may be different, but the feelings will likely be the same.

Copyright 2002, 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

“Using Imagery For Insight” Part 2

“Using Imagery For Insight” Part 2

by Linda-Ann Stewart

When you have a challenge, go into a meditative state. Ask your subconscious to create a symbol for whatever problem you’re experiencing. Be nonjudgmental of whatever comes to the surface. Examine it. Notice its color, shape, size, texture, and if it’s doing anything.

Enter into an active dialogue with the symbol. Ask it what’s going on? Ask it why you’re experiencing that problem? What is its message to you?

Allow it to answer in any way you can understand. The answer may come in images, words, or simply a knowingness.

Ask it what you need to do to resolve the issue? Acknowledge it as your teacher. It has much wisdom to share with you, as long as you are open to it. Ask it what gift it has for you if you meet its needs?

Imagery can help you to access inner resources that haven’t used before. Once you allow a symbol for your problem to rise into consciousness, it releases some of its energy. Just by observing the image, things begin to shift around in your subconscious mind.

This opens more space for you to heal. Sometimes, you’ll simply receive insight pointing you in a direction. It’s up to you to take the appointed path.

Your inner self will get your attention one way or the other. Listen to it before it takes you by the shoulder and shoves.

Copyright 2000, 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

“Using Imagery for Insight” Part 1

“Using Imagery for Insight” Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

In 1991, I strained my right shoulder by rolling over in bed. Not a very dramatic way of injuring myself.  Nonetheless, it was painful, and refused to heal. Even chiropractic adjustments didn’t ease it for long. After two months of pain, where just lifting a glass of water was almost impossible, I utilized nondirective imagery. I asked what was going on with my shoulder.

Immediately, I imagined a hand pushing my right shoulder forward, and another hand pulling it back. A tug of war. I didn’t understand the message, and asked for clarification. It communicated that I was holding myself back. I recognized how I’d been keeping myself from moving forward in life, and decided not to do that anymore. Within five minutes of my decision, just like magic, the pain disappeared.

Not all healing is so immediate, but imagery can help you along the pathway to resolution. Imagery is the language of the subconscious and the nervous system. You communicate your intention to the mind with directed imagery. By visualizing yourself successful or healthy, you give the mind direction in its own system of communication.

When you worry, you’re visualizing what you don’t want to happen. You use imagery in everyday language, such as “It’s killing me,” “I’m beating my head against a wall,” “He’s like a bulldog,” “I’m so angry I could just explode,” “I feel like I’m running in circles.” Imagery is the way the mind processes and stores information.

Imagery can also give you vital information about what’s going on within your body and your affairs. It can tell you where you might be blocking yourself, why, and what you need to do to overcome your restrictions. Dreams can give you this type of information.

Instead of telling your subconscious what you want, you can listen to its wisdom to discover what you might need. By paying attention to your subconscious, and what it has to share with you, you allow your challenges to become your teachers.

Copyright 2000, 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Avoid “Hardening of the Attitudes”

Avoid “Hardening of the Attitudes”

I know that many books on success and mindset suggest you avoid negative people. It’s true that it’s so much easier to maintain a positive attitude when you’re around people who are also positive. Unfortunately, some people interpret that idea to mean that they should only associate with people who agree with them.

I recently had an experience that illustrated how limiting that could be. I had a short exchange with a businessman who believed that everyone wanted to improve themselves and be better at their jobs. His business was based on that assumption and he worked to improve employees’ skills.

From my experience with clients, I felt that although people might want to be better, they didn’t always want to do what was needed to get there. As soon as I expressed that concept to the gentleman, he ended the discussion. By turning away from a contradictory opinion, he refused to open his mind to different viewpoints. If he had, he might have been able to use them to improve his business.

When you avoid opinions that conflict with yours, it indicates that you’re not really confident of your position. If others’ ideas can affect you that easily, you’re not grounded in your own. Listening to what others think, and why, broadens your understanding so you can modify your ideas and help them grow stronger roots. It can also open the door to inspiration, which will allow you to reach greater heights.

So when you encounter someone with an opposing opinion, listen with an open mind. This is true in business, politics, relationships, and life. Avoid “hardening of the attitudes” and consider what they’re saying. It may change your ideas or strengthen your position. Only by associating with people who have varying opinions and experiences can you have a broader and deeper perspective.

The Problem Solving Capacity of Your Subconsious Mind

The Problem Solving Capacity of Your Subconsious Mind

Have you ever walked away from a problem, then had a light bulb go off in your head and had the answer? That’s the way the mind works when it’s looking for solutions. Several recent studies have validated that your subconscious mind is hard at work while your conscious mind is otherwise engaged.

Apparently, your subconscious has been hard-wired to accumulate information to make the best decisions for you. According to research, the conscious mind does a better job at making analytic decisions. But the subconscious mind is more capable of solving greater challenges and making discoveries.

Learning to trust the subconscious is key to allowing it to dealing with complex problems. If your conscious mind keeps turning the issue over and over again and keeps it front and center in your attention, the subconscious never has a chance to work on it.

Just like when you try to remember someone’s name and let it go. Shortly thereafter, while you’re in the middle of doing the dishes, it pops into your mind. You have to be able to let go of the problem.

The subconscious also helps you make better decisions. It uses the same process as with problem solving. Evaluate all the information, and then go on to some other task. This allows the subconscious to process the data. If no insight comes to the surface, reassess or gather more information and let it go again. Eventually, you’ll get a sense of which direction you want to go.

Your subconscious mind is creative, resourceful, and a problem solver. It processes the information that your conscious mind has given it and comes up with a solution. Now, research and studies are validating what many of us have known for decades.

Information in this article based on these studies from Science Daily:
Decision-Making May Be Surprisingly Unconscious Activity
Our Unconscious Brain Makes The Best Decisions Possible
Eureka! How Distractions Facilitate Creative Problem-Solving
Profound Impact Of Our Unconscious On Reaching Goals Revealed