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by: Trevor Dumbleton
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Among the hardest parts of living in the modern world is stress
and anxiety. With worries about work, the environment, the economy,
natural disasters, terrorism, and the general state of the world, it seems that
there is no end to the number of things to worry about. Though we cannot control
many of these things, they still weigh on our minds and cause us stress and
anxiety. However, despite these concerns, we should try to avoid stress and
anxiety.
Stress and anxiety are, at their hearts, mental problems.
They are conditions in which the mind is racing and constantly circling around
certain concerns. The concerns may be seemingly mundane, but the concerns keep
recurring until they push out all the other thoughts in the brain and create
their own towering mass of worry. And this tower is, in itself self-propagating
simply because stress and anxiety tend to create themselves because stress and
anxiety cause the mind to condition itself to stress and anxiety.
There is research to suggest that the mind gets used
to stress and anxiety and, once it is conditioned, it will quickly
return to stress and anxiety. In fact, there is some evidence that shows that
stress conditioning may actually begin when we are too young to do anything
about it. Children who face a great deal of stress will find their minds altered
such that they will quickly return to a state of stress at the slightest provocation.
It is almost as though the mind misses the state of stress and anxiety and wants
to return to it once it has found the state.
Unfortunately, this creates serious problems not only for
the mind, but also the body. Stress and anxiety put a great many demands
on the human body. It causes headaches, high blood pressure, ulcers,
sleep problems, immune system deficiencies and can even swell the joints, which
can cause severe problems with conditions such as arthritis. As well, stress
and anxiety can result in depression, memory problems, and even alcohol and
drug abuse for those who suffer from stress and anxiety regularly. Thus, stress
and anxiety are not merely problems of the mind, but they are problems of the
mind that can cause problems in the body. The mind does, in surprising ways,
control the body. And a mind that is overly taxed can lead to a body that is
overly taxed.
Thus, you must understand that you can also control
your mind. Stress and anxiety do not need to take over your mind. In
fact, you can control how your mind responds to the problems that arise in life.
Remember that you can decide not to be stressed. You do not
have to be anxious. You can change your mind and let things slide away. Yes,
there are many things in this world to worry about. However, worrying about
them will not change many aspects of the modern world. Constantly thinking
about work, the environment, the economy, or politics will not change them.
Instead, resolve to change things that you can change and do not worry about
what you cannot control.
The thing to keep in mind is a sense of perspective. Yes, work
is stressful, but do you need to worry about being attacked by a lion
when you leave the office? When you go shopping for groceries, do you need to
think about whether there will be a pack of marauding barbarians in the produce
section? Hopefully, the answer is, "No." Thus, you do not have the same concerns
as our forebears and you should keep that in mind. Life is pretty safe these
days and the so-called "Age of Stress" is entirely of our own creation. We are
stressed about things that we decide to be stressed about. And the things that
we are stressed about really aren't that important in the long-run scheme of
things.
Stress and anxiety are, seemingly, enough to worry about on
their own. So don't fall into the trap of keeping them going. Keep life in perspective,
keep yourself on an even keel and remember that you can control your
own mind. If you can manage to do that, stress and anxiety to not need
to take over your life.
Other articles you may be interested in:
Trevor Dumbleton is the owner of www.LowerYourStress.com,
a categorized resource directory for everything to do with stress.
*The articles published on this site undergo our review
process. We found the information in this article to be very useful and informative. |
