stressed-out

Man oh man life can really be overwhelmingly stressfully busy some times.  And we’re left like a limp rag at the end of the day. Totally stressed out.

And honestly if it weren’t for the tools I use to keep myself in a relatively peaceful place regardless of what’s going on around me…I’d probably have fallen apart long ago.

Who hasn’t had those days when between rushing around to and from work, or ferrying kids to various activities and the relentless demands on our time we feel stretched too thin.

Maybe right now, you have too many things going on at once, or some difficult situation to deal with?

And what do we often do?  Turn turn to something less than healthy to deal with it, like that lovely gooey doughnut that you’ve been denying yourself all week, because it feels good in the moment, or reach for an extra caffeine shot…or two! 

And we get to switch that stressed out feeling for a sugar or caffeine high.  At least for a couple of minutes!

I know we can’t totally escape from the stresses of every day life, but we can as sure as heck become more aware of what stresses us out and how we can manage it better.

After all who wants to pack on the pounds because they feel better when they’ve had that sugary fix?

Not us, right?  

These days I know that our body is an emotional filter, because I’ve experienced it. And when we’re worried, or upset, or anxious, those emotions get filtered through our body and after a while begin to make us sick.

According to WebMD, continuous and ongoing levels of stress can make asthma worse, increase our belly fat (and those doughnuts don’t seem to help dammit) cause migraines and even be linked to Alzheimers, not to mention heart problems.

We tend to forget what triggers our stress so here’s a list of the most common ones.

Common Outer Stress Creating Situations

  • Major life changes
  • Work or school
  • Relationship difficulties
  • Financial problems
  • Being too busy
  • Children and family

Common Inner Stress Creating Situations

  • Inability to accept uncertainty
  • Rigid thinking, lack of flexibility
  • Negative self-talk
  • Unrealistic expectations / perfectionism
  • All-or-nothing attitude
  • Pessimism

And the day came when I’d had enough and I decided to carve a new path, one that was going to make me happier and healthier…which brings me to some super strategies for those who get stressed out far too often for their own good.

Stop making an enemy of life

As we create tension in either our mind our body, we are creating an enemy big enough to cause us all the problems we can handle, and more!

By letting stress get the best of us, we end up turning our life energies against us, when we should be having them work towards our greatest happiness and fulfillment.

I had to stop that…and if this is you right now, you do too.

Make life work for you

I had to learn the hard way that I needed to take care of the fundamentals in life, so that life worked on my behalf. 

Even though it was much easier to blame those regular every day stressors on something or someone else. 

But I couldn’t let myself off the hook so easily. 

My body.

My life.

How did I want it to be?  I was struggling and hurting emotionally and physically and it couldn’t go on. 

I had to save myself from myself.

1. Challenging the status quo

A great place to begin.

Life events can definitely create pain, but the stress part actually comes from our inner resistance to the experience.  Our mind plays havoc with us. So we have to find some distance.

And a pretty sweet way to do this is to take a stand and answer that question from before. How do I want life to be? What do I want?

If you’re at this place in life, be firm in deciding what it is you want, wishy washy desires just won’t cut it.  And then be mindful where your mind is taking you. 

You don’t have to solve the problem, you just have to decide on the best outcome you can imagine. 

It’s amazing that we can still experience inner peace even during the most chaotic and stressful outer experiences. 

The  biggest challenge in each moment was my mind’s ongoing resistance to life as it unfolded.

2. Turning to Mother Nature for help and prevention

Keeping my body healthy and in good shape (well relatively good shape, lol) seemed like a good way to prevent stress from causing me physical and emotional harm.

So here’s my top 2 must-use supplements.

Young Living Super B™.

I added these to my regimen after stress began to give me a pain in the neck.  Literally.

I began to have really nasty shooting, electric shock pains all the way from my neck and right up the side of my head.

Ouch.  It really hurt. 

Even waking me up at night sometimes. 

So I turned to these B vitamins which are best known not only for the production of energy for the body (an added bonus) but for the role they play in supporting our nervous and cardiovascular systems.  And boom, within no time, all signs of inflamed nerves gone.

Young Living Super C Tablets™. 

Most of us believe in the benefits of vitamin C and this one not only contains the recommended dietary intake but is fortified with rutin, citrus bioflavonoids and minerals to balance electrolytes…another thing I discovered would help keep my body in good shape when confronted with stress. 

Why the Young Living brand

You might well ask. 

Back in 1984 it was discovered that adding pure grade essential oils to supplements made them more effective to the body.  It turned out they were the perfect companion, working as a sort of catalyst to help with nutrient absorption.

Did you know that sewage treatment plants are reporting they remove TONS of undissolved vitamins from their treatment ponds every year.  So the vast majority of vitamins we take are just money down the drain! Literally.

Because our bodies are designed to extract vitamins and minerals from plants, doesn’t it make sense to choose a supplement with a plant base, such as pure essential oils so our bodies can recognize and process them?  Well it sure did to me.

But even then… I discovered that they needed to be essential oils that have no added fillers or chemical, just the pure essence of the plant as Mother Nature intended.

3. Maintaining a peaceful atmosphere

There’s nothing quite like diffusing or applying essential oils designed for peace and stress relief.

Have you noticed how popular this has become?

And though I’m not suggesting this can magically make a stressful situation disappear, what I can say is that in our household, we definitely benefit from the relaxation effects of diffusing essential oils.

Mainly because the very thing that causes us to feel stress originates in the limbic system.

And did you know that out of all our senses, the only sense linked to this part of our brain is our sense of smell?  No? Neither did I at first.

But I soon learned that even before we become aware of the effects these molecules of fragrance are having on us, they’re already at work on our limbic system.

Pretty cool right?

And a really super cool way to remove ourselves from the experience of stress in the moment is to take a quiet moment and simply breathe in the delicious relaxing fragrance of nature’s own stress relief remedy and allow Mother Nature to do her work. 

I tend to diffuse blended oils like Peace and Calming™, or Stress Away™ on the days when I’m too busy to create my own blend.

And I’m here to tell you, as someone who used to manage stress really badly, and often would get sick because of the cumulative effect it has on us all, it’s become something of a little miracle that today I handle stress so much better, before it gets a chance to take a serious toll on my health.

4. When your body begins to complain because you’re regularly stressed out

Stress, as I know all too well can cause severe physical and emotional problems and I want to share with you a couple of images of someone for whom stress, and other factors in her life began to take a toll on her body.

I’m calling her ‘Jana’ to maintain the semblance of a little privacy. Though she did give me permission to use her information.

Take a look at what happened to her face.

stressed-face

Sadly the only thing offered to her was a cream that carried with it all manner of really, really horrific side effects.  So bad, that she said, “No way.” 

So she turned to something more natural and healthy….Young Living products.

And after somewhere like 3 months, she ended up looking like this:

stressed-out-face

I’m not suggesting for a minute that this would be the result for everyone…after all we’re unique beings…but you can see the difference these products made.And it wasn’t only on her skin, but in her life.

And for anyone remotely interested in what she used, here’s her regimen using only Young Living products:

Morning

Seedlings Baby Wipes™ all over face.

Splash with water.

Sandalwood Moisturizer

ART™ Serum

Let all sink in for 10 minutes before applying makeup.

Evening

Same as morning

Added a drop of Frankincense essential oil dabbing on red areas.

If you’d like to know more about these awesome products, and other Young Living supplements and essential oils that  I’ve used to help me to stop getting stressed out so easily…here’s a link.

Here’s a way you can get hold of some of these beautifully fragrant and healing essential oils for free…I’m starting giveaway contests.  I’m doing this because I truly want to get these powerful products that can support healing in our body, mind and spirit into the hands of those who’ve never thought of using them before, just so they can test them for theselves.  

And if you’d like to try some check out the contest here, and see how lucky you might be.

So my lovelies, despite the fact that input from the world around us can be a cause of stress and we can’t change every outside situation, isn’t it good to know that we are always in control of how we respond?

And we can do that in many different ways. 

It’s vital that we have some things in our toolbox to help us get out of that stressed out mode more quickly and easily and I hope sharing the things I needed to do before I got so sick it would have been hard to come back from have helped you.

Are you ready to take charge of your environment by creating the most peaceful stress free one possible?

I’d love to hear from you.

What’s ONE specific situation that stresses you out on a consistent basis?

What negative impact does that create for you emotionally or physically. And how would life be different if that situation was no longer able to stress you out?  

Asking yourself this powerful question means being brave and really taking a look at whether you’re ready to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done, because you dear one are so valuable and precious and the world needs you and the gifts you bring. 

Just remember, you’ve got amazing things to experience and enjoy in this life and a body and mind operating from an energy of wellbeing is essential to making it happen and managing your stressors is a great place to start..

Thanks for stopping by and sharing with such love. Your generosity is awesome.

Encourage one another

Love Elle

xox

Author

Elle Sommer is the author of 4 books and a workbook. Her latest publications are a series called The Power of Consciousness, and you will find all three books in this trilogy now available on Kindle. She shares quotes, inspiration and positive vibes on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. And her greatest desire is to encourage and inspire others to create not just a good life, but a phenomenal life.

6 Comments

  1. I’m glad the young living products work so well for you, Elle, and for your friend, “Jana.” Essential oils can be such a wonderful resource, especially hen they are pure rather than synthetics.

    I definitely get stressed out by deadlines. It’s like they turn the stress switch on in my brain and the dread starts to build up. But knowing that is the first step toward changing that.

    • Hi Sandra…it’s funny you should say that cos that sort of stress can creep up on me too, and when I take my ‘diffuser break’ just to sit a minute and inhale the fragrant essence, I remember it’s just something I’m telling myself and that flips the switch for me from stress to ‘oh yes’ I’ve got this! 🙂

    • Essential oils are definitely worth experiencing Zeenat, especially in the context of emotional or physical stress. 🙂

  2. Essential oils, fresh flowers and some aromas do help to mitigate stress. Taking a walk in the open helps one calm the nerves.

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