Understanding Thinking to Stop Stress

Shift Into Your Brilliance to Stop Stress

With so many activities and responsibilities in our lives, it’s hard to take in all the events and calamities we hear on the news. The political machinations, the cyclones and earthquakes, the summer schedule change in children’s lives, the price of gas, the uncertainty in career or business. All of us could make a list of 50 items that tend to cross our minds on a regular basis.

It’s not that these events shouldn’t cross our minds. The secret to living life stress free is to pay attention to which side of these events we are viewing. Are you worried about what we can’t control—that’s a stress maker for sure. Are you worried about what you can control—now that’s a waste of time. Are you worried about why your lawn crew didn’t get every last leaf into the bag? Are you worried about saving money for your two-year old’s college fund?

Why not change from your worry to your wisdom? We have discovered that we all possess an innate Brilliance that is our ticket to stress-free living. Once you understand how to shift from your patterned thinking into your Brilliance, you can do so at any moment.

The keys to Brilliance are easy to learn and promise a life free from stress. Check out our website for more articles and information: www.backtobrilliance.com

Too Much Thinking is Stressful

When we have an accumulation of worried thoughts that continue for hours, days or weeks, these thoughts create an unrelenting stress that can create headaches, stomach pain and more. In some cases our thoughts eventually affect the outcomes that we had worried would occur. Simply worrying about your child’s grades can send you toward a cycle of behavior that stresses you and your child to the point of anxiety and failure in the classroom.

Our thoughts create an energy that pushes our behavior and actions toward whatever we are thinking about. Wouldn’t it be easier to think about all the resources that your child can utilize to enhance the classroom and learning experience? Wouldn’t that train of thought make your interactions with each other more pleasant, safer and more encouraging?

Thought Can Be a Wonderful Thing

We all know there are two kinds of stress. The first is the stress that occurs when some kind of trauma occurs to ourselves or someone we love. The second is the stress that comes from thinking stressful thoughts about the events and eventualities in our personal world.

Thought can be a wonderful thing. Like every other “wonderful thing” it can make us sick if we do too much of it. Too much candy, too many green apples, and too many hours in a car—all of these can tend to make us not feel well. When we think the most positive of thoughts the outcome is usually good. However, hours of mental stimulation, even on the most intriguing or beneficial topics, leaves us exhausted and weary. Just like the body, the mind needs to rest.

Most of us haven’t been aware that our thinking is powerful beyond what we can see. We may be aware that it creates our attitudes and thus our way of interacting with others. We seldom reflect on the fact that our thoughts create our very lives themselves, stressful or stress free.

What’s the Real Risk?

What are we to do about the uncertainty, that daily deluge of information that might or might not be harmful to us personally? It’s hard to assess the real risk these events pose in our lives. Without the late news and the 24-hour news channels of our times, we might never have had these thoughts at all. And while we pose the question, stress is humming its tune, ruining our sleep, and draining our energy.

So, what is the solution? You could take drugs to entice your brain to shut down. You could get up and make the sleepless time useful, like cleaning out that garage you’ve had on your list forever. Or you could get a handle on your thinking. You could choose to focus on a thought that relaxes you, makes you smile, or brings good feelings to every cell in your body.

If you don’t believe you have the power to choose which thoughts you pay attention to, think again. It’s time to figure it out and there’s no better time than now. If you want to stop stress now, the fastest way is to handle your thoughts in a new way.

For articles that help to handle your thoughts, follow this link to our articles on how to stop stress now.

What Keeps You from Sleep?

In today’s world, there are a million things that could keep you from sleeping soundly. Perhaps you’ve been hearing about the latest pesticide that causes cancer. Maybe you have heard that the lettuce from Argentina is contaminated.  Or, you could be thinking about the upcoming elections and who you absolutely will NOT support and why.

All of these thoughts can go whirling around your head, time and again, night after night, with new reports replacing the old ones, while you wonder why you aren’t sleeping well.

Concerns and questions that we chew on tend to linger and create a viewpoint that the world “isn’t really on our side”, is “dangerous” at most, and “uncertain” any way you look at it. Stress starts its overnight visits with you, in your head while you’re in bed.

Our good old reptilian brain is made to face the lion and fight or flee.  Just imagine seeing a snake on your back doorstep and how you would respond. It’s almost automatic—the mind/body connection moves you in one direction or another, and with great speed.

So, what do we do about the uncertainty, that daily deluge of information that might or might not be harmful to us personally? You might take a drug so you can numb your brain for a time. But that may be only a short-term solution that misses the real cause of your sleepless hours.

For a funny You-Tube spoof, follow this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRDEyYR68A

Change Your Mind to Stop Stress

Lynne: In the many years I’ve been teaching these keys I’ve often said, “Remember, it’s just a thought!”

When I say that I’m reminding people that thoughts are no more than what we make them, here’s what I mean. We can make a thought the whole goal in our day, or in our life. Or, we can just let it go. We are not obliged to attach meaning to any thought that goes through our mind.

It’s really when we learn to listen to our brilliance that we can discern those thoughts that are important to us–the ones that feel good, that give us a sense of happiness, or hope, or a sense of “yeah, that feels right!”

A lot of those other thoughts are just old habits, old patterns, and old beliefs. I think our whole planet is on a major cleanup right now. We’re cleaning out all those old thoughts that no longer fit or serve us. Part of that is coming our of recognizing that we don’t want to continue to create that old reality. It’s not where we really wanted to be in the first place. We put our attention there out of habit – it was the game on the planet.

We’ve had a huge amount of our attention based on fear-based thinking instead of putting our attention and focus on what it is we truly desire. What it is that’s gonna’ light up our world. We’re conditioned to being afraid it’s not the right thing.

It’s really important to step out of that fear. It’s not going to take us anywhere. As Vivian said, once you put your attention on a thought, it’s what you create. Thoughts are things and no matter where you put your attention that’s what you will create.

You have a choice. You don’t have to “go there”. You don’t have to make it hard. You have permission right now to focus on what you want. Focus on what makes you happy. Focus on what lights you up.

Stress Comes From Our Thoughts

Vivian: Back to the question about how to staying focused
on your purpose without being stressed. The stress comes
from our confusion. It comes from the doubts that our
thinking creates. We are all born thinkers and as we grow
inside of us thoughts are always going on. In the same way
we need to know that thoughts are just thoughts. They may
be stimulated from what’s going on around us, or they may
come from something inside of us a belief that we’ve had.

Two things are really important. First, just because we have
a thought it doesn’t make it real or true. And, the other side
of that is that whatever thought we choose to focus on is
going to become real. So if you have a certain belief and
continue to reinforce it, it will become real for you.

That is neither good nor bad. However, when you’re focusing
on a concern or doubt about what you might not be doing or
what you’re supposed to be doing in life; then all you will do
is create more of that concern.

Instead you could be focusing on what is it that makes you
feel in harmony, that makes you feel that you’re contributing,
that brings love and joy. The thoughts that bring these good
feelings come from ones brilliance. You can use your feelings
to connect to your brilliant thinking.

Make the Brilliance Connection

Answer to question: How do you stay focused on your
purpose without feeling stressed, that you’re not doing
what you’re supposed to be doing?

Lynne’s comments: In understanding our brilliance, first of
All, we don’t truly recognize what it is we’re supposed to be
doing until we make that brilliance connection. It is that
transmitter, or brilliant part of us that has those answers.
They don’t come from old habits. They don’t come from all
of those things that we learned from our parents, or our
teachers, or the school of hard knocks. Knowing who am I
or what I am doing here really has to come from within us.
We all have this natural core of brilliance. It’s a natural part
of every human being; it’s part of the human package. It’s
always there and it always has all of the answers that
we need.

I was talking to a group of fifth grade students today about
their natural brilliance. It came up that to connect with your
brilliance, you have to get quiet and your have to listen inside
yourself. But sometimes, when you get in touch with that
brilliant part of yourself, it might be directing you to go over
and talk to that guy over there. The point is that following
that wisdom that comes from that brilliant part of yourself,
may lead you to someone else. It will always lead you to
exactly who it is that you need to converse with to get the
information that you’re seeking.

In our culture we are not trained or told that we have this
part of ourselves. Sometimes we’re told to connect with our
higher power, or with Spirit, or the Universe. All of this is
that true part of ourselves that is the “who we really are”.
It’s making that connection that is really critical. It may
seem strange at first because we are conditioned to look
outside of ourselves from the time we are little children.
It’s a see what Mom’s doing or what Dad’s doing. People
are telling us, “don’t do that”, “stay away from that”, and
all the shouldn’ts and don’ts and do’s. We get conditioned
to listening to others for what’s true in our lives. That is
not where it’s at.

What do you think? What’s your best idea, what is it your
heart is telling you? That’s the really critical piece about
understanding that we have this natural core of
brilliance and it will never steer us wrong.

Understanding Thinking to Stop Stress

Question: How do you stay focused on your purpose without
being stressed that you’re not doing what you’re supposed
to be doing?

Vivian’s comments: All of us have looked closely into our
lives and wondered if this is it. We circle in our minds once
we get a thought going. It creates doubt, worry, and concern.
We never really do get the answer unless we realize we
have two kinds of thinking.

One of them we call the computer mind where thoughts are
stored, all of our experiences, all of our training. It’s sort of
like a real computer file. Everything from the past and
everything we experience today will go into that file.

The other part of our thinking and our mind is called the
transmitter mind. Our transmitter has access to the whole
universe. It has access to what we call brilliance. Once we
have that connection, we quiet down, we listen, we ask for
what we need. At that point we have a bigger viewpoint. It’s
almost like an aerial view over congested traffic. When you’re
in the traffic you can’t imagine what is going on. Then you
might tune in and see that there is a helicopter up there that
can see the whole picture. And that’s the kind of connection
we need to make sense out of our lives.

What we’re trying to suggest is that everyday we’re working,
trying to figure out who we are, what’s important and how we
can contribute. Making that brilliance connection helps up get
a bigger picture.

What Are the Symptoms of Stress?

We all possess a micro-mirror that can spot stress in a minute. This mirror exists inside us where the blood courses throughout our bodies and where our nerve endings fire. The world of pulsation and chemical communication is the primary generator of our physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioral existence. It paints a perfect picture of the stress or ease in which we live every day. We can be assured that the signals being sent throughout our systems can be identified if we take the time to check our mirrors. You may enjoy physical health and a zest for living. Or you may experience tension headaches and racing thoughts. If you are stressed, others around you may begin to feel your impatience or ‘edgy’ reactions and tone. You may be prone to cognitive symptoms—forgetting, cloudy thinking, constant worrying. You might be more susceptible to restlessness, irritability, and feeling overwhelmed, which are symptoms of emotional stress.  Although it is quite easy to blame those symptoms on the events or stages of our lives, they are telling us to wake up, to check things out. Take some time to check yourself - are you experiencing symptoms of stress in your life? Feel free to use the comment section in this blog to name the stressors you are dealing with day to day. We’ll then share specific approaches we, or others, have used to reduce stress reactions.