Stress

Freedom from Fight, Flight and Freeze

Left unattended, tension can build until even minor upsets can be stressful. When your body can’t distinguish between real or imagined danger, it reacts with a cocktail of hormones that create the fight, flight or freeze stress response. This helps your body stay focused, energetic and alert. However, this reaction is meant to be reserved for quick fixes and short-term use. It is first aid for the stress, not for ongoing application. Ideally, once the feeling of immediate danger has passed, your body will switch to a neutral state so recovery and healing can begin. It is easer to identify the stresses from the outside world than those of your inner world. Whether your stress is inwards or outwards, the result is the same. You can’t change what happens around you, but you can choose how to respond. Care about how you feel and focus on calm.

Shadow Mastery Class: Activate the Relaxation Response

Meditation

Place your hand on the card. Gently close your eyes. Sense your body and concentrate on your breathing. Follow your breath inward. Hold for five seconds and relax. Breathe out and release all tension. Focus on the middle of your chest.

In front of you, a golden staircase descends into the earth. As you walk down the ten healing steps to a magical, amethyst crystal cave, feel your body and mind begin to soften.

Step into the amethyst cave and greet your shadow. Before you is an emerald-green door called “Tranquility.” The door quietly opens and invites you in. You feel safe and protected as you enter the room.

You are standing in your ideal place of complete relaxation. Find a place to sit or lie and focus on your breath. A beautiful sense of peace and relaxation moves calmly around and through you. It begins to glow with your favorite color. Feel a growing sense of peace and relaxation flow over and through you with a gentle warmth, soothing and easy. Sit with this feeling. If you feel yourself becoming restless, imagine turning down the volume on your thoughts. They can be there, but they are not your focus. Let them rise like bubbles and float away.

Continue to breathe deeply and slowly and when you feel ready, scan your body for tension or tightness. If you notice any, observe it without reacting. Just let it be there. One by one, gently breathe into those areas of your body, allowing the wonderful sense of peace and relaxation to embrace and lovingly convert any tension, resistance or pain into softness and ease. As the tight energy loosens, notice any stored emotions and observe your responses to them. You may feel an urge to run from, justify, farewell or embrace the emotion. Accept however you feel and continue to breathe peace and relaxation into the tension until it softens, transforms and releases.

Scan your body until every part of you feels soft and easy. Fous on your breath and imagine it has turned to gold. Breathe in gold. Breathe out gold. Imagine your whole being is filled with liquid gold and surrounded by golden stardust. Sit in this golden space for as long as you like-at least thirty seconds.

When you are ready, farewell your tranquility room and return to the amethyst cave. Thank your shadow for alerting you to your stress so you can activate the relaxation response.

Return to the golden staircase. Complete relaxation and peace accompany you as you ascend the stairs. Feel it flow through your physical body and into your life. Breathe gold in and out as you open your eyes.

Inspired Insights, Reflections and Actions

Trying to think of nothing requires you to engage your thoughts. The concept of clearing the mind is not meant to be taken literally. Rather, it involves allow thoughts to be present without reaction. Thoughts will arise during meditation or relaxation. By observing them without engagement, judgement or attempting to push them away, your relaxation process can continue and deepen.

Mindfulness is a mind-focusing technique that can dissolve stress and help you be present in the now. Mindfulness and meditation can also do wonders for productivity, helping you do less and accomplish more. It is like restarting your computer, resetting and bringing things up to date. Any time spent in meditation is helpful-even a couple of minutes. Reducing stress and tension supports physical and emotional healing. Cultivate mindfulness, live mindfully and be more at ease.

Exercise: Find a peaceful space to lie or sit in quiet contemplation. Allow any thoughts and feelings to rise and fall. Observe them without becoming attached. Do this for a few minutes and continue each day for a week or two, gradually increasing the time spent in mindfulness.

Journal Work

Multitasking can scatter energy, thoughts and focus across many areas simultaneously and be a huge stressor. In a relatively short time, overthinking can become habitual and creep into other areas of your life.

Write or draw a list of daily tasks that need to be done. Break them into single tasks and consider whether you can get help with any of them. If you share a household or have people around, doing things together can be fun and bonding. You can also reduce stress by devoting your time to one task at a time. Allow each task to become the inspiration for the next one. Through focus and attention, tasks can be accomplished well in less time. Reflect on the everyday moments where you can find joy. Write about them in your journal to bring feelings of meaning and satisfaction to the simple moments of your life. You might also gift yourself time to immerse yourself in one thing that interests or relaxes you-learn about a crystal, draw a mandala or write a haiku. Record this experience in your journal.