Stress,Management,using,Mindfu DIY Stress Management using Mindfulness Meditation Therapy

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OVERCOMING EMOTIONALSTRESS REACTIONSEmotional stress issomething that we all experience when we have to cope with the many demands andresponsibilities of home and work. Stress can be defined as an intenseemotional and physiological reaction to a situation or the mentalrepresentation of a situation as a memory or anticipation. Chronic stress isproduced when stress reactions do not resolve themselves and become habitual.The sustained physiological effects of chronic stress can have a serious effecton the body and lead to an increased risk of disease. The psychological effectsof chronic stress produce fatigue, poor concentration and an impaired abilityto perform tasks, which leads to more stress. Stress produces a general feelingof helplessness and negativity, both of which reinforce the stress reactions.This produces a lack of vitality, enthusiasm and creativity and many peopledescribe chronic stress as a heavy blackness that covers everything and in itssevere form, chronic stress leads to depression. Chronic stress can result inan increased chance of accidents as well as reducing work performance. Chronicstress also reduces our listening and learning skills and this reduces thequality of communication in our personal relationships and family. It is well recognizedthat stress reactions are learned and originate from the influence of our ownmental outlook and from belief patterns acquired from our parents, family andculture. Stress always contains both an objective component and a subjectivecomponent and in most situations, it is the habitual subjective emotionalreactivity that generates the emotional tension and physiologicalcharacteristics of stress. There is pain and there is suffering. Pain is theobjective component that is often inevitable or unavoidable, but suffering is asubjective reaction that we generate and add to the pain. The Buddha describedthis subjective suffering as dukkha and not surprisingly, mindfulness, which is one of the centralteachings of the Buddha, was and continues to be very relevant for working withand resolving emotional stress.The other major sourceof stress comes from unresolved traumas that result from physical injury,assault, domestic abuse and violence. In general this kind of trauma-relatedstress results from experiences and associated emotional reactions that wecannot process, because they are outside of our normal range of experience.These unresolved wounds become repressed and submerge into the subconsciousmind where they continue to simmer and generate a generalized anxiety. This isdescribed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Occasionally, in severecases of PTSD resulting from war or other intense situations, the stressreactions will erupt as nightmares and flashbacks in which the individualre-lives the trauma. Whatever the source ofthe stress reactions, it is important to understand that each reaction has aninternal structure in the form of negative thoughts and beliefs and associatedemotional energy that gives power to these thoughts. It is often very helpfulto examine these negative thoughts and try to change them. This is the approachtaken in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Another approach is to change theemotional energy that empowers the thoughts and beliefs, because without thiscompulsive charge, the beliefs will have no power to generate stress. This isthe approach taken in MMT. Through careful attention and investigation of the emotionthrough mindfulness, we can uncover the internal structure of the emotion anddiscover what needs to change. As the structure changes, so does the emotion.Resolve this and you will neutralize the stress reactions. OVERCOMING STRESSREACTIONS: THE FOUR Rs Stress is generated byhabitual emotional reactions to external events and internal beliefs. Thesepatterns of negative thinking can be changed by the application of the four Rs,which are the primary focus of MMT. These are: RECOGNITION, REFRAMING,RELATIONSHIP, RESOLUTION. RECOGNITIONAll habitual emotionalreactions rely on two key elements: ignorance and emotional energy. The firsttask in MMT is to learn to recognize our stress reactions as they arise instressful situations. We train ourselves to watch very carefully for anyimpulse to react. This counteracts the automatic and mechanical part of whatmakes reactions habitual. The maxim of MMT is that all change begins withmindfulness and mindful-recognition is the first and most important step. Youknow what pushes your buttons. It might be in your personal relationships withyour partner or with your children or perhaps with your parents. One of themost important steps you can take on the path of self-transformation is to takethe initiative to examine what stressors cause you to react and to learn torecognize your impulse to react. This is very empowering and changes yourattitude from being a victim to being a warrior. For most of the time, most ofus react out of habit and have no awareness of what is happening while it ishappening. We are simply seduced into the same automatic patterns of reactivethinking over and over again. Clearly, the first step is to break this patternof ignorance and know what is happening as it happens. This is the fundamentalfirst part of mindfulness. Mindfulness means to be present for experience as itis unfolding. REFRAMINGNow you are learningto recognize anger reactions, disappointment and frustration reactions, fearand anxiety reactions as they arise in real-time. This new awareness can bevery transformational by itself by simply making you conscious of what you aredoing. It is a truth that what you don't see is what has the greatest powerover you. Awakening to what is happening is therefore the first step to change.The next step thatpaves the way for transforming the emotional energy that powers stressreactivity is to change your relationship to the emotion. Our usual response isto say I am angry or I am afraid or I am upset and we literally become theemotion. Contrast this to saying I notice anger/fear/upset in me. Now theemotion becomes reduced to an object, not me, that I can relate to withmindfulness. This simple reframing of how we perceive an emotional reaction -as me or as an object that has arisen in me is itself transformational. RELATIONSHIPHowever, what keeps areaction alive is the associated emotional charge, without which the reactionwould have no power to cause stress. MMT teaches us how to form a non-reactiverelationship, the Mindfulness Based Relationship, with this underlyingemotional energy that compels us to react. This is the RELATIONSHIP phase ofMMT.The mindfulnessrelationship is very important. This is where we allow ourselves to open ourawareness and investigate the emotional energy, which is quite different to ourusual reactions of ignorance, avoidance or aversion. We choose to be fullypresent with the inner feelings behind the stress reactions, rather thangetting sucked into the content and story line. Just as in personalrelationships, it is the quality of our PRESENCE, our ability to listen with anopen mind and heart that is most important. Now we are learning to cultivatethis same presence for our inner emotional stress. The nature of the mind issuch that if you allow things to change, they inevitably will. If you allowthings to change and unfold into this safe spaciousness of themindfulness-based relationship, things will change in a beneficial directionthat will transform and resolve the inner conflict and pain. It is the habitualreactivity that stops this natural healing and as we learn to disengage fromthe patterns of reactivity we create the right conditions in which emotionaltension will resolve itself. RESOLUTIONMindfulness creates atherapeutic space that allows the emotion to unfold and undergo transformation.If you give it space it will change. This is one of the great discoveries madeby the Buddha, 2500 years ago and which we are rediscovering today. It is notwhat we do that matters as much as how we relate to our emotional stress. Whenthis relationship is based on the receptivity and openness of mindfulness, thenwe create the best possible conditions in which emotional tension can resolveitself.Resolution can beunderstood as the process in which a stress producing emotion like anger oranxiety or disappointment undergoes a process of unfolding and differentiation.When we investigate anger with mindfulness, we begin to see that the anger isactually an assembly of more subtle content - the inner structure - in the formof feelings, memories, sensations and often some form of inner imagery thatpulls all these parts together into the form of an emotion. The angerdifferentiates into feelings of sadness, emptiness, fear. With intense stressreactions resulting from trauma, we will likely notice vivid inner imagery. Itis by uncovering the internal structure of the emotions and associated imagerythat change becomes possible and mindfulness provides one of the best ways ofcultivating a safe relationship with painful content by teaching you how tostay present and avoid becoming reactive to what you are uncovering. Through becomingconscious of the inner structure of the emotions that power our stressreactions, the emotional energy will change and resolve. Without this emotionalpower, there is nothing to sustain the emotional reactions and life-longpatterns of stress producing reactivity begin to dissolve, leaving you freefrom their compulsive grip. Like the petals of a lotus bud that were previouslyheld and constrained so tightly, the mind begins to explore a new freedom withall its possibilities and choices. This is the freedom that the Buddha talkedabout and that is possible for all of us to discover through the practice of mindfulness.MMT teaches you how to apply mindfulness to resolve your patterns of habitualreactivity so that you can realize your full potential and enjoy your life andrelationships to the full.