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Stress isn't real!

Written by: Kirk Kjellberg

Article Overview: Stress is killing us. I came to the conclusion that I was letting an imaginary set of algorithms cause way too much commotion in my life. Studying how to feel more relaxed and centered I came across the idea that stress isn't real. Check it out...

Stress isn't real!

Stress is not real.

Sure we have stress, and yes things can be stressful, but no, stress is not real. OMG! I bet there are going to be some people who freak out at this post. I first learned of, and have to give credit for, this idea from the late Dr. Richard Carlson. But since that time this idea has inspired both consternation and in some ways fear. Fear of what exactly? Good question.

Fear that I have spent innumerable hours and incalculable life energy worshiping a false god. This idea is going to blasphemy to many who worship and the same alter of stress I confess to have nearly worn out in recent years. To be fair, I am a recovering stresser. I still let the old ways in for an unannounced visit now and again, but am steadily removing anywhere in my life for stress to remain.

A lie told often enough becomes the truth. Lenin said this many years ago, but doesn’t that fit stress. If stress is real, how can so many people handle the same circumstances in such wildly different ways? Two sets of folks in dire circumstances, one worrying themselves sick, the others a more lighthearted approach. Each would easily defend the ideology. Stressed people will defend their approach by saying incredulously, “of course I’m stressed, this, that and the next thing happened”. The next person, same circumstance says, getting all worked up over it, won’t make the situation change.

Humans run on the DNA of millions of years of ancestors. When you get back to the caveman times, I suppose stress was how the caveman knew when he was in deep doo. It is, in essence, a fight or flight response, just like flinching, it seems automatic. The reality of stress is that it is intangible. It is created by us, for us, as a way to keeping tabs on our situation and thinking. Stress isn’t real because you can see it, you can’t prove it, you can’t sell it, and it is all in our minds. What “stresses” you, might thrill or excite me. It is a gift handed down through the generations and seemingly holds a massive segment of the population hostage. It is a negative story in our minds that replays with such frequency and voracity that it can actually kill people by changing their physiology or lead them to literally kill themselves.

It has happened to every one of us. You go to a movie in a crap mood, and magically 1.5 hours and 9 buck later you feel fine. As Dr. Carlson points out, if there is a time you can remember making this kind of shift, which in of itself is proof that stress isn’t real.

So how do you make your stress “not real”? Well first step to solving any problem is to admit there is one. Affirmations help reseed the minds garden. Look yourself in the mirror once in the morning and once as you get ready for bed. Simply say to yourself, “Stress is not real, I need to think, plan and act today, and the results will take care of themselves.”

So prove me wrong! Name one thing you’ve solved, changed or fixed by stressing. Did your car payment get to the bank faster because you stressed, or was it because you thought, (crap, car payment late), you planned, (check with Fedex to overnight payment, check web site), or acted, (made payment online, went to Fedex, called customer service, etc). Stress alone is a worthless bluster of an over-adrenalized electrical system. Your brain only wants you to think, plan and act, not sit around pounding Ben and Jerry’s from anxiety induced munches.

Next time you feel hungry; ask yourself if you’re thirsty instead? Same thing here with the “imaginary friend” we call stress. Next time you feel stressed, ask yourself; maybe I should think, plan or act instead? You’ll also begin to see there is an entire industry dedicated to easing your stress. Perhaps we buy into the idea of stress so we can sooth ourselves without the guilt. “I got so stressed out I did such and so”. It’s a license to spend, smoke, drink and overeat.

My plan to rid myself of the idea stress is real, is to carefully monitor feelings of stress and see what the real message is. Realize that I am not in any real or present danger, so I will calm down and see what craving, need or desire engrained in this signal from my brain. I will repeat; “Stress is not real, I need to think, plan and act today, the results will take care of themselves.” If stress has ever delivered one good thing to your door, then sure get cozy with stress. Not for me though, it has never done anything good for me, and that is because things that are not real, are incapable for making any real difference.

Calm down, deep breaths; find something new to think about. Read, write, walk, talk, DO something. Clean the garage, fix that door, paint that shed.

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop ~ Chaucer ~

Hope you enjoyed this post.

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