Beauty & Health Suggestions

More than ever, scientific research is confirming the essential responsibility of stress in triggering or aggravating a lot of psychological and somatic disorders. In the June 6, 1983 issue of Time Magazine, the cover story called stress "The Epidemic of the Eighties." The article also mentioned that stress is our considerable health issue. And it is doubtless that today's world has become even more complex and stressful in the last two decades since that article was written.

A lot of surveys show that almost everybody feels that they are subject to a great deal of stress. Authorities in this domain estimate that between 75 and 90 percent of the visits to primary care doctors are related to stress.

Most people report that their job is the major reason of their stress. The levels of stress have also grown in children and the elderly population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often lead to everything from smoking to drug and alcohol abuse; the loss of religion and family values; growing crime rates; fear for personal safety; and last but not least social isolation and loneliness.

Stress can cause and aggravate conditions such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks. This is due to the increased sympathetic nervous system activity along with the release of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress is corollary of impaired immune system resistance. Stress can cause anxiety, depression, and its various impacts on the body's organs.

"Stress" is defined as follows by the American Heritage Dictionary: "To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain"

"Tension" is defined as follows: "Mental, emotional, or nervous strain"

It defines "anxiety" as follows: "A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"

And the following definition is given for "depression": "The condition of feeling sad or despondent"

The following definition is given for "clinical depression": "A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death."

We can nonetheless be sure that our thoughts are the chief reason for our experience of stress, anxiety and depression. Put differently, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences strongly influence our feelings. So if we can find a way to change our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, we can be relieved of our feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and replace them with a better state of being.

Since the beginning of time, people have tried to find methods for releasing stress. With the pharmaceutical industry there seems to be a drug for everything. For that the industry has designed a wide line of sedatives from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to utilize drugs for relief, please be sure to be aware of the side-effects by reading the fine print, which often are, among others, addiction and dependency. Unfortunately, these kinds of drugs attempt to cure the symptoms, instead of the cause. So as soon as one stops taking them, the symptoms can return.

A finer method to eliminate tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to treat its actual cause, which as I said previously, is most often our thought processes. Now, here is some good news. Hypnosis is all about relaxation. The AMA accepted hypnosis in 1958 as an effective method of treating stress and stress related symptoms. However unlike pills, there are completely no bad side effects.

When you enter the state of hypnosis, you are in the Alpha level of consciousness. It is the daydream like temporary psychological frame of mind that we experience as we are just about to fall asleep at night. And we experience it once more as we awaken again. There are lots of different ways we can guide ourselves into this condition of tranquility, from progressive relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD's.

Once in a hypnotic state, we can communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the center of our feelings. And one can more easily admit new points of view and ideas which can help us to reduce anxiety, or even avoid it completely.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP, which is a recent kind of hypnosis, has several outstanding methods for dissipating stress. Maybe the most effective technique is called the "swish" pattern - or the "flash" pattern. When you use this technique, your unconscious will automatically use negative, stress producing mental images, as triggers for relaxing mental images. Otherwise stated, your stressors will automatically make you feel more relaxed!

TO SUMMARIZE Tension, stress, anxiety, and depression can be caused by our thoughts. So if we change our attitude and the way we feel about our situation and our experiences, we can reduce these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that allow us to change our attitude and point of view to quickly reduce the root cause of our negative feelings.