It's Heart to deal with...

We cannot play games with OUR heart...

Stress is an unseen opponent, that has targeted all of us.  When we talk about how powerful the mind is, we can't ignore that, that power can work both ways.  How can we sabotage ourselves mentally?  In the same way, we can sabotage ourselves physically, by allowing uninformed, and undisciplined actions determine who we are and what we do.  The mind we have is a fascinating machine, making over thirty thousand decisions a day.  Some small some major, all ours.  Defining ourselves and redefining ourselves requires that we be mentally focused and engaged at a high level.  We need to be present and attentive to ourselves and our surroundings.  That unseen opponent ironically has no voice, yet dictates our lives, health and abilities.  

Stress affects all aspects of our lives.  This is evident as more and more cases of stroke and cardio-vascular disease occur in the United States and other parts of the world.  So what is stress? "Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you sense danger – whether it’s real or imagined – the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response." (helpguide.org) The idea that the danger or stressor could be imagined is the key.  Though most occurrences are real, our minds can create others.  Having said that can our mind heighten perceived dangers to cause higher levels of stress?  

In a research article in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry in Great Britain, we found that stress has accounted for heart disease, which kills more Americans than any other disease.  What the article brings out that is interesting is that certain personalities and behaviors can trigger stressors that cause stroke.  When we see "...Behaviors that include hostility, agression, impatience and a quick temper", we can associate them with type A personalities.  I find it interesting that these traits are all responses to circumstances.  They often don't act independently of a event or incident.  Which we can also associate with a perception or viewpoint of a certain matter.  For instance, if someone said, "I don't understand you", we could internalize that and feel threatened (hostile) or offended (agression) that someone is challenging our level of intelligence or communication skills.  Rather, we could look to clarify what they meant and reiterate in a way that works for them.  Our understanding of some situations and our ability to manage them affect our stress levels.  

If you ever get a chance, read the old Chinese proverb (one of my absolute favorites), as this helps me put things into perspective on a lot of things in my life.  Do not let stress damage the wonderful person you are, and affect how we connect with others.  Please do not misunderstand me, stress is real and can have very serious affects on our physical and mental health.  Some aspects of stress can lead to depression and other serious psychological maladies.  

In this blog, we want to understand that we can create harmful circumstances for ourselves by interpreting matters in a negative light and furthermore affect our own growth.  Cognitive plyometrics is the ability to have the fitness mentally to engage our situations with the intent to understand and think critically on how to resolve them with the least resistance.  

As life gives us situations that we feel we are not equipped for, let us understand that though we may not have the answer at that exact moment we can find solace in the fact that patience and focus will lead to an answer eventually.  We are far to special and significant to allow stressors to abuse our thoughts and our body.  Stress exists in midst of unresolved problems.  We need to devote ourselves to finding answers or contingencies to alleviate the stressors and bring ourselves back to normal.  

We are wonderful, you are wonderful.  We can find our peace in anything if we want, all we need is focus and active planning to create an environment conducive to problem solving.  Our friends and family can act as our extra support through most situations.  Utilize them to aid you in finding resolutions.  Remember, "We will never be, what we never think." MG