Being stressed is simply a fact of everyday life – right?
Everyday living demands that we absorb stress and just power on. From a very young age we’re taught that we must be resilient and strong in order to survive – and indeed, thrive – in the world.
We live in a ‘dog-eat-dog’ society, one where morphing into something we’re not is the safest pathway to success. We become whoever we need to be to get ahead.
We compromise on the things that are important to us … and often without any conscious understanding that we’re doing so.
We dabble in the parts of the spiritual world that are deemed acceptable. We espouse beliefs such as “Karma will look after us – what we give out, we’ll get back” … but at the same time, we condescend the ‘hippy’ beliefs of those who embrace the spiritual life as a whole.
Reality check: we’re stressed, exhausted and totally overwhelmed.
We’re lost and we don’t know which way to turn to steer our lives back onto the right track. We feel like we’re so far down the path we’ve travelled that it’s too late to turn back now.
Worst of all, we get away with living our lives like this because we’ve become adept at hiding the full impact that stress has on our lives.
But what if the full impact of your stress was visible for everyone to see?
What if those things hidden on the inside were suddenly fully observable by everyone around us? What if the façade that protects the truth of our lives was suddenly see-through and everyone could look inside?
For most of us, the mere thought of this happening has us running to find a dark, hidden space where we can hide. The sheer terror of thinking that others could see the truth about our lives is what drives us to keep the façade in place.
We’re so busy projecting a version of our self – and the life we purport to be living – to the outside world that we operate on auto-pilot. We’re busy making sure that we do the ‘right’ things at the ‘right’ time and for the ‘right’ people.
Very rarely do we stop to consider the impact that living our lives this way has on us. Not only are we hiding the truth of our lives from everyone around us; the reality is, most of us are hiding the truth from ourselves as well.
Stress is a modern day silent killer.
The impact on our bodies ranges from weight gain to toxicity build-up and, ultimately, to long-term mental health issues. What we don’t realise is that not only are we reducing our quality of life now, we’re also significantly reducing the quality of our life in later years. This translates to an increased likelihood of reducing the longevity of our lives as well.
It’s a sad fact that there are many people who are ‘popping pills’ to manage stress. The problem is this: even if those pills are pharmaceutical in nature and have been prescribed by medical experts – or, they are the result of self-medication (of both legal and illegal origin!) – they’re not the solution they’re cracked up to be.
When we’re ill, it is our body’s way of telling us that something is out of balance and that we need to stop and rest in order to recover. Our conditioning, however, tells us that when we’re ill it’s time to mask our symptoms and ‘soldier on’.
The increase in stress-related illness – whether it be related to mental or physical health – tells us that the way we are currently living clearly isn’t working for us.
So instead of reaching for an immediate fix that gives us a false sense of our ability to keep going, perhaps we should take the time to consider this: if we’re so terrified of what people will think if they see us stop, then it might be time to make some changes that will allow us to consciously make better choices about how we live.
There’s only so long that we can continue to live in the way that we do before we’re presented with a life event that forces us to stop. Despite our social conditioning, living life in a very different way doesn’t have to be any more complicated than learning to think a little bit differently.
Isn’t it time for you to question why you continue to allow your stress levels to rule your life?
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Want more info? There are loads of tips and tricks on living and thinking differently in my book ‘Keep It Super Simple’ – you can buy a copy from www.sheiqlife.com/shop.
Want to chat? Email me on info@sheiqlife.com or call me on +61 438 624 868 and we’ll set up a time!
Bronwen Sciortino is a Simplicity Expert and Professional Speaker, and is the author of ‘Keep It Super Simple – Tips from a Recovering Perfectionist’. Join the conversation by subscribing to the tribe at www.sheiqlife.com; Facebook; Instagram or LinkedIn.