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Carrying the world on your shoulders |
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Many people feel as if they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. We each have a special place in our body where we hold our stress and tension. For many people, it is the shoulder muscles. It is common to see people rubbing their shoulders when they are under stress. They are usually trying to work out knots they have developed in the center of their shoulder muscles. That knot is a physical manifestation of their stress. There are many ways to relieve it. Two quick fixes are a sedative medication or an alcoholic drink, both of which allow the body to relax by calming the mind. For those looking for possibilities outside of drugs, there is massage and meditation. Massage releases the stress in the mind by directly accessing its physical manifestation in the muscles. These treatments address the immediate manifestation, but do nothing to prevent a recurrence of the problem. Meditation works in the same manner as the drugs, but it gives you the power to control your reaction to the event. Through its calming effect on the mind, meditation allows the tension being held in the muscles to be released. This type of meditation can be as simple as closing your eyes and repeating a mantra you have chosen to address the situation. Depending on the circumstances a few slow deep breaths may be all that is needed to calm your mind and bring some balance to a tense situation. Hypnotherapy and life coaching are effective modalities for dealing with the root cause of the stress. Hypnotherapy assists people in releasing fears, beliefs and habits which encourage tension-causing behavior that often can be the inciting factor of a stressful situation. Life coaching teaches people to reframe how they are experiencing their stress, which often can diminish or totally relieve the experience. This is sometimes a matter of changing a behavior, but may be as simple as looking at the situation from a different perspective. The next time you find yourself knotting up from stress, try taking a few deep breaths and see how you do. If you have a recurring stress, consider a mantra – a short phrase – that will allow you to address, or perhaps laugh at, the situation. Close your eyes, breathe deep and repeat it to yourself. This option will take a little practice to become most effective. If these maneuvers fail, find a massage therapist, or seek out a hypnotherapist or a life coach, who can help you work at a deeper level. Addressing your stress before it becomes physical is always the best plan.
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