Confrontational Stress Busting

If you look into the most suggested methods for stress relief today, the common trait most of them share is that they’re focused on the present. Mindfulness and meditation, physical exercise, getting organized, healthy habits for eating and sleeping, creative outlets. All good ideas, mind you, but too often, people focus on smoothing over the stress they are currently experiencing, rather than attempting to address the source.

It's easy to see why. The more trauma a person has in their past, the more painful it is to confront. None of us relish this, and many people decide it’s better to just try and live in the moment. For some people, it reaches a point where they don’t feel they CAN do so productively, and that all they can do is try to forget and move on.

Now, I’m not going to tell anyone in the middle of that pain that they should be banging their head against the wall, but let me tell you why I believe that a confrontational style of stress release is far better for your long-term health than simple day-to-day management. Even if you don’t feel you can do it now, it’s a wonderful goal to have. And who knows, you might hear a step today that you think you can handle.

Traumas Do Not Stay in the Past

In the early 2000s, Dr. Eric Nestler made the bombshell announcement out of Southwestern University and Medical Center that they had found the source of illness and disease. This is what they called“cellular memories,” and I’ve talked about it often elsewhere. What I want to focus on today is a particular part of that larger discovery. Dr. Nestler and his team realized that memories—especially trauma memories—transmit their emotional frequencies throughout our bodies CONSTANTLY, not only while we are actively thinking about them, as was previously believed. This is a massive revelation, because it confirms that attempts to forget and move on from traumas ultimately do not work. You have to seek resolution, and that’s no easy thing.

Today, I want to share some key tactics for addressing the root of these trouble and traumas, so that you’re not left grappling with them for the rest of your life.

Forgiveness

C.S. Lewis once wrote that everyone thinks forgiveness is a wonderful idea, until they have something to forgive. He also said it’s not that people think it’s too high and difficult a virtue, they think it is weak and contemptible. It’s easy to understand why. Take the case of a woman abused by her husband, for example. Who really wants to tell this person that she must forgive her husband? Why would anyone place that additional burden on her?

The sentiment is in the right place, and I would join the rest of the world in telling her to put plenty of distance between her and the man. When I say forgiveness, I’m not talking about allowing an injustice to continue, I’m talking about accepting the person as a fellow human being, wishing for their ultimate good, and loving them in whatever capacity you can—and in the case of some people, that might be only wishing them well from a distance.

So why is it so important? Becauseunforgiveness is a poison. Few things can sabotage your mental wellbeing, stunt your growth and positivity, and eventually wreck your life the way that holding on to an issue like this can. Consider what we now know about how these memories transmit their emotional frequencies. Is it really just that a woman like the one in our example should go on feeling those same emotions for the rest of her life? Of course not! If she did, it’s not likely that the problems would remain merely mental, since those traumas would undoubtedly cause stress, and physiological stress is acknowledged by nearly every doctor on the planet as the source of nearly all illness and disease.

It's often said that forgiveness is the first step to healing, and we are now seeing how this wisdom is validated by new medical research, not only on a psychological level, but on a physical one!

Rewriting Unconscious Thoughts

One of the most common ways that traumas and wrong beliefs show through in our day-to-day lives is through recurring negative thoughts. “I don’t deserve this. My life is so unfair. Things are never going to get any better.” I’m sure you could add your own examples. This would be one example of how traumas don’t stay in the past, and how they weigh on our conscious minds.

But what can you do about that? I don’t mean counseling and therapy, I mean what can you, personally, do about it right now?There is one simple brain-hack that I’ve found to be enormously powerful. That is, take those negative thoughts and turn them into a prayer.

I’m losing the secular among you now, I’m sure, but let me stress that I believe this works as a psychological technique, not only as a faith practice. I believe in God, but it still works whatever you believe. Besides, I would urge you not to do anything that goes against your beliefs, that’s liable to cause more trouble than it resolves. If you don’t believe in God, then don’t address it to Him, but to your unconscious mind. I believe that what ancient manuscripts call the “heart” is the same ting that modern science calls the unconscious mind. We know that it is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind, and that as it goes, everything in your life goes.

Fortunately, it is possible to make it work for you. The simple act of consistently restating these negative thoughts in accordance with truth and love seems to have a profound effect on our unconscious perceptions as well. In my experience, it takes about a month. But if you can do this consistently for that long, your unconscious mind shifts, and negative recurring thoughts become positive. Now, that’s difficult to do, and if you’re in an extremely hurt, negative state then it may not be practical for you to do immediately. But you can still use the codes, you can still work on sorting out any unresolved traumas, and in time this can absolutely transform your life for the better.

Have a blessed, wonderful day!

Dr. Alex Loyd