Emotional Rescue
September 11, 2009 11:25 AM
How many times per month, per week, or even per day do you hear, or do you say to yourself, ‘I am so stressed out!’ We all know stress is a part of life, but have you every stopped to ask yourself what exactly is stress? Even more, why are we all so stressed out most of the time?
Have you ever stopped to realize that stress is no more than a feeling? Even though the dictionary will tell you that stress is a non-specific response to any type of demand, I think you can agree with me that we feel stress. Now the question becomes why we are feeling stressed? And why as adults do we categorize so many of our feelings as stress?
When we are children we are permitted to have a wide spectrum of emotions. No one thinks twice of an emotional break-down in the ice cream isle…when it’s a three year old. If a 35 year-old had a tantrum in the ice cream isle I guarantee they would get a ride in a car decorated with flashing lights.
Why is that when we are children we are allowed to feel and express our emotions but as we grow older we are told “suck it up, “you’re too big to cry,” or the worst of all “you shouldn’t feel that way.” Just because we grow another year older does each birthday take away our right to our emotions?
But I digress…
Try to remember the last time you felt stressed. Perhaps, dear reader, you found yourself at that particular time were you hungry, angry, lonely, and/or tired. Often times we will feel more stressed or easily stressed when we find ourselves too hungry, too angry, too lonely, and/or too tired. If you take each of the first syllables of each of those factors we can created the word HALT; HALT—to cease or stop. A simple acronym that can help you stop what you are doing to identify your feelings and reduce your stress levels daily.
Your challenge this month is to do just that, HALT when you are feeling stressed. First ask yourself if you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. Then ask yourself why you are feeling that way. You may just find yourself less stressed once you allow yourself to have emotions—after all isn’t that what makes us human?
