What Actually Causes Your Stress?
Stress plays a huge role in the development and progression of disease. Knowing that, it is vital to always be aware of how stress affects our bodies. What causes YOUR stress? Stress is such an underlying factor in the creation of disease and imbalance in the body – knowing what causes your stress, and where it sits in your body, and how it is expressed is the key to getting to the root of your symptoms and creating long-lasting healing.
Western medicine excels at the treatment of severe and acute medical conditiops. Where it is lacking is in providing solutions for chronic health concerns. There’s little to no ability within the framework of Western medicine to treat the root cause of chronic health issues, largely because there’s such little focus on the management and elimination of stress. Instead, pharmaceuticals are used to address symptoms, which typically provides immediate relief, ignoring the underlying problem.
Even many alternative health practitioners don’t treat chronic health concerns at the root cause. Yes, they can often temporarily relieve stress and help people feel more relaxed and at peace, but this experience tends to be short-lived and the patient finds that they become dependent on the modality in order to ‘feel good.’
As health practitioners, our focus has to return to this question of what is actually causing us to feel continual and chronic stress, so we can treat it at a causal level. In my clinical and life experience, I have come to realize that stress is largely the result of the conditioning we experience in our childhood and teenage years. From a young age, specific beliefs are ingrained in us, about who we are, what life is, and how we should function in this world. Many of these beliefs are limiting and even maladaptive. As we become attached to these beliefs, we lose our connection with who we really are and the unlimited potential we inherently possess.
There are many examples of beliefs that limit us in life; here are a few of the most common ones:
Life is a struggle. You have to make sacrifices to succeed.
Life isn’t safe; I don’t feel secure
Money is evil and promotes greed
The key to success is to get a secure and safe job – following your passion is unrealistic
I’m not good enough . . . and I never will be no matter how hard I try
I need to find someone to love me in order to feel good about myself
I am my job
When these limited beliefs linger in our minds, they determine the choices we make and our behaviors in life. This is why so many people suffer or struggle in their relationships and jobs. People often make choices based on what they think they SHOULD do, not based on what truly fills their souls, or aligned with their needs.
The body often manifests what exists in our minds, especially when it comes to chronic, long-term health issues. If the body is breaking down due to stress, and our stress is caused by holding onto limiting and harmful beliefs about who we are, then the key to lasting health and healing is to free ourselves of these beliefs and operate in this world under a new set of principles and values.
Many of us experience a ‘wake up call’ of sorts when we are diagnosed with a health condition such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, disc degeneration, IBS, or chronic fatigue. This is the body’s attempt to wake us up to an opportunity to create life on our own terms and to let go of what we’ve been taught about how we should live and what it means to be a worthy person.
If you want to get to the root cause of your health issues and consciously create optimal wellness, start with your thoughts and beliefs. Examine the beliefs that may be holding you back and see if you can link these beliefs to the lifestyle choices you’ve made in your career, relationships, dietary choices, and so on. A skilled health practitioner can be of great assistance in this process. Call me if you’d like to discuss your unique situation and see what I can do to help.
Brookline Acupuncture and Needham Acupuncture
