365QOD- Day1041

Stressed Out

“The amygdalae are almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans.” - Wikipedia

I watched a special on PBS last night.  They always show very cool stuff during their money drives.  The special was called Mind Over Medicine .  The author Dr. Lissa Rankin presented her views of how some things are not explainable with western medicine and we need to be aware of alternatives.

According to Rankin, the amygdala is supposed to shut off within 30 seconds of a life threatening event.  An example of such an event is a situation in which a car almost hits you.  The life threatening event lasts for a few seconds at best.  Unfortunately, modern life stress causes the amygdala to stay active most of the time.

So how do you stop stressing?  I read an article by Bahram Akradi in which he uses the following technique.

1.  “If the present is stressful, put your focus on the future.”  This makes sense.  At times we do not have complete control of our present but we can clearly see where we are headed towards.

2.  “If the future is stressful, put your focus on the present.”  Sometimes we know of events that will occur in the future.  Just because we know what will happen it does not mean we know when or how.  In those moments we should pull back and focus on what we can do now.

3. If 1 and 2 did not work for you then, “If you’re still stressed out, make a contingency plan.”  This is when you take out a piece of paper and think through your options, approaches, and plan your response.

Today’s question is:

“Are you being stressed by the present, future, or do you need to make a contingency plan?”