Is Stress Robbing You of Happiness and Health? Is your body and mind tense? Do you suffer from non-medical aches and pains? Do you currently have a physical or mental condition that is aggravated by stress?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above… you need to reduce stress and learn to relax. Here’s why:

Stress slowly eats away at your health. Often it is a “silent killer,” depleting you of energy, vitality and happiness and aging you prematurely.

Researchers estimate that up to 75% of all visits to the doctor’s office are made by people with stress-related problems.

A rubber band can only be stretched so far before it snaps. The same applies to your health! Chronic stress pushes your natural resilience past the breaking point.

Stress turns your life sour, making even good things difficult to appreciate. Stress causes or contributes to just about every major physical and mental illness. The point being, when you live a relaxed lifestyle you increase your health.

Your home is more than a roof over your head; it is the special place where each member of your family seeks love, understanding and friendship. Family life needs to be a positive experience for all.

Your stress, or the stress of another family member, makes your home a place other family members want to avoid. Stress is like a virus. One stressed family member will spread their tension to everyone else present. You want your home to be a comfortable place to live. Then make sure it a stress-free.

When you are agitated, confrontational and edgy your emotional face is ugly. You push away love and closeness. Your partner will seek to walk away from you—either figuratively or literally. You will be avoided and you will feel abandoned. This is all caused by your stress that hides your natural charm.

When stressed—you are like a cactus! How can your partner desire thorn-hugging?! How can your partner want to be with you?

Learn to relax. Then you will be lovable and your partner will seek to be close with you.

Need more convincing?

Scientific Proof

• “Exposure to stress has been demonstrated to alter [negatively affects] every system of the body, including the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and central nervous systems.” Emotional Longevity, Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D. Viking, 2003, page 265.
• “A stressed individual will typically display a pattern of either aggressive behavior or of avoidance…[He or she will be]…argumentative, stubborn, or confrontational…Anger and hostility may be evident.” Stress Management: An Integrated Approach to Therapy. Dorothy H.G. Cotton, Ph.D. Brunner/Mazel, 1990, page 45.
• “As with all basic relationships, the family determines to a large extend how healthy its members are. Those who belong to a healthy family find that their stress levels are lower, they suffer significantly less illness, and they recover from illness and disease much more rapidly.” Mind/Body Health, Brent Q Hafen, Brigham Young University, et al. Allyn and Bacon, 1996, page 351.

Shockingly, not only is stress harmful but it is self-inflicted.

In other words, when you are stressed you are doing it to yourself.

Sometimes we are so busy being stressed, that we don’t even notice our state of being. Regardless, stress reduces your ability to cope and succeed in all that is important.

Fortunately, and unlike many other medical conditions, harmful stress can be greatly reduced or even completely eliminated. We create our own stress with improper attitudes, dysfunctional thinking and not using readily available stress-busting tools. It needn’t be that way.

Feel good in your own life. Smart Life Relaxation Training will teach you how to:

• Remain calm regardless of what is happening
• How to stop the stress from getting a grip on you
• Relax your body
• Relax your mind
• Positively contribute to a loving and comfortable relationships
• How to use the many readily available activities to keep your stress low
• How to develop a relaxed lifestyle
• all this with no psychobabble, no metaphysical skills needed and no major time commitments

People come to my counseling office with a wide range of problems. I have noticed that many situations that plague individuals and families start out as simple “stressful reactions” to very ordinary occurrences. These “stressful reactions” then cause others to respond with more stress and gradually, over time, the stress takes on a life of its own, and everyone is hurt. The beginning of where the stress started is forgotten, but the ongoing problems it has created continue.

Examples

Examples of how stress can cause serious problems:

• Susan (mom) yells (a stress reaction) at Tommy (her nine-year-old son) for spilling his juice and getting his school clothes dirty. Tommy tries to tell his mom that it was just an accident; he didn’t mean to do it, and he is sorry. However, she is too upset to hear his pleas. Susan just keeps pumping out stress; rushing to get him clean clothes, chastising him for not being carefully, and emphasizing how late he will be for school. At school Tommy is angry. He hits a classmate, ends up in the principal’s office, and Susan gets a call to come and pick him up. Had Susan responded calmly to Tommy when he spilled his juice, and had the presence of mind to recognize his remorse, likely he would have had a great day in school. Instead he was “sent home,” embarrassed, and seen as by the school authorities as a “problem child”.
• Bob (husband) had a difficult day at the office. Coming into his home, he is stressed and irritable. When Cindy (his four-year-old daughter) cries, he grabs her and puts her in another room. He tells the other children to “stop making noise.” Tina (Bob’s wife) becomes upset at Bob’s harshness with the children and lack of patience and sharply rebukes him. Bob leaves and goes to the basement where he pouts the rest of the evening. Cindy ignores him; hardly talking to him for next three days. Had Bob known how to let-go of his work related tension, he could have been a more “user-friendly” dad, and avoided the “marital doghouse.”
• Karen is a school teacher. She loves her job. Her students and their parents love her. She works hard and sets high standards for herself. It is not unusual for her to prepare lessons late into the evening. Sadly, she suffers from frequent headaches and chronic pain in her neck and shoulders. Her doctor told her it is stress. If Karen could learn to let-go of stress and “chill-out” she could actually enjoy her success as a teacher. As well, her doctor has told her that since there is a history of heart disease in her family, learning to relax is especially important.

Having less stress you will:

• Feel calmer and happier
• Be the kind of person others like to be around
• Reduce the likelihood of serious physical and mental illness
• Reduce or prevent emotional eating
• Get more done because you will have increased concentration and energy
• Feel more in-control of your life
• Increase your feelings of wellness.

You can get control over your everyday reactions that lead to stress; that lead to physical breakdown, frustration, and lashing-out.