Rawdawg Rory

Hey there my friend!  Let’s talk about stress (let’s talk about stress baby, let’s talk about…whoa Salt N Pepa flashback there…ok I’m back)  Oh yeah, stress… That annoying, cringe inducing, shoulder tightening, and stomach wrenching response to all those annoying things we face in our day to day lives.. yeah that stuff!  Well up until my 20′s I thought it was perfectly normal and rational to live with that stuff.  To be stressed out over upsetting thoughts, financial situations and world events seemed like the rational response and although I was a pretty happy go lucky guy, I did let that annoying state of mind dominate me from time to time and I figured those who didn’t appear stressed when confronted by tough situations were kinda like those maniacs in the apocalyptic movies that are giggling uncontrollably as the world falls apart around them!  So what changed between now and then?

Well after seeing examples of people who contemplated the sorrows of the world, but didn’t let it bog them down  was an eye opener for me and soon I found myself wondering “What’s the use of being stressed?”  I mean, if I did all that was in my power about a situation, than why should I waste my valauable time worrying about it??  Well after rinsing and repeating this notion through my inner scalp, it finally began to sink in!  What does stress do for us anyway?

Well like I said in the begining, stress causes actual physical tension, how about that?  A thought, a state of mind twisting us up in knots on the physical plane.  Well it actually goes beyond this… Chronically dwelling in a state of stress is annatural.  In nature stress was an indicator that the poop has hit the fan and we need to run for it!  But, in our modern society that concern is usually not abounding,. but rather a bunch of background concerns, like financial issues, political and world events, job concerns and family issues.  Well some of these things can be totally out of our hand, but we feel like holding onto that stressed state of mind is natural.  In nature that might’ve been the right response, but when we can’t run away from our threats, we gotta learn that it’s ok and actually a priority to let the stress go and focus on being chill! 

When we allow ourselves to be engulfed by chronic stress,  our body reacts to it as though there is a constant physical threat, our stomach tightens, our digestion is thrown off, our metabolism slows,  cells go into defense mode, our ph balance leans towards acidic (which causes a host of issues), our nervous system becomes taxed, and our muscles become chronically tense and rigid.  In other words, stress can be detrimental to our health sometimes waaay more so than the things we were stressing about in the first place!

Stress also has a another nasty side effect.  It leaves you feeling distracted and your judgement clouded.  When we’re stressed, the key to our slavation can be right under our nose, but we wouldn’t see it unless we relaxed and allowed our focus to look beyond the negative!  Let’s take a look at professional athletes for a moment… nice segway eh?  I’m not a sports buff myself, but you can learn a lot from people who’re pushing themselves to the limit in their game of choice!  For instance, have you ever noticed that the best players looked calm when they scored those last minute goals?  Or that they pulled off things with an almost cocky self confidence?  Well that appearant arrogance comes from training yourself to be totally relaxed, even under stressful conditions.  This is so important because if they weren’t relaxed, they wouldn’t have been able to see that opening, take that shot and score those points…it would’ve been lost in a haze of stress and self doubt!  Well we can use this same principle in our daily lives! 

By training ourselves to be relaxed in the face of stress we gain so much!  We can see oppurtunities and soltuions that may have otherwise eluded us, and we have our wits about us.  And if stress can cause bad things physically than imagine what good physical effects being relaxed can have!  Our body can release it’s tension, maintain a healthy appetite and metabolism, our heart rate can get back to normal…we can breath again!  And our cells in a relaxed comfortable state recieve signals from our brain that say “everything is groovy” (yeah, groovy!) and in this state of being they can continue their amazing work of maintaining our health and creating the best version of ourself!  The biggest benefit to realizing that being chill is priority numero uno, is that we can see the many wonderful things in our lives again!  All those lil’ things that were obscured and overlooked are all of a sudden back!  This includes of course people!  How often do we notice, that we have loved ones who may have been missing us while we were spacing out over stress?  So be chill… it’s good for you, your internal community and your family, friends and loved ones!

Have a chillin’ day! ~ Rory :0)