How to reduce stress and worry

We all say we want to be happy and find inner peace. We also say that we really want to learn how to reduce stress and worry. So we attend workshops, therapies, yoga classes and read many self-help books. But despite this effort and very good intentions, reducing our stress levels is hard to do and sometimes seems impossible to achieve for more than a few fleeting moments.

Like a looping magnetic tape, regrets for the past and fears for the future shatter us. Our troubled minds spin again and again on a negative groove that causes suffering. Great suffering. In the face of all the sewage of isn't-my-life-horrible self-talk, we need great strength to help us. In fact, we need something powerful enough to allow us to reduce stress and calm our troubled minds. So that we can enjoy the many (yes, many!) roses that dot our path.

How to Reduce Stress: Gratitude to Yourself

So there is one person you are almost never grateful to. You ignored his efforts, downplayed his triumphs, and magnified his failures. You criticized and mentally attacked her relentlessly, destroying her inner peace. In fact, you questioned her decisions, leaving her feeling weak and helpless.

That person is you.

Without a doubt, you would never talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself. Doubt, question, criticize, minimize, ignore. . . I could go on and on about what you do to yourself. The suffering that takes place in your thoughts. Wallowing in self-pity, resentment and bitterness of the past while harboring fears for the future. So we all have an inner critic who has perfected negative self-talk, a kind of anxiety and dark thinking that attacks us and creates stress and a troubled mind. This constant chatter is not the way to reduce stress and worry. In fact, it's the opposite.

How to Reduce Stress: Feel the Blessings

We now live in an era of gratitude as a path to happiness. Compiling and sometimes sharing gratitude lists by e-mail is now de rigueur in his search for fulfillment and joy. In fact, everyone from 12-step sponsors to therapists, coaches, and growth gurus endorse their use, myself included. And being grateful is an amazing gift to give yourself and it's the gift of happiness.

But the question is, can we go further? Perhaps there is greater peace, greater serenity, greater joy, if we view the wonderful people, places, situations and gifts in our lives as BLESSINGS.

Blessings are defined as follows:

God's help and approval[dess] Have a sacred nature Connected with God[dess]

It takes us beyond simple appreciation and into the realm of connecting with our energy source. So, as we are grateful for our blessings, we become happier and more connected to our notion of a higher power.

So now I want you to make a list of all the BLESSINGS you are grateful for in your life. Please end the following sentence with whatever comes to mind. Add some blessings that came out of what you thought were misfortunes.

I'm truly blessed because…

How to Reduce Stress: The Spiritual Solution

There is "something" that has worked to relieve suffering and create inner peace for thousands of years. It is the will to connect to the spiritual dimension. It is the ultimate connection that lifts us out of the constant, murky flow of thought, thought, thought and into the real, present moment with all its depth and richness.

“By having a respect for life, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the world. By practicing reverence for life, we become good, deep and alive. ~Albert Schweizer

Stress relief is ours if we can turn to a spiritual practice, a higher power (HP), or the God of our understanding. This relief is available to us even when we turn to a HP we cannot or do not understand. Simple...