Helping You Love Yourself into
Success and Less Stress!
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Stress Relief from the
Inside Out, Part IV:
Balance Your Doing
by Ilenya Marrin,
DSS
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Stress Relief
Balance Your
Doing
In Part I of this series we briefly explored the Stressed
Out Lifestyle. Part II applied a simple concept to gain a bit of altitude in
observing your stressful situations and creating your stress relief program.
Looking at life as composed of three things, being, doing and having,
(see the table below) provides an uncluttered foundation for exploring stress
in your own life. Wally Minto, author of the Alpha Awareness Results
Book, shared this idea with me in 1981 and I've adapted it for cultivating
the power of personal peace. Part III addressed the benefits of giving yourself
time and practices for simply "Being" for natural stress
relief.
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| Being |
Doing |
Having |
Breathing
Observing
Understanding |
Working
Giving
Receiving
Spending
Time
Spending Money |
Peace
Love
Joy
Truth
Happiness
Health
Wealth
Relationships
Things |
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Doing
for Stress Relief
What I suggest for this column is that
you consider your stressors related to each of the "Doing" items in depth.
There may be very specific subsets of these items that will need observation in
your life in order to create stress relief.
As a participant observer,
take whichever categories hold the most stress for you, and consider them
objectively. Pretend you are visiting from Mars, looking down on your stressful
situation, and ask yourself, "Why would an earthling do this if it creates
stress and misery?"
Martian Case
Study for Stress Relief
Become an anthropologist from outer
space, examining the behavior of this human being that is you. You might even
want to write up a "Martian case study" describing your behavior patterns, the
challenges in the situation, and possible stress relief remedies that occur to
you as you gain greater objectivity.
Here are some examples to help you
consider your own "doing" demands and needs for stress relief.
You may
seek stress relief at work related to the technical or physical demands of the
job, your bosses, difficult colleagues or high maintenance customers. Or you
may have stress from being a caregiver, usually for a family member with
special needs.
You might experience "giving stress" from too many
voluntary obligations - trying to please too many people or organizations. You
could have specific high stress relief needs in situations like a divorce,
death in the family, layoff, geographic move, or other major lifestyle change.
You may wish for stress relief because of dealing with a teenager
experimenting with drugs or other dangerous behavior. You may be contributing
to health problems by your own stressful activities, or you may need stress
relief because of severe or life-threatening health problems.
A Note about Receiving
I included
"Receiving" in the "Doing" list because in this society we receive many
services and often in order to receive what is our due, we experience stress.
Have you had to call your television cable company or you internet provider for
support recently? I think you'll easily relate to the stress involved in
receiving in this light! Also, in order to receive something that meets our
needs, we usually have to give something such as time, energy, labor, or
expertise in return. Receiving is one part of the equation that adds up to
stress.
Spend Time and Energy
Wisely
for Stress Relief
Two of the biggest stressors in
the "Doing" column have to do with spending your precious time and money. Do
you have more time or more money? Too many people experience "not enough" in
both categories. If you have time, it can be fun to create what you need, and
to "do it yourself" as needed. If you don't have time, what you want is money
to hire help or replace items. But if money is also tight, your stress level
escalates fast!
Stress relief solutions for the Doing category involve
taking a few steps back and carefully choosing how you want to spend your time,
energy and money. (You could apply the Martian case study technique here!)
What are your highest priorities? What is absolutely necessary just
now? What is essential for the longer term? What makes your heart sing? Get
really clear on these highest priorities and lovingly but ruthlessly let go of
"Doing" that doesn't support your core values. As you do, your lifestyle will
become simpler and your stress relief can be profound.
The last two
articles in this series address stress relief strategies based on Having, plus
a summary. We'll continue to explore how you can create stress relief for
yourself from the inside out. For my blog featuring commentary on how to love
yourself into success as well as stress relief, check out my
Loving Your Success Blog.
Go to
Stress
Relief from the Inside Out: Part V: Simplicity of
Having
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Copyright
2005 Ilenya Marrin, Power Of Personal Peace. Stress relief, stress reduction,
stress management, inner peace.
73 Prim Road #115
Colchester, VT
05446
Info@powerofpersonalpeace.com
www.powerofpersonalpeace.com
http://lovingyoursuccess.blogspot.com
Phone: 802-658-2921 |