Positive Ideation Tool In Relation To Stress And Anxiety

Pain and suffering is a natural response to stress and trauma. These emotions can result from what we experience and also what we do not experience.

We should keep in mind that we influence our emotions with our thoughts. Therefore, we have a lot of resources that we can use to reduce and eliminate pain and suffering.

It is helpful to stop scaring ourselves with our inner voice.  Negative phrases such as “I am stupid.  I am dumb.  No one loves me” are part of the problem.

There is no rule of psychology that states that a person has to suffer and will suffer for the entirety of their lives. In fact, psychology offers strategies a person can use to exercise his or her own distress.

It is essential that we like ourselves.  There is no reason for us to be our own worst enemy.

In addition, nothing is hopeless.  Peace is possible by being kind to ourselves and adapting a new attitude.

I believe that everything starts with how we think.  Moreover, I know that people with harsh emotions are scared of facing their pain.  For some, the act of confronting pain brings about more pain. This additional pain may be because of the lack of confidence a person has in coping with his or her distress.

I have always recommended Stress Reduction Therapy.  At the beginning of the day or when a person feels overwhelmed the person can find a quiet place to practice breathing exercises with the goal of relaxing.  Most of us are fully aware of our anxiety cycle.

A second part of Stress Reduction Therapy is Positive Ideation Meditation. Once we are relaxed we can practice changing our negative thoughts to more positive and realistic thoughts.

We hurt because we have convinced ourselves that it is bad.  Sometimes we convince ourselves that it is hopeless and we enter into a dark corner of despair.

This is why we need to see ourselves with our real skills of being able to think, organize, plan, and act. By thinking we can properly identify the reasons for our pain.  We then can put these reasons in perspective by realizing which reasons are legitimate and which ones are not legitimate.  Then we can set good goals and good objectives which will allow us to control our thoughts. Now, we can exercise telling ourselves that things are not as bad as we see them, as well as other positive messages, and participate in life with a good attitude.

I am still aware that some may accuse me of being too simplistic.  At first, managing our emotions by managing our thoughts is challenging.  However, the more we practice, the better we get at it. In addition, as we grow stronger, we gain confidence and our self-esteem improves.

All people are basically good.  No one asks to be severely abused and given serious mental health issues.  Furthermore, no one asks for continuous failures which do the same.

The reality is that we can never change the past.  We can change how we live in the present.

Even people who are being betrayed by their own brain can drastically reduce their distress by employing the strategies I have mentioned here in this article. Malnutrition, exposure to toxic substances, and genetics are sometimes responsible for a person’s distress. An in balance in neurotransmitters can be responsible for angst and pain and suffering.

In addition, many times we suffer because we believe something bad is going to happen.  Anxiety is a state of fear and apprehension that affects many areas of functioning.  Some symptoms of anxiety are tension, apprehension, a sense of impending danger and dread, and expectations of an inability to cope.  Some people with anxiety avoid feared situations; have impaired speech and motor functioning, and have impaired performance on complex tasks. Physical symptoms of anxiety are muscle tension, increased heart rate and blood pressure, rapid breathing, dry mouth, nausea, diarrhea, and dizziness.

Forms of Anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety, Phobic, Social Phobia, OCD, and PTSD.  Awhile back I coined the term “Life Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. PTSD is seen as occurring after an experience with an event so profound that the person cannot deal with stress. Examples of the event can be rape, being a victim of attempted murder, and surviving a plane crash. My  Life PTSD theory is that life can be the stress event that a person cannot cope with which leads the person to be afraid of confronting their pain. The abuse the person experienced causes intense pain and the person develops fear of his or her pain.

I believe it is this pain, that comes from trying to encounter our pain and resolve this pain therapeutically, leads to pain so intense that we eventually become afraid of pain.  We are suffering.  We want to stop suffering.  We know the way to stop suffering is to get in touch with our pain.  However, when we try to confront our fear our pain increases.  Eventually we become afraid of our own pain.

This is the reason I believe many people with pain and suffering cannot work at being able to resolve their pain by managing their emotions with positive thoughts. This why I say we should start with Stress Reduction Therapy.  We have to learn to manage our physiological processes that lead to our growing fear.

Furthermore, if we are not living a life of pleasure then we will start to experience pain and suffering from depression that comes from not having pleasure in life.  We need friends, family, interest, hobbies, diversions, recreation, entertainment, and other good elements of life.

The Modern Industrial Experience teaches many how to be machines but does very little to teach people how to live a pleasant and enjoyable life.  I believe much of modern day angst is due to people not being able to enjoy life.  For one we do not know how to live well.  Second, we do not know how to cope with stress.

Whether the pain and suffering is from abuse, biology, failures, or anxiety and depression from not knowing how to build a pleasant and enjoyable life which leads to us compounding these emotions with our negative attitude, we can work through these emotions. I have organized my Psycho-thesis where thoughts lead to emotions and sensations and our emotions and sensations lead to behavior.  This is why I say,” have a good attitude and you will have a good life”.

In this article, I have tried to discuss stress and anxiety as they contribute to our pain.  My principle message is that we always have the necessary personal skills to manage our challenges in life.  It is empowering and therapeutic to accept the reality of our mental health challenges.  There is nothing wrong with admitting to ourselves that we have pain and we have to work at resolving this pain.