Step1 of Transcending Stress and Anxiety: The Clear Button

By on May 26, 2010 in Peace, Success
The first thing you need to do to transcend stress is stop thought attacks.  We human beings are capable of generating all sorts of stressful events purely in our heads, exciting negative emotions and producing a chronic sense of threat that floods the brain with stress hormones. 
 
Stress hormones cause higher brain networks to shrink. It leads to heart attacks, immune-deficiency, ulcers, premature aging, and dementia. But take heart, stress is transcend-able.
 
Most of our stress reactions are tied to mere thought. Thus, transcending stress begins with quieting anxious, stressful thinking. 
 
The Clear Button
 
The Clear Button is a tool that can stop stressful thinking. Here is how it works:
 
Step 1 — Push the Clear Button: When fearful thoughts arise, imagine a Clear Button at the center of your palm that, when pressed, sends a signal to calm the part of the primitive brain that generates anxiety and stress.  Keep pressing the button as you follow through with Step 2.
 
Step 2 — Count to “3:” The orimitive part of your brain that launches stress reactions is fully developed by the second year of human life, in contrast to the higher brain which takes 18 years to mature.  Thus, stress and fight or flight has the intelligence of a two-year-old.  Like a two-year-old, it needs to be distracted. 
Counting to three does the trick.  To further distract your primitive two-year-old from acting out, imagine each number as a color. See 1 as red, 2 as blue, and 3 as green, taking a slow, easy breath with each number you count.
 
Step 3 — Let Go: On the final breath, let your mind go completely blank. Feel your brain relax. Focus casually on  the present moment and allow yourself to smile from the inside.
 
Now go about your business and allow peace to flow into whatever you do. 
 
Here is how this simple process effects your brain: The primitive neural circuits of fear that ignite stress reactions are now quiet, allowing control to shift to the higher brain, where creative problem-solving can kick-in.  You begin to see solutions instead of all the problems stress and anxiety exaggerate.
 
This the first of five proven steps I am presenting in this series that transcend stress and ultimately rewire your brain to give you an immunity to stress.  I’ll be back tomorrow with step 2.
 
You can download this tool by going to http://mysticcool.com. Look for the button located on the left side panel.
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About don.joseph.goewey

In the aftershocks of the economic crisis, millions of people worry about their financial future. Living in constant stress, worry and turmoil has become a sign of our times. It does not have to be that way. Major breakthroughs in neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to constantly change, grow and adapt, mean that people can actually "rewire" their brains to eliminate most stress. Sound difficult? It's actually quite simple according to Don Joseph Goewey (say Go-eee) an expert in stress, performance and human potential, corporate trainer and author of the new book Mystic Cool. That's because the greater part of what most people call stress is happening inside them, not to them, he says. "If you've got a problem with stress, like 80 percent of Americans do, it has to do with the way your brain is wired," Goewey says. "This book is about how you can rewire your brain." Mystic Cool combines the latest research in neuroscience and psychology with practical spiritual insights. The book represents more than just "stress reduction." It is a stress solution that unlocks the brain power needed to excel in ways that make work intrinsically rewarding and family life fulfilling. "Stress is our brain locked into survival mode, reacting to threats whether they are real or imagined," Goewey says. "A brain liberated from stress naturally generates the creative intelligence that not only sees the solution inside a problem but creates solutions that work." Goewey knows what it is like to live with extreme stress. Twenty years ago he faced what he calls "a perfect storm of stress." Over 10 days, he lost his job as an executive at Stanford University Medical School, separated from his wife and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. At the darkest moment, Goewey saw into the fear at the very core of stress and found a way to transcend it entirely and move his life forward again. Over more than 30 years, he has worked with people facing life threatening illness, parents who have lost children, prisoners serving life sentences and war refugees. In 2006, he co-founded ProAttitude, a human performance firm dedicated to ending stress in the workplace. Now Mystic Cool offers a practical guide on how to reduce stress, unlock creativity and achieve peak performance in all areas of life. Visit Don Joseph Goewey's public Web site at: www.mysticcool.com. Check out Don Joseph Goewey's blog at: http://mysticcool.blogspot.com/.
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