Mindfulness Therapy for
Effective Stress Management
MBSR ONLINE THERAPY
Now it is possible to get help for your stress online via live Skype sessions with Dr. Peter Strong. During these Online Therapy sessions you will learn effective mindfulness-based tools for managing stress so that you stop being overwhelmed by the external and internal challenges of life.
OVERCOMING EMOTIONAL
STRESS REACTIONS
Emotional stress is
something that we all experience when we have to cope with the many demands and
responsibilities of home and work. Stress can be defined as an intense
emotional and physiological reaction to a situation or the mental
representation of a situation as a memory or anticipation. Chronic stress is
produced when stress reactions do not resolve themselves and become habitual.
The sustained physiological effects of chronic stress can have a serious effect
on the body and lead to an increased risk of disease. The psychological effects
of chronic stress produce fatigue, poor concentration and an impaired ability
to perform tasks, which leads to more stress. Stress produces a general feeling
of helplessness and negativity, both of which reinforce the stress reactions.
This produces a lack of vitality, enthusiasm and creativity and many people
describe chronic stress as a heavy blackness that covers everything and in its
severe form chronic stress can result in depression, which is a state of
extreme emotional fatigue and vulnerability. Chronic stress can result in an
increased chance of accidents as well as reducing work performance. Chronic
stress also reduces our listening and learning skills and this reduces the
quality of communication in our personal relationships and family.
It is well recognized
that stress reactions are learned and originate from the influence of our own
mental outlook and from belief patterns acquired from our parents, family and
culture. Stress always contains both an objective component and a subjective
component and in most situations, it is the habitual subjective emotional
reactivity that generates the emotional tension and physiological
characteristics of stress. There is pain and there is suffering. Pain is the
objective component that is often inevitable or unavoidable, but suffering is a
subjective reaction that we generate and add to the pain. The Buddha described
this subjective suffering as dukkha and not surprisingly, mindfulness, which is one of the central
teachings of the Buddha, was and continues to be very relevant for working with
and resolving emotional stress.
The other major source
of stress comes from unresolved traumas that result from physical injury,
assault, domestic abuse and violence. In general this kind of trauma-related
stress results from experiences and associated emotional reactions that we
cannot process, because they are outside of our normal range of experience.
These unresolved wounds become repressed and submerge into the subconscious
mind where they continue to simmer and generate a generalized anxiety. This is
described as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Occasionally, in severe
cases of PTSD resulting from war or other intense situations, the stress reactions
will erupt as nightmares and flashbacks in which the individual re-lives the
trauma.
Whatever the source of
the stress reactions, it is important to understand that each reaction has an
internal structure in the form of negative thoughts and beliefs and associated
emotional energy that gives power to these thoughts. It is often very helpful
to examine these negative thoughts and try to change them. This is the approach
taken in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Another approach is to change the
emotional energy that empowers the thoughts and beliefs, because without this
compulsive charge, the beliefs will have no power to generate stress. This is
the approach taken in Mindfulness Therapy. Through careful attention and investigation of the
emotion through mindfulness, we can uncover the internal structure of the
emotion and discover what needs to change. As the structure changes, so does
the emotion. Resolve this and you will neutralize the stress reactions.
OVERCOMING STRESS
REACTIONS: THE FOUR Rs
Stress is generated by
habitual emotional reactions to external events and internal beliefs. These
patterns of negative thinking can be changed by the application of the four Rs,
which are the primary focus of MT. These are: RECOGNITION, REFRAMING,
RELATIONSHIP, RESOLUTION.
RECOGNITION
All habitual emotional
reactions rely on two key elements: ignorance and emotional energy. The first
task in Mindfulness Therapy is to learn to recognize our stress reactions as they arise in
stressful situations. We train ourselves to watch very carefully for any
impulse to react. This counteracts the automatic and mechanical part of what
makes reactions habitual. One of the principles of MT is that all change begins with
mindfulness and mindful-recognition is the first and most important step. You
know what pushes your buttons. It might be in your personal relationships with
your partner or with your children or perhaps with your parents. One of the
most important steps you can take on the path of self-transformation is to take
the initiative to examine what stressors cause you to react and to learn to
recognize your impulse to react. This is very empowering and changes your
attitude from being a victim to being a warrior. For most of the time, most of
us react out of habit and have no awareness of what is happening while it is
happening. We are simply seduced into the same automatic patterns of reactive
thinking over and over again. Clearly, the first step is to break this pattern
of ignorance and know what is happening as it happens. This is the fundamental
first part of mindfulness. Mindfulness means to be present for experience as it
is unfolding.
REFRAMING
Now you are learning
to recognize anger reactions, disappointment and frustration reactions, fear
and anxiety reactions as they arise in real-time. This new awareness can be
very transformational by itself by simply making you conscious of what you are
doing. It is a truth that what you don't see is what has the greatest power
over you. Awakening to what is happening is therefore the first step to change.
The next step that
paves the way for transforming the emotional energy that powers stress
reactivity is to change your relationship to the emotion. Our usual response is
to say I am angry or I am afraid or I am upset and we literally become the
emotion. Contrast this to saying I notice anger/fear/upset in me. Now the
emotion becomes reduced to an object that I can relate to with mindfulness.
This simple reframing of how we perceive an emotional reaction as NOT ME but
simply as an object that has arisen in my mind is the beginning of all
successful therapy and personal transformation.
RELATIONSHIP
However, what keeps a
reaction alive is the associated emotional charge, without which the reaction
would have no power to cause stress. MT teaches us how to form a non-reactive
relationship, the Mindfulness Based Relationship, with this underlying
emotional energy that compels us to react. This is the RELATIONSHIP phase of
MT.
The mindfulness
relationship is very important. This is where we allow ourselves to open our
awareness and investigate the emotional energy, which is quite different to our
usual reactions of ignorance, avoidance or aversion. We choose to be fully
present with the inner feelings behind the stress reactions, rather than
getting sucked into the content and story line. Just as in personal
relationships, it is the quality of our PRESENCE, our ability to listen with an
open mind and heart that is most important. Now we are learning to cultivate
this same presence for our inner emotional stress. The nature of the mind is
such that if you allow things to change, they inevitably will. If you allow
things to change and unfold into this safe spaciousness of the
mindfulness-based relationship, things will change in a beneficial direction
that will transform and resolve the inner conflict and pain. It is the habitual
reactivity that stops this natural healing and as we learn to disengage from
the patterns of reactivity we create the right conditions in which emotional
tension will resolve itself.
RESOLUTION
Mindfulness creates a
therapeutic space that allows the emotion to unfold and undergo transformation.
If you give it space it will change. This is one of the great discoveries made
by the Buddha, 2500 years ago and which we are rediscovering today. It is not
what we do that matters as much as how we relate to our emotional stress. When
this relationship is based on the receptivity and openness of mindfulness, then
we create the best possible conditions in which emotional tension can resolve
itself.
Resolution can be understood
as the process in which a stress producing emotion like anger or anxiety or
disappointment undergoes a process of unfolding and differentiation. When we
investigate anger with mindfulness, we begin to see that the anger is actually
an assembly of more subtle content - the inner structure - in the form of
feelings, memories, sensations and often some form of inner imagery that pulls
all these parts together into the form of an emotion. The anger differentiates
into feelings of sadness, emptiness, fear. With intense stress reactions
resulting from trauma, we will likely notice vivid inner imagery. It is by
uncovering the internal structure of the emotions and associated imagery that
change becomes possible and mindfulness provides one of the best ways of
cultivating a safe relationship with painful content by teaching you how to
stay present and avoid becoming reactive to what you are uncovering.
Through becoming
conscious of the inner structure of the emotions that power our stress
reactions, the emotional energy will change and resolve. Without this emotional
power, there is nothing to sustain the emotional reactions and life-long
patterns of stress producing reactivity begin to dissolve, leaving you free
from their compulsive grip. Like the petals of a lotus bud that were previously
held and constrained so tightly, the mind begins to explore a new freedom with
all its possibilities and choices. This is the freedom that the Buddha talked
about and that is possible for all of us to discover through the practice of
mindfulness. Mindfulness Therapy teaches you how to apply mindfulness to resolve your patterns
of habitual reactivity so that you can realize your full potential and enjoy
your life and relationships to the full.
Mindfulness Stress Management Online
Learn How to Control Stress Online
Mindfulness-based Stress Management
Online Counseling is Effective, Convienient and Affordable
Peter
Strong, PhD is a Professional Psychotherapist, Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher and Author,
based in Boulder, Colorado. Peter developed a system of psychotherapy called Mindfulness Therapy for healing the root cause of Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, Traumatic Stress and Emotional Suffering.
ONLINE COUNSELING SERVICE
Get Help from a Professional Online Therapist via Skype for Effective Online Mindfulness-based Stress Management
