Stress: What’s the Cost?
Stress is taken for granted these days as “part of life.” And while there is such a thing as “healthy” stress that helps us grow, most of our stress is chronic, damaging, and unhealthy.
It could be costing you money, time or even your future.
Here are 20 stress indicators that you may be experiencing in your daily life. Which ones can you relate to right now?
Mental Symptoms
- Difficulty concentrating
- Trouble making decisions
- Negative outlook on life
- Anxious or racing thoughts
- Constant worrying
Emotional Symptoms
- General moodiness
- Irritability or short temper
- Feeling lonely and isolated
- Agitation, anger, and the inability to relax
- Feeling overwhelmed with life
Physical Symptoms
- Aches and pains in the body
- Bowel problems
- Nausea, dizziness, vertigo
- Chest pain, rapid heartbeat, pounding of the heart
- Loss of sex drive
Behavioral Symptoms
- Eating more or less
- Isolating yourself from others
- Procrastinating or neglecting life’s responsibilities
- Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax, or in excess
- Nervous habits
Any one of these or a combination of two or more may be costing you your ability to move forward easily with your daily life.
We have 80,000 thoughts per day with more than 85% being thoughts that we thought yesterday and the day before that. It can go on and on, day in and day out as the cost of stress grows larger by the minute.
Emotional costs are not always measured in dollars and cents, such as behaviors that can cost us that pay raise or promotion. They can show up in our lives in many different forms like the costs created by fear of using an elevator or fear of driving on the highway.
I decided to test this theory by creating a small group of adults to find out what the perceived costs of stress were in their lives.
Each participant was asked to share what was costing them the most emotionally in their daily lives. The group’s feelings seemed to flow easily as they shared their responses:
“Cigarettes and booze are costing me a decent relationship.” (Dean)
“My IBS condition is costing me the joy of taking a vacation because I can’t travel.” (Keith)
“Believing that I’m not good enough, keeps me in an abusive relationship and costs me my freedom.” (Rebecca)
They could clearly identify the emotional costs that were translating into daily stress, but felt powerless to change it. By identifying what their personal costs were, they had tapped into their potential to feel the riches of unlimited emotional currency.
“YES” won the day!
This, being the first day of the group, we chose one topic to start our EFT Tapping series;
Dean was the first to raise his hand! “Cigarettes and booze are costing me a decent relationship.”
As we worked through some of the preliminary questions, Dean shared that he started drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes when he was 13.
He said, “My Dad died suddenly in a car accident.”
“How did you feel, when your Dad died suddenly?” I continued. “Scared and abandoned” said Dean.
We gently tapped on the EFT Tapping points using Dean’s words over and over until he realized that he hadn’t yet accepted or grieved his Dad’s death, but had turned to alcohol and cigarettes as a coping mechanism to sooth the overwhelming emotional pain that he was experiencing. Reliving the moment of getting the news about his Dad’s death seemed palpable. On a scale of 0 – 10, Dean’s level of feeling scared and abandoned was a 10.
Everyone in the group was tapping and repeating each line out loud with Dean. This is a group technique used with Tapping called “Borrowing Benefits”. The members of the group tap in support of the person whose issue is the focus, while reaping the benefits of lowering their own stress. EFT Tapping is a Universal Tool that benefits everyone.
As we tapped through each feeling, Dean’s level of stress slowly came down to a 1. He was able to let go of the fear and abandonment that his inner child had been carrying for so many years and felt ready to ask for help with the habits that had become a way of life. To this day, EFT Tapping is Dean’s “Go To” stress reliever for big and small emotional costs.
If you would like to step into your power, release stressful patterns from the past that no longer serve you and start living in that sweet spot, I encourage you to consider EFT Tapping to see how it can help you too.
Karen St.Clair, AAMET Certified EFT Practitioner is a highly skilled professional with a true gift for facilitating her clients’ successful outcomes. She specializes in thorough energy clearing using EFT Tapping and is the founder of Reiki Tap Renewal℠, a modality that combines the energy psychology of EFT and the healing energy of Reiki. To book an appointment call 207-878-8315. karenstclairEFT.com
ELM™ | Maine
