The UltraMind Solution (131 page)

Our bodies and brains react to stress immediately and constantly. Unrelieved stress triggers biological responses that become worn into deep grooves in our moods and brain function.

Of course, we know that stress can result from psychological causes— feeling powerless and helpless at work or in our relationships—in other words, toxic thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. But toxic foods, environmental toxins, digestive problems, and even infections can also trigger the same biological stress response.

That is why each of us must find a way to push our pause button on a daily basis. Most of us don’t even know where it is. But we must learn how to identify the ways in which we are stressed, try to minimize them, and then actively learn to engage the relaxation response or the pause button. This is key to long-term brain health. We have to make it part of our daily lives.

Identifying what is stressing you out and learning to press the pause button are critically important, especially when you are out of balance in this key. If you scored over 7 on the “Adrenal Dysfunction” quiz, the following steps may help you find balance again.

Practicing Self-Care to calm your mind is relatively easy.

Looking closely at the habits of our life—both what we do and how we think—is not something most of us do on a regular basis. We often don’t connect the choices we make in our diet, in our relationships, or in our work with how we feel every day. Nor do we equate the way we feel with the use of brain-altering substances like sugar, caffeine, and alcohol.

There is a big disconnect for many in understanding that the way we live our lives makes us sick and leads to trouble focusing, thinking, remembering, or just feeling happy and alive.

Eating junk food, drinking six cups of coffee a day, having those two cocktails at night to calm down, watching four hours of television a day, doing work we hate, or being stuck in relationships that don’t give us peace or joy—we tend to accept these without too much thought about how they drive our moods and brain function.

We cannot eliminate all the causes of stress, but we can take an inventory—a close examination of our life—and consider which things we can let go of that are triggering stress and which things we can add that help us heal and thrive.

Consider which things give you energy and which things deplete it. Take a piece of paper, and in one column write down all those things that rob you of energy. Beside it, in another column, write down all the things that give it to you.

Make an agreement with yourself to eliminate at least one thing this week that robs you of energy and add one thing to your life that gives you energy. Do this once a week during the six-week program.

For those things you cannot eliminate, you can transform your way of thinking about them. You can move from your ordinary thinking to extraordinary thinking about your life, from thinking that creates “disease” to thinking that creates well-being for you.

For now, make a list of your own stressors. I have included a simple form to do this in
The UltraMind Solution Companion Guide
. Go to
www.ultramind.com/guide
to download the guide.

Social or Psychosocial Stressors

Thoughts and beliefs about ourselves

Jobs

Relationships

Financial situation

Kids

Psychological disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety, etc.)

Low self-esteem

The state of the world (i.e., the international political situation, problems in your neighborhood, etc.)

Physical Stressors

Overweight or obesity