You are stressed out

Today is Mental Health day and I want to take the time and talk to you all about stress.

You see the science behind stress is quite complicated. Each of you experience the symptoms of stress. Here are some chronic ones.

• anxiety.
• depression.
• headaches.
• insomnia.

What's interesting about stress - it is habitual and just lingers on and on. It's a software problem. Let's put things into context - I need you to imagine your physical being into physiological and psychological or a more laymen way to think about this, mind and body.

They both dance to the tune of your being. If you are happy, they both work in unison to make you happier. If you are upset, they both work to keep you more upset.

If you see this from an engineering perspective. It's hardware and software.

Your physical body is the hardware and your mind is the software.

The stress you experience first starts in the mind.

Why?

Let's dive in.

Your mind is a culmination of neurons or nodes in your brain. They all have tentacles that all link with each other. The more they link up or synapse, they form a stronger connection. Think of it from a skiing or snowboarding perspective.

When the powder is fresh and no man has set a path. It's impressionable to make any path. Moment someone sets a course down the mountain. The snow has created grooves down the spine of the mountain. The more humans that go down this path. The wider and more depth the groove will be. Now it's no longer a question on how to go down the mountain. It's been set.

Same concept applies to how your mind operates.

You decide what behaviors you want to start. You decide which behaviors you will revert to by default. Those behaviors over time become your habit. As you keep doing the same habits over and over again. You are conditioning your body to create tighter and stronger neural pathways.

You can't sleep? Your body and your mind have been training yourself not to sleep. Your body and mind are replaying the same behaviors over and over again. Whether you are anxious about your job, or an exam coming up. These thoughts will pair with physical manifestations in and on your body. It links it. Remember, your mind has no sense of feeling. Your body does. Your body is what “feels” this physical reality. If you don't feel it, it's not real.

What's been happening over time, your mind and body have synced the training of feeling insecure, feeling inadequate, and any feelings that bring you dis-ease. This habit becomes so powerful that it starts having physical manifestations in the form of disease. Whether it be heartburn, or the inability to sleep, or feeling of depression. It's happening. It didn't happen overnight. You have unconsciously been training hard. It sounds ridiculous why you would train yourself for pain but it has an evolutionary basis.

Humans are one of those marvelous creatures who transcended the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and mostly live in their minds now. The advent of technology, our mistress. She has your mind, body, and spirit. She tells you the people messaging you, she tells you what to watch, she tells you how to live. Of course it was all done with your permission.

My point, as a result of the pathological training we have done to ourselves, we must accept this is real. No amount of painkillers or meds, or gadgets can help you heal.

Why is that?

It's an internal hardware and software glitch, a kernel panic if you are a tech person.

Both are in recursion.

When your mind doesn't think well. The mind sends that signal to the body, where it has feelings of unease. That unease then re-validates the minds thought of unease. The more this loops over and over, you are essentially spiraling down an exponential rabbit hole. Eventually it is no longer a psychological manifestation but a physical manifestation. Many of you will be overweight, many of you will be underweight. Many of you will have urticaria, hives, or autoimmune. Many of you will have neck pain, back pain, muscle pain. Something that was not there before but overtime it just seems to only be getting worse no matter what you are doing. Congratulations, this is the power of your mind. You thought it into being.

I know for me, I have stored all my stress in my lower back and neck, and then my hamstrings which led to deformations of my lower extremities. TBH, it was mostly neglect. I lived so much in my head for over a decade that I forgot about my physical form. 

Sometimes, it takes Kensho moments to wake up and realize what has transpired down our timeline and really understand was it worth it? Was the damage to your body worth it? You are trying to climb up the pay grade, you are climbing up the social que. Is it worth it?

If you ask yourself and it's a No. You need to freeze time for that moment. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and now ask your mind and body. “How are you?” “How are you doing?”

Apologize for the tortuous experience you have taken it on and spend some time with it.

Your Existence depends on it.

Now let's talk about some strategies to take back control.

Each of you has the ability to access your superconscious mind. This is the area in your frontal cortex. It is considered the executive function. The logical mind. Where the CPU resides. It is the driver of your physical vehicle.

When you are in a state of ease and flow. Your superconscious mind can override the current default(created by you) pathways. It can follow alternative routes. Something that might have been there but never was trained to perform that behavior. For many of you it will be painful. Both physically and psychologically. The best analogy I can provide is growing pain.

Each of you went through puberty and one of the effects are your bones growing longer. Your growth plates are essentially pulling your physical being. There is a reason why the fractal growing pain is relevant in all disciplines.

Performing change is painful.

In the state of flow, you will have the ability to superconsciously direct how you want the microscopic cells to be. You do not require physical science knowledge to do this. It definitely helps.

My background in traditional science and medicine for the last decade invaluably helps me understand the esoteric sciences of the self. This ability provides me a connection to the molecular level of my being. I know how a cell looks like, I know what makes them happy, I know what makes them sad, I know what makes them scared.

It's me. 

This is starting to get very meta but again my point. You need to get lost inside yourself. Stay there. No matter what thoughts are zipping by. Or what thought notification bubble you get.

Watch it. But don't react to it. You can do this by telling yourself. “Ok kool, that thought is bubbling up, my body is starting to react to it. Ok stop.” Watch it like you would a car crash from your car passing by. You see it. But don't react. The more you train this behavior, the compound effect will take over and you will become proficient in learning how to manage the thoughts that are causing you dis-ease.

If you fully delved into this article, you will know I took you on a cognitive trip that will require further contemplation on many of these topics. I talk about these and pretty much everything that makes up a human on Alpha Health’s blog. Sign up for the community and share some of your best practices and techniques on how you deal with stress. Your small part can be life changing to others. It's us, a collection of us that make the world we want to experience.

Thank you and see you on the next one.

SHAKIL AHMED

Disclaimer: There are many complex mental issues that require a lot more attention then the strategies and techniques discussed. Always remember to proceed with care when you decide to work on yourself.