***Disclaimer: I am a speaker at heart! These notes are either transcripts of the podcast or notes I made in preparation. For The Stress Club study, it will mostly be bullets with page numbers. Since you have the option to get the book free (details in episode), you'll be able to follow! Please forgive the inevitable grammar errors 😘
Welcome friend to Consider Yourself Hugged episode 63: Today’s Hug: The Word Stress, Session 4 – Stress Club Study for Women Got Gas. Click here or pic to listen.
I’m Dr. Tami West, here every week to bring you tips on living a life that brings you mental and emotional wellbeing.
Today’s chapter, Ch. 5, I titled Got Gas?! I’ll tell you why in a sec!
Today we are ready to talk about that word, that word that I try to forbid everyone from saying LOL! That word stress!
In my study the responses to what is stress were so varied from money to air-conditioning to giving up on life. Let me read an excerpt from one of the ladies. If you’re reading with me, Page 58 and “we lump it all under one Word: STRESS!
If you’re reading with me take a look at the Holmes Rahe stress scale on pages 59 and 60. Notice how varied it is: death, vacation, arguing, etc. There are other quizzes and scales on different websites different organizations. The APA puts out a report every year. All of these are self-report. And then we get the statistics. I think we have to at least consider that we are answering these questions based on being conditioned and that the statistics are basically comparing ourselves to others.
So, my favorite definition of stress comes from a group of researchers and that is this:
“Stress, in addition to being itself and the result of itself, is also the cause of itself.”
Ellis & Thompson, 1983
So why does this matter? WORDS ARE ACTION! We’re doing something when we talk. Creating our identities and firming up our memberships in a debilitating club.
A little history: three ways to view stress. You can impress your friends with a little knowledge LOL
1. Stress as a medical issue: 1956 Hans Selye GAS p. 64
2. Stress as perception: 1980s shift Lazarus p. 69.
But if we can take care of the physical, change mind, why still bad?
3. Stress as a social construct.
P. 70 holidays, heroic standing, stress as way of perceiving world
Kranz and Long p. 72,73
Part of the title of my book is take your power back and this is such a big part of it!
As long as deodorant commercials tell you they can help you with stress sweat,
As long as mattresses tell you they can help you with mattresses because you’re not sleeping,
As long as paper plates can help you juggle things that are stressing you out,
As long as A financial company can tell you that you don’t have time to meet with them because you’re stressed….
As long as we let those messages go unnoticed, we have lost our power and that’s where we will spend the rest of the chapters, how to get this power back and stop participating!
And sadly, as always, that’s our time for today. I am praying every day for our country, our leaders, everyone’s roles, and people affected. I hope you’ll join me in doing that AND in staying mentally and emotionally healthy.
As always, Please pass the show link along to a friend or two and subscribe, download, and review wherever you are listening. And head over to tamiwest.com to get info if you’d like me to speak at your next event and also you’ll find the promised links and info. And I’d love for you to follow me on Facebook and all those other crazy social media outlets; links are in the show notes. If you’re a woman and you haven’t joined my private FB group The Stress Club, please do that now! It’ll be your daily sources for exiting the life of stress! Link is in the show notes. If you missed the Stress Club free Kindle giveaway, send me a message in any format – email, social media, text – and I’d be happy to send you a PDF
Thank you so much for listening and growing our special community!
I pray that each day you remember to love, to serve, to feel worthy, to grow, to connect, to change, and to be the best person you can be for yourself AND for the other humans in your world!
And until next time, Consider Yourself Hugged 😘🤗
My links:
Phone: 615-497-7714
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