Video is 30 minutes  – make sure you have a moment to watch – great for raising your energy levels!

The human body responds to stress with a powerful fight-or-flight reaction. Hormone surge through the body, causing the heart to pump faster and sending extra supplies of energy into the bloodstream. For much of human history, this emergency response system was useful: It enabled people to survive immediate physical threats, like an attack from a wild animal. But today, the stress in most people’s lives comes from the more psychological and seemingly endless pressures of modern life. Daily challenges like a long commute or a difficult boss can turn on the stress hormones — and because these conditions don’t go away, the hormones don’t shut off. Instead of helping you survive, this kind of stress response can actually make you sick.

Chronic stress can harm the body in several ways. The stress hormone cortisol, for instance, has been linked to an increase in fat around organs, known as visceral fat. The accumulation of visceral fat is dangerous, since these fat cells actively secrete hormones that can disrupt the functioning of the liver, pancreas and brain, causing problems such as insulin resistance, inflammation and metabolic syndrome. Chronic exposure to other stress hormones can also weaken the immune system and even change the structure of chromosomes.

How Stress Affects the Brain

Recent research suggests that chronic stress takes a toll on the brain, too. Studies on mice show that stress-related hormones alter physical structures in the brain in ways that could affect memory, learning and mood. Some of these changes involve dendrites — tiny branch-like structures on nerve cells that send and receive signals. Several studies have shown that stress hormones can shrink dendrites and, as a result, information doesn’t get relayed across nerve cells. When the cell damage occurs in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, it can impact memory and learning.

If stress makes you feel anxious, damage to dendrites might be part of the cause. A 2011 study found that rats whose dendrites had eroded due to stress had higher levels of anxiety. More research is needed to determine the exact effect of stress hormones on people’s brains, but one study of adults with post-traumatic stress disorder suggests that the stress hormone cortisol may actually shrink the size of the hippocampus. Researchers are still trying to determine if this is because of the hormone’s toxic effect on neurons or if there is a genetic component — or if both are involved.

Another part of the brain that seems to be affected by stress is the amygdala — the part of the brain that regulates fear and other emotions. A 2003 study found that in mice under stress, the amygdala grew larger while the dendrites in the hippocampus shrank. Researchers believe that together, these two effects may cause an increase in anxiety. They think that as the amygdala grows in size, you may experience more anxiety and fear. (The amygdala is known to become bigger and more active in people who are depressed). But because the hippocampus cells involved in memory are shrinking and not transmitting information effectively, you can’t connect the feelings of fear to memories of real events. You’re left with a lot of generalized anxiety.

Tips On Coping With Stress

If this news about stress and the brain is giving you a headache — or stressing you out in other ways — relax. The good news is that you can learn healthy ways to cope with stress that will protect your brain — and the rest of your body — from stress’s negative effects.

Not everyone is equally vulnerable to stress. Genetics play a role in how a person’s body reacts. Your past experiences can affect your response, too. If you lived through a lot of stressful situations growing up, you may be more sensitive to stress as an adult. Try to notice your own reactions to stress. Do you stay calm when pressures mount, or can you feel your pulse increase just thinking about a stressful situation? Once you become aware of what sets off your body’s fight or flight response, you can use these tips to try to change your response to stress.

1. Resolve the stressful situation if you can. You may not have much control over many of the sources of stress in your life, but if there is a something you can do to resolve a stressful situation, do it! Talk to friends about what you can do to change a bad situation, and consider getting help from a conflict resolution expert if necessary.
2. Spend time with loved ones and cultivate healthy friendships. Research shows that a good social support network has definite mental health benefits. It can keep you from feeling lonely, isolated or inadequate and if you feel good about yourself, you can deal with stress better. Friends and loved ones can be a good source of advice and suggest new ways of handling problems. But they can also be an excellent distraction from what’s bothering you. If your network of friends is small, think about volunteering, joining an outdoor activities group or trying an online meet-up group to make new friends.
3. Do an activity you like. Part of being stressed out is feeling that you never have enough time, so adding more activities to your schedule might seem like the last thing you need. But if you make even a little bit of time for an activity you really enjoy, the payoff can be huge: You feel calmer and happier and can deal with work and other demands better. Whether it’s playing music, doing a craft, or working on your car, do something that absorbs and relaxes you.
4. Try relaxation techniques. Meditation, yoga, and tai chi can help slow your breathing and heart rate and focus your mind inward, away from whatever is causing you stress.
5. Exercise regularly. Whether it’s walking outside with a friend or taking an exercise class at the gym, getting active can help you relax and help turn off your body’s stress response.
6. Get plenty of sleep. When you’re well-rested, you can approach stressful situations more calmly.
7. Eat a healthy diet. Stress is tough enough on your body, so help it out by feeding it fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat protein.
8. Appreciate what’s good in your life. It sounds corny, but focusing your thoughts on positive parts of your life instead of the stress-ridden areas can be good for your physical health. Research shows that positive emotions helped people recover their normal heart rate more quickly after it was raised during exertion.
9. Laugh! Researchers are still investigating the precise effects of laughter on stress hormones, but some findings suggest that it has a stress-relief effect on heart rate, respiratory rate and muscle tension. Your own research has probably convinced you that laughing makes you feel better.
10. Seek professional counseling if necessary. Extreme chronic stress is no laughing matter. Enlist the help of a professional if you think you are at risk for serious health effects.

When even main-stream docs are convinced of the power of the placebo, it does make you think about how much power our minds really have, eh? Do you believe your mind can heal your body without being ‘tricked’ through a placebo? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Psychologist and author Ken Christian is an expert at helping peeps with this very dilemma. And fear of failure, he finds, is one of the biggest causes of unactualized dreams

by Ken Christian

Ever gotten stuck? I’m talking about really stuck – in your career, the pursuit of your dreams, or maybe even your personal life.

If you have, maybe you’re living with a fear of failure.

The picture usually looks something like this: you’re pursuing some project or exciting new idea and grooving along at a pretty nice pace. Then kaboom! Without knowing exactly how it happened or what set it up, you came to a grinding and unceremonious halt.

Puzzled and Powerless?

It’s perplexing when this happens – and it feels lousy. It’s like all the progress you made just drains away and worse, you wind up feeling puzzled, powerless and inadequate. It doesn’t matter whether you call it writer’s block, a flat spot or a creative lull. It’s easy to feel guilty, as if being stuck is due to some recurring, tragic personal flaw.

But here’s the deal. Getting stuck usually has its genesis in fear. And what’s more, it’s directly related to what goes on in your brain under fear-inducing circumstances.

The Usual Suspects

This fear could be one of the usual suspects: the big three of 1) fear of failure, 2) fear of the demands and future implications of success or 3) fear of making a big mistake. But sometimes the fear is subtler, more specific and originates from your particular personal history. Usually the fear is masked, or it’s ‘sneaky’ enough that your heart isn’t pounding and your palms aren’t clammy. But even without the loud and clear signs of fear, it’s effect can still be wildly potent.

Beware your Fear Brain

Why? Because in the face of fear (obvious or subtle), your ‘fear brain’ takes over. And as soon as it does, your rational thinking brain is switched off as the fear brain instantly diverts you to a soothing strategy to get you to safety. So you end up derailed, thwarted, stuck or at minimum, not making the progress you hoped for.

Your Way Out of Stuckdom

Here’s 3 steps for getting unstuck back on track and free of the fear of failure …

1. Resist the temptation to judge and criticize yourself. The upshot of the fear and crummy feelings that accompany being stuck is often self-attack. But when you judge and criticize yourself, you immediately make matters worse. You infinitely expand a brief hiccup or setback into a big-box-sized PROBLEM that now has a life of its own. Don’t go there.
2. Understand how your brain creates the stuck pattern, so you can see through and past it. A shorthand way of summarizing what goes on in the face of possible danger would be to say that in these moments, the brain has a mind of its own. Instead of the frontal cortex, where planning and rational thinking goes on, being in charge, the more ancient part of the brain takes over and prepares you to escape, do battle or freeze. A knowledge of how your brain works can give you a way to recognize what’s happening in the moment and interrupt the pattern before it takes you off course.
3. Use mindful awareness to catch your fear brain in the act and make a new choice. Research and clinical evidence supports a different strategy from merely trying to force your way through being stuck by exerting more willpower. Instead of self-attack, or trying to power your way through, mindfully examine what the brain’s resistance to further action might be about.

By emptying yourself of judgment, and carefully tracking what’s happening inside, you can learn to identify what this primitive part of your brain is experiencing as a red flag. And once you change your perspective to this kind of observation, self-attack melts away, you become grateful for your brain’s wise or at least well-intentioned protection, and entirely new possibilities arise for how to deal with the situation you face.

Sometimes, it only takes a Moment

A recent client of mine had, for several years been at a major career impasse. Though he saw alternative paths, he remained stuck and failed to take action. As a consequence he viewed himself unassertive. I suggested he consider that there might be a positive reason for his hesitancy to move forward.

Literally, within a few minutes he was in a completely different state, flooded with happiness at seeing his situation completely differently from how he had construed it for years.

I see responses similar to this again and again when people:

• Drop Self-Judgement
• Open to Positive Possibilities
• Unplug from Self-Attack

If you feel stuck, what might your fear brain be protecting you from? What new directions might open up to you by dropping judgements and being more mindful? Share your insights with us in the comments below.

“It’s about choosing, not excusing,”

“The pathway to the top of the mountain is lined with campsites along the way, occupied by those who yielded to the resistance of walking the path of uncertainty and who weren’t able to embody the deeper meaning of commitment to going the distance.” — From “The Art of Uncertainty — How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It”

A Question

If the fruition of your vision of a life worth living awaited you at the top of a mountain, would you have the commitment to traverse the unknown elements between here and there and go the distance? The metaphorical mountain top experience we seek can be different for us all: It could be the completion of a college education, or the realization of the career we have long desired. It might be honoring a diet or exercise program long enough to see the results we desire manifest. It could be learning how best to just get through another day by managing a debilitating emotional or physical problem in a manner that allows us to stay connected to a life of purpose and meaning. For many of us, the mountain top for which we dream and strive is a deeply rewarding relationship with a lifetime partner. It doesn’t much matter what mountain peak we seek because the power of commitment is equally applicable (and available) to every area of our lives and it is the driving power that will get us to the top.

Sometimes We Need  A Hero

Over the span of my adult life there have been numerous occasions when I found myself “waffling in the wind” on some commitment I was about to make, or perhaps had already made, and I needed a “sign” to assure me I could do the right thing and go the distance. Sometimes we need a hero (or two) who has demonstrated the power of commitment in their own lives to show us the way up the mountain. My heroes were, and still are, my parents. This week my mom and dad celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary and they are still going strong, like a couple of energizer bunny rabbits. I happen to know firsthand that while they stumbled more than a few times on the many pathways of uncertainty we traveled as a family they always found the courage, wisdom and strength to pick themselves up and continue their journey up the mountain with four wild children in tow. That’s what the power of commitment does; it is bigger than our obstacles and it sees us through our uncertainties and temptations to stop short and pitch a tent before we reach the top of our personal mountains — it’s what keeps us keeping on long after others have pulled off the path and set up camp in the foothills of unfulfilled dreams.

By example, what I learned from my parents is that regardless of what your personal mountain may be, and wherever you may be on the pathway at this moment, there is something within you that knows how to get you to the top if you do your part. What is your part, you might ask?

Step 1: Faith

First, enter each day with faith and an awareness of your oneness with a higher power that is larger than yourself, call it God, presence, life, infinite intelligence, the universe or whichever word has meaning to you.

Step 2: No ‘Off’ Switch

Second, approach your chosen pathway with a persistence that has no off switch (like the energizer bunny).

Step 3: Back Engineer It!

Third, to echo the words of author Steven Covey, you must “begin with the end in mind”: Persevere in holding a vision in your mind’s eye that gives purpose and meaning to your life by seeing yourself standing on the mountain top.

Step 4: Connect with your Passion

Lastly, connect with the passion for life that lives in your heart. Passion is the energizing factor that will bring you to the edge of all you know — it becomes the bridge that spans the gap between where you are on the pathway and where you want to be. When combined, these four things comprise the essence and power of commitment, which will take you where you may have never gone before; the top of your mountain.

What I know is this: irrespective of the personal mountain you might be climbing, the view of your life from the top is unparalleled; you can take a gentle gaze back and see down the pathway from whence you have come with the pride and satisfaction of knowing that you stayed the course…you went the distance. These “mountain top moments” are among the sweetest experiences you shall ever have in your life and they are the moments most worth pursuing. Commitment is and always has been the secret to going the distance, however, we all know it’s really no secret — it’s a choice we get to make daily. Commitment is a prerequisite in creating a life worth living and it’s a power that is no further from you than your next thought, and then the next thought, and then the next thought, followed, of course, by a corresponding action. Begin with the end in mind, indeed…but most importantly, just begin.

What’s your personal mountain, your passionate vision, the life that awaits you a-top the metaphoric hill? Share it with us in the comments below.

What do today’s greatest athletes have in common with the author of “Think and Grow Rich?” On the surface you may be thinking, it’s the “rich” part of course, because we all know that high-profile athletes make a ridiculous amount of money. But it’s more than that…it’s the use of a powerful manifestation technique called “visualizations.” 

And in my “mental performance” work with elite and professional athletes, I am best known for my visualization process.

The 5 Steps to a winning mental mindset, called “The Process”:

1. Appreciate Nature
2. Surround Yourself With Positive Energy
3. Ground Yourself In Gratitude
4. Visualization
5. Creative Expression

In this video, I’ll explain how the 5 steps can easily be applied to your life – and it’s not just about sports performance and how athletes overcome outrageous obstacles. THE PROCESS can be used in every area of your personal life, whether it’s focused on relationships, health, wealth, or overall happiness.