How to have less stress

The wise old man Solomon once said: “Heaviness in a man’s heart makes him sad, but a good word makes him glad.”

The word heaviness is a Hebrew feminine noun meaning anxiety, care, and concern.

To paraphrase what King Solomon said, “A person’s anxiety overwhelms her, but a word of encouragement makes her happy.”

Other words for anxiety according to the Oxford Dictionary are worry and STRESS.

Stress and your body.

According to medical research, stress arises when you see change, pressure, and circumstances as burdens and perceive demands as threats. You feel a sense of frustration and helplessness.

Repeated or prolonged stress can trigger physiological reactions that can involve more than 1,500 different chemical changes in the brain and body! This can lead to a depletion of mental and physical energies and an increased susceptibility to disease.

In a Harvard study, people who coped poorly with stress got sick four times more often than those with good coping skills. Stress affects our immune system, heart function, hormone levels, nervous system, memory and thinking, and metabolic rate. It increases cholesterol, blood pressure and uric acid levels. Furthermore, stress kills brain cells and appears to prematurely age the adult brain.

Not good!

In a work entitled Spirituality and Immunity, Stephen Marini, Phd, lists studies showing the following results of stress at the cellular level:

• Wound healing takes nine more days.
• Intercellular communication is decreased.
• The immune system is suppressed.
• Increased bacterial infections.
• Decreased ability to handle invading toxins.

“We don’t have pills for this,” says Moshe Frenkel, MD, a Place of Wellness physician at MD Anderson cancer clinic in Houston, Texas.

Science is confirming what King Solomon knew more than two thousand five hundred years ago, a person’s anxiety will overwhelm you!

The answer

There are many ways to cope and learn to manage stress. A list of practical things we can do to propel ourselves toward joy and happiness are:

Positive beliefs, spirituality, prayers, positive images and visualizations, optimism, intention, energy psychology, positive attitude, gratitude, happy social media, acts of kindness, and meditation.

The wise Solomon said in good word glad (to the heart). The word good it also means pleasant, fruitful, proper, kind, and that which is attractive and pleasing to the senses according to the Hebrew Dictionary.

Therefore, a pleasant, pleasant and kind word will gladden the heart.

Many times when a person is under stressful circumstances, he or she withdraws from positive influences, happy social media, and forgets to be thankful for the many blessings they still have. They only focus on what they don’t have or the worst that can happen to them in these circumstances.

Fear is really the ability to imagine the worst. Fear is the underlying root of all stress.

When our prayers are full of positive words that come from our hearts and we can still say Thank you, our perception of the world changes and many times our situations too.

I remember where Jesus had to feed five thousand people with only two fish and five loaves. He looked at the sky with the two little fishes and the five loaves in his hands and gave thanks to his Father. A situation that would cause enough stress for you and I to have an anxiety attack. In today’s terms, we could say that suddenly there are some unexpected bills, for which there is no forecast. Stress, anxiety, worry and fear.

With a sincere heart of gratitude for the little we have, we not only open the gates of heaven but also cause our hearts and minds to experience joy and happiness.

Our attitude of gratitude, positive beliefs, and prayers precede the changes we so desperately need!

The ability to experience joy and happiness does not depend on other people or favorable circumstances, but is really in our own hands, or rather, in our own hearts, minds, and mouths.

Dutch professor Ruud Veenhoven’s analysis of thirty studies found that happiness adds seven to ten years to lifespan.

Happiness is not only healthy, it is contagious. In a large study, researchers found that having a happy friend increases the chance of happiness by 15%.

Now, since our social networks are largely under our control, it is again up to you and me to socialize with those who add joy, peace, inspiration and love to our lives.