From Amanda's very early writing (1990s to early 2000s), shared as it was originally written.
beware - 2 years after a stressful period is when we get sick (AUTHORS NOTE MAREE CURTIS PAY ATTENTION!!!!)
I know that everyone out there is stressed off their trolleys!Doesn't matter if you're work at an office, workplace or home. And the bad news is...we can fool our minds but we can't fool our bodies. So we may go on for 12 months rushing, living at a frentic pace and surviving without geting sick during hte year but as soon as we go on holidays our bodies sigh ' thank goodness, at last I've got time to be sick!'. So we do! And spend our holidays recovering just in timeot start work again!
There's even more bad news. Most of us think that we can ignore our needs to balance out some of the stress by exercising, eating well, relaxing and pampering ourselves forever, WRONG! There is frighteningly large body of evidence (scientific jargon for lots of research is showing) links the start of horrible diseases like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis with a very stressful period eighteen months to two years before.
Because this is so important, let me put it another way. If you are going through a really stressful, difficult time or have been for some time; if people who know you well or love you start mentioning you are very tense / short tempered/ different; if you get sick consistently on holidays; if your personality changes on holidays then TAKE REGULAR RELAXATION BREAKS!
When you think you have least time to take these breaks; do exercise; meditate; play golf; have a massage; or sit around and do nothing that's the time you need to doit the most.
Cancer is a lifestyle disease - in most cases. Most of the serious diseases that really destroy our lives are. So please review what's happening to you now; or to what has been happening over the last two years. If it's been really tough for you and / or very stressful, it's never too late.
If you have been experienceing a really difficult time for a while be much more focused on you - and what you need to do to unwind andlet go of all the stuff you have been pushing down and storing in your body.
Most people, when they take time to sit and think about what they are feeling and what they need, know the best answer for them. We just don't often take time to let our souls catch up with us.
Doesn't matter if youfranticthetime to that is when you need most to do them.illnesses to start pampering yourself; and let think along these lines or
And then we need to think of all the 'ill feelings' (think about how that term came to be!) we are harbouring. Hate, aggression, anger, resentment or unforgiveness sit in our bodies and almost literally 'fester', causing disease. Especially unforgiveness. It's really important we recognize these feelings and do something about releasing them or letting them go - in whatever way is appropriate for us.
The longer you carry them around (and many people aren't even conscious that they are still carrying them), the more damage they can do. This sounds a little new agey or metaphysical , but as the years go by, the more evidence is supporting the theory. There are already scientific studies, for example that link anger - particularly hostility - to heart attack. So it's not all mumbo jumbo new age stuff!
Anyway, back to the connection between a stressful time two years before a serious illness. Perhaps we should make a scale for ourselves - evaluate our normal (before the big pressure time) , daily life and grade it. Then decide how much we think we need to do to counterbalance the normal load. Now think of our lives with extra pressure and decide how much more we need to do to counterbalance the excessive load.
Maybe we make a promise to ourselves that if we get through the next two months we will take 4 days off and do nothing. THEN DO IT - we must not make contracts with our bodies and not fulfill them! The body remembers and if you continually make contracts to keep going with no rest or time to recover - it'll do something to force you to stop! Via back pain, ulcers, accidents etc. We are not dealing with a stupid creature here!
I know that I have just increased your stress levels because you are now thinking "oh my goodness, it's too late!" or "how can I fit anything else into my day? It'll be more stressful trying to do that than just work"!
Time to adjust thinking folks! Our bodies are too important to be ignored or taken for granted. So it's never too late - just do more unwind things to counteract longer stress periods and know that initially it may seem more stressful trying to jam an activity just for you into your day - but soon the rewards will make it the best part of your day!
