If you want a workshop in this contact u.sandstrom@gmail.com or text +46-704-888418.
Learn practical First Aid for stress and trauma!
Stress is a survival function, that affects us in many different ways. Partly in the “now” when something we perceive as threatening comes to our attention, and we need hormones that assist us in fighting or flighting. Stress can also affect us in the “now afterwards” when we think about it, or our memory is triggered somehow – and sometimes we will react just as if it is happening again – this is called post-traumatic stress.
Stress is also one of the major causes of many physical diseases. Long term stress will raise our production and levels of the hormone cortisol (watch movie here), among other things, and this can in turn lead to problems with our bowel system, immune system, memory capacity, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, food intolerances, sleep, mood, diabetes, gaining weight and cancer. Most probably the syndromes called “hitting the wall” and “burned out” relate to long term stress in similar ways.
When we are stressed we don’t function cognitively. Among other things this means we are not making optimal desicions and we find it hard learning new things. This may be one of the reasons it takes a long time for refugees of war to assimilate in a new country.
There are two things you may want to know about stress:
- Cognitive stress is the product of something you actively think, usually fantasizing about something that hasn’t happened yet.
- Conditioned stress is something your amygdala handles, and this happens outside your conscious processes.
These are some other things about stress that can be good to know.
- Stress symptoms will not disappear through medication, but the symptoms will be lower.
- You cannot rest away stress, but rest will allow your body to recover.
- You can change thought patterns and behaviors that create stress
- You can develop post-traumatic stress without having the experience of a single traumatic incident
- You cannot talk your amygdala out of a conditioning, but you can de-condition it
Among myths about stress you will find
- Post-traumatic stress is difficult to relieve (not necessarily true)
- When you are “burned out” it takes long time to get back (not necessarily true)
When you understand the mechanisms of stress, and the possible results, and when you learn the Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT) – a First Aid method for emotional- and post-traumatic stress – you can start getting control over stress that is the result of conditioning in your amygdala.
When you understand how your thought patterns about what can or can’t happen in the future are the driving force of your cognitive stress – and how you can change these thought patterns with simple techniques of mental training and self hypnosis – you can start getting control over the this stress as well.
Is it hard?
No. In the Peaceful Heart Network we teach child soldiers who barely read and write how to do TTT for themselves and their colleagues in a workshop of an hour or two. In more controlled environments we teach 4-8 hours about how stress works, how your nervous system handles it and how you can handle this practically. You don’t need any prior knowledge or training.
Can I learn on my own?
Yes. You can learn the TTT-method by watching the videos and materials on our website www.peacefulheart.se – and you can check our new book Resolving Yesterday – First Aid for Stress and Trauma with TTT on Amazon that describes a lot about it in detail. When it comes to getting control of your thought patterns and behaviors i suggest a session mental traning with self hypnosis.