Why Choose Stress to Joy
Introduction
Why Choose Stress to Joy
Stress to Joy — Sneak Peek
“Stress to Joy — Your Toolkit for Peace of Mind in Minutes” is set to come out March 21st! As a special “thank you” for reading my blog, I am going to post some of the content you will find in my book. Check back frequently to see what I have shared.
Excerpt from Chapter; Introduction
Hello. How are you?
Did you answer, “I am fine” and mean it, or did your mind say, “You have no idea how stressed I feel?”
Of course, I cannot feel how stressed you feel because your feelings are unique to you. But I can still help. I can help by sharing what I have learned from my life and the lives of the people I’ve had the privilege of helping, in my psychiatry practice, my seminars, or within my community.
I have seen that everyone faces stressful life situations. Some can cope very well and turn that stress into an opportunity. They feel joy, peace, and happiness. But many are unable. They suffer from stress, and it morphs into various types of illnesses. For almost two decades in my psychiatry practice, I have observed lives being damaged by stress.
In this book, I can share what I have seen in my work to try to help you minimize the stress and maximize the joy in your life.
Since I specialize in the treatment of severe depression, many people come to me after suffering for a long time and trying numerous treatments. My heart aches when I see a patient like Marla.
Marla is a tall and healthy-looking woman in her 40s. A few years before she came to see me, she had a happy but very busy and stressful life with her job, kids, family, and social commitments. She was too busy to attend to herself, and the stress started manifesting in the form of headaches, insomnia, and irritability. She did not even realize that her stress had progressed into clinical depression.
She started getting so emotional and irritable that her marriage was on the verge of collapse, and she almost lost her job.
She finally realized it when she started having suicidal thoughts. She loved her family and did not want to die. She felt scared and finally came for treatment. Because her symptoms were already severe, we had to use advanced treatment methods.
It’s impossible to simply eliminate stress. It is best to teach people how to harness their stress to positive ends. For this reason, we had to also work on Marla’s mental training. This training helped her change the way she faced the stressful situations in her life so she could prevent getting sick again and fully enjoy her life. She understood that some causes of ill health are not in her control (e.g., genetics and environment), but some are (e.g., how she responds to various challenges/stressors in her life).
She learned that the way she coped with stress made a huge difference in both causing the illness and healing from it. Do you think Marla would have suffered less if she had an opportunity to get this training before her stress got out of control?
I see patients like Marla day in and day out. I see the havoc caused by uncontrolled stress: broken marriages, suffering kids, depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug addiction, heart attacks, strokes, and more. Therefore, I feel a responsibility to save people from reaching those severe stages as much as possible. My hope is that everyone can be the very best versions of themselves. It would not only help them suffer less and enjoy more, but it would also impact the people around them, and that ripple effect can spread peace and happiness.
When I realize how simple practices, techniques, and shifts in mindsets can make a huge difference in someone’s ability to overcome illness and be healthy and happy, I feel the calling to bring this training to people before they get sick and suffer….
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I can’t put all of the Introduction Chapter here, because that would be a very long article, but the book is coming out soon so you can read the rest when you get your copy!
If you haven’t already, it is not too late to Sign Up to get a free copy of the audio “Relaxation for Busy People”, receive notifications of new free gifts, and receive notification when “Stress to Joy” is available for free!
