Conquer Your Stress for Enhanced Productivity and Performance
Posted by Jay Wilbur on Dec 31, 2016
The speaker for December 13th addressed the topic of everyday stress and how to defeat it. The speaker was Dr. (natural health) Kathy Gruver; she is also a licensed massage therapist and hypno-therapist while also being the author of several books. She has spoken about her stress topic to over 250 radio/TV/and live audiences.
Dr. Gruver began her presentation by defining stress as,”the perception that the demands placed on you may well exceed your resources to respond successfully.” She explained that wild animals react to stress immediately with fight or flight actions; after which, if successful, the animal returns to normal. Humans, however, are often constantly surrounded by stress provoking factors such as frequent news reports, family antagonisms, work relations, traffic, and economic uncertainties. These live-a-day stressors are becoming more demanding all the time. Dr. Gruver indicated that the stresses themselves are not the problem……how we respond to them is. Here are a few of the many symptoms of our stress responses:
Physical- headaches, indigestion, high blood pressure
Behavioral- bossiness, outbursts, compulsive eating, blaming others
Emotional –crying, nervousness, irritability, loneliness, anger
Cognitive- scattered thinking, reduced creativity, memory loss, indecisiveness.
Dr. Gruver has many thorough, extensive, therapeutic measures to provide her clients in order to reduce their stress. In her brief presentation time with us she provided two very helpful stress reducers you can do for yourself:
1.)Mini Meditation- concentrate on your breaths. With eyes closed, on the inhale think “I am”. Then, on the exhale, think “at peace”. Repeat this little mantra thoughtfully for a few minutes. She had the whole Club do the mini meditation and the members’ comments were positive.
2.)Affirmations- focus on thinking/saying positive statements to counter the negative influence of the stressors. Keep the affirmation statements short, positive and in the present e.g. “I am surrounded by supportive, loving people”.
Dr. Gruver closed by advising us to practice these two stress reduction techniques in the present; divest the past and do not worry about the future. Appreciate the present with all your sensitivity to touch, sight, taste, sound and smell. The Club appeared to enjoy Dr. Gruver’s presentation to the extent of asking her many thoughtful follow up questions well beyond the usual closing time.
To all of our friends, supporters and members, thank you for a wonderful 2016 and we look forward to serving our community in the upcoming year.
