To Your Success Part 4 "Mind, Body, and Soul"

Inspirational quote for today is: “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” ~ Japanese Proverb One thing I learned over the years about stress, and that is stress can be either good or bad. However, I also learned a little stress sounds an alarm we need to rise to meet a challenge. Also, in the scriptures it seems that stress can be good when there’s a realistic concern -“For I have no one else of kindred spirit who genuinely be concerned for your welfare”. ~ Philippians 2:20, and “Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches”. ~ 2 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB), however, it’s not good when it causes unproductive worry and fretting (Philippians 4:6, Luke 8:14, and 1 Peter 5:7) (NASB). You see with a little stress your work productivity goes up, but too much stress can bring it down. It can also put demands on the body or mind- from emotional arousal, humiliation, pain, fatigue, success, failure, fear, and etc. Most importantly, these levels of stress relates to the environment and the person’s interpretation, evaluation, appraisal of meaning, and appraisal of his/her coping ability. There are also three effects of stress we face on a regular basis. They are as follows: 1.) emotional, 2.) physical, and 3.) Spiritual. Physical Effects When stress develops it can affect almost any organ of the body and is a factor in numerous diseases. In my own personal experience in dealing with stress I learned stress can altar our neurotransmitters of the brain with profound influences on the emotions and body. You see when we develop stress the body is either “fight or flight”. As a result, this reaction causes chemical changes that may have implications. In addition, when we encounter stress, we may develop corresponding behavioral changes, such as anger, exercising, drinking, smoking, binge eating, and etc. Furthermore, the nervous system balance is altered and the blood pressure increases (which, for some individuals, may trigger a heart attack), along with other physiological reactions. Moreover, after a stressful occurrence, the blood pressure may not go back down and may result in hypertension and acceleration of atherosclerosis. Also, because stress may alter the hippocampus (which controls our memory), continuation of stress may result in an inability to access information needed to decide that a situation maybe no longer a threat. Finally, stress can alter the neurotransmitters of the brain that controls our mood, logic, sleep, weight, attention, and pain perception. Under the physical implications of stress, there are other, secondary, conditions that people may experience: depression, eating issues, mood swings, obsessive worry, sleep problems, sexual issues, phobias, asthma attacks, high blood pressure, hair loss, outbreaks of skin problems, menstrual disorders, appearing older than age, and etc. Furthermore, these effects of stress vary, depending on what stage is the stress. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. This is the beginning of a journey that never ends. I will present Part 5 at a later time. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.