If you asked me a week ago, I would tell you I had very little stress in my life. Things are going fine, and I do enough spiritual work and meditation (I thought) to be in the moment most of the time. As I understood it, if you are in the moment and accepting things as they are, you don’t feel stress. Plus, I always hear about stress causing disease, and I haven’t even had a cold for 10 years. So I thought I was doing pretty good.
I did know however that I had what I called a low-level hum of energy in my body. It’s not entirely uncomfortable, but nor is it actually comfortable. I thought it was excess energy, and it helped me to be so productive during a day. Oddly I noticed it the most right after I got my best ideas. I had tried tapping on it, and it didn’t seem to make a difference.
Then I had an iRest session with Tanya Penny (www.tanyapenny.com). I had never heard of it before until she introduced me to it on the Women’s Empowerment Telesummit. We talked about that feeling and I realized that I actually do takes steps to distract myself from it. Unconscious habits had formed. When Tanya took me a through a guided iRest session and gave me my custom mp3, I realized that afterwards I didn’t feel it in my chest/throat anymore. And when it is gone, I feel relaxed. So for all intents and purposes, it can be called stress. It is definitely a disconnection from my body. The iRest practice is great because it guides you so gently through reconnecting, and I love it because there’s no wrong or right way to do it. Unlike most meditations where I feel like I fail.
So I’ve been doing it, and I now have to do it at least 2x a day to keep that “hum” at bay. To keep relaxed and at ease. It has really helped me tune into my body more and recognize that that “hum” was a messenger. Letting me know that I need to reconnect. I am incredibly grateful to my body for this message. And also shocked and awed that it has still performed so well with what must be increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol – which usually causes all kinds of chronic disease.
I’ve really enjoyed uncovering this message from my body My question to you, is stress showing up for you somehow? Maybe it’s not worry or mindmovies or physical ailments, but perhaps it’s masquerading as something else. Let me know if you see some new possibilities.
Funny how stressed you can be but not realize it…. If we just listened more to our bodies, it sends us signals all the time. Great post, thanks for sharing!
Ahh, stress can cause so much havoc on your body and your life. I had never heard of iRest before. I will have to do some further research. Great article.
Interesting article~ Stress is something we can’t avoid, this is a busy world and full of stress. Have a great day!
It’s awful the things stress can do to our bodies. Thanks for the great new way to help connect with ourselves.
Great post Aimee! Thanks for sharing.
Our bodies are amazing, telling us all of the time what is happening…we just need to listen! Great article!
Very interesting question and challenge, Aimee! I never heard of iRest but sounds something I should look into. Just like you, I don’t feel I do my meditations right, or regularly, so I’m always interested to hear about new things. Thanks for sharing this technique!
Amazing how your body was giving you the message and how tuned in you were. Congratulations on that Aimee.
Great post. Thanks for sharing with us Aimee. It’s amazing what stress can do to us. Stress as you mention, is definitely disease causing & it’s important to incorporate de-stressing techniques into our lifestyles to keep us in balance.
Stress has a way of resonating in the body as the cells and tissues have memory. It awesome that this technique was helpful to detect where that was happening in your body. Thanks for this post!