Life is full of stressful events. In fact, eating a good meal is stressful to the body. But this is positive stress, called eustress. Events that are perceived as being overwhelming create negative stress or distress. However, it is not the events, in life, that cause stress. Perception plays an important role in how we interpret the things that happen to us. If, for example, we are in a bad mood, we are likely to interpret a given situation, negatively. On the other hand, if we are in a good mood, we are likely to interpret the same situation positively. It is like the guy who ate a Limburger cheese sandwich and unknowingly ended up with some of the cheese on his mustache. From his perspective everything stunk!

The unconscious mind responds to everything as if it is real. If you tell yourself something, whether it is true or not, your unconscious mind will cause you to react accordingly. Your loved one may be two hours late arriving home and has not contacted you to let you know that (s)he is running late. You may begin to worry and you start thinking that something bad has happened. You continue your self talk and decide that (s)he could have made it to a telephone to let you know whether or not (s)he was safe. You decide that something awful has truly happened and that's why (s)he has not phoned you. You then start thinking that perhaps you should call police or the local hospitals. Or perhaps you should go searching for them. The longer you think about it, the faster your heart beats. Your palms begin to perspire, you begin pacing and you can hardly breathe. By the time your loved one comes through the door you are in tears!

O.K. maybe it would not happen this dramatically, but you get the idea. The point is that your unconscious mind responds to whatever you tell it. Try this experiment with a friend. Sit with your eyes closed and imagine that you are running along the beach. As you do, imagine that you are watching a sailboat on the ocean as it bounces up and down on the waves. You then watch a dog as it runs to catch a frizby. Continue to imagine the different scenery you might see on the beach. As you do this, your friend is to watch your eyes. As you imagine the scenery, your eyes will move back and forth as if you are actually seeing the items you imagined.

Athletes will tell you that prior to accomplishing some great feat, they have rehearsed it in their minds. The fact is, the first step to accomplishing any goal is being able to "see" yourself doing it. Once you have imagined it, you are on your way to doing it. This is a testament to the power of the unconscious mind. If we learn to control it, we can learn to control our responses to those situations (and people) that we interpret as stressful!

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