Stress or Peace... you choose!
By Jo-Anne Cutler

Stressed out at work or stressed out at home – is there really a difference? As a writer and coach creating awareness not just for parents but for anyone to live a more connected and happier life, the alleviation of stress is a big part of that process as many struggle to keep up with the speed of life’s treadmill!

Whether it be at the workplace, at home or even the overwhelming stress of our lives due to circumstances in general, it’s really all the same stress – and it doesn’t come from any of our surroundings or from others…it’s what we actually have in us and we take it everywhere we go.

The feeling of being stressed – the anxiety, worry, fear or whatever else we feel as we experience this thing called stress, is all emanating from within us and whether we like it or not, it tags along as we go to work, come home or even when we go out to play a round of golf.

There have been many discussions lately about the Law of Attraction, which supports the fact that the more we focus on anything, the more it expands…and stress is no exception. The more we focus and talk about the stress in our lives; we attract and experience more of it!

What if, for a moment, we were to take the focus off of stress entirely and onto the antithesis – peace? What if we bring our attention to the feelings that go along with peace, such as tranquility, calm, love and contentment?

Most of us can remember a peaceful experience in our lives whether we were on vacation or maybe when we watched our newborn sleep. The fact that we have connected to peace at one time or another in our lives shows us it’s there, and it is actually the most natural state that is within us, but it’s up to us to connect to it.

Meditation is a way to consistently connect with inner peace, something that I wish I had been open to learning sooner, especially in my stress filled Type A days! There are so many resources and tools available now for anyone interested in learning more about this wonderful practice.

By focusing and connecting with peace, it then tags along with us for the ride of our life, and again, the Law of Attraction is alive and well - the natural result of focusing on peace is that we will attract and experience peace wherever we go.

So if life is stressful, find whatever peace you can connect to and as you focus your attention more on this peace, even when stress tries to creep in, (and it will!), you can notice it and make a conscious choice not to go there.

As you experience more peace in your life, you may laugh as I did, wondering why you allowed yourself to get so stressed out to begin with!
 

----------------------------------------------

About the author:

In addition to being a writer, Jo-Anne Cutler supports her vision of empowering and inspiring others to be the parents, teachers and role models the children of this world need them to be, by creating awareness as a speaker and a coach, offering programs as well as a monthly newsletter on how to keep all the great stuff we’ve learned from our parents while breaking the cycle of the, well, not so good stuff!