When the alarm of stress is on
My whole January was an endless run. I had tons of new ideas and already running projects and I was just running around them like a headless chicken.
On the other hand my February up until now was about finding my way back into presence and do things from this state of mind.
The difference between this two month regarding the experience I was having and a feeling I was living in can hardly be expressed.
Taking inspiration from this I felt like to share something intriguing that I saw once again in a deeper way.
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There is something quite straight forward in the fact, that when we feel stressed, we automatically speed up to get our stuff done.
I like to call this phenomenon the headless-chicken-method and this is exactly what I found myself in this January.
The weird thing in this experience, that our to do list instead of decreasing in volume is just keeps getting longer and longer, bringing a feeling of hopelessness, stress and the urge to rush. The more time we spend in this state, the worse the feelings get.
But sooner or later we get awake from this.
We have a built-in alarm system just for this.
It works through feelings. We feel stressed, irritated, we find ourselves in a rushed state. Usually it starts quiet, in the beginning it’s just mildly uncomfortable. But the more time we spend in this, the volume of those feelings are getting higher and higher. To the point where it gets intolerable.
Usually at this point it seems like a great idea to start arguments, shout or cry, depending on our temper.
Being in this state is not particularly enjoyable neither for us not our surroundings, obviously.
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I would like to invite you to a thought experiment.
What if the real issue is not that we have stressful circumstances or that we feel stressed, but the automatism that we jump into the headless-chicken-method without any conscious decision?
You see, when you feel stressed, it means that your built-in alarm system works perfectly fine.
But what if what it means is not this: Run quicker, you headless chicken until you can!
But much more like:
Where is your head, chicken?
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If you find yourself being lost during a trekking in the forest, it wouldn’t be wise to just randomly rush towards who-knows-where, right?
Much more like: you STOP for a moment, you take out your map and your compass and realize where are you right now.
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I have a more practical experiment for you too:
If you find yourself in the felt experience of your stress-alarm-system on full volume, instead of jumping into the headless-chicken-method, just STOP. Just for 5 maybe. Allow your thoughts to slow down a bit. Maybe you can even take couple of deep breaths. For some reason the seems to work. And so when you caught up with yourself where and when you really are (HERE and NOW), you can just go back to the playground once more.
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To be continued.
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Thank you for your attention.
Wishing you a lovely day,
Andi.
Andrea Jacso 