Podcasts about stress busters

You won't believe these Quick Stress Relief Methods You Must Try!

The best-selling author joins Trish & Lorraine to chat about her funny & insightful new book We All Live Here - they discuss midlife mayhem, family, divorce, dating & sex as well as how to push past rejection and move forwards in life without resentment. She also shares her decision to offload responsibility & why friendships, dogs & a new trick she's discovered are her favourite ways to beat stress. Plus: How to de-grump yourself in the winter doldrums & an unusual oregano remedy listeners swear byHandy linksDiscover our content website & sign up for our newsletters: Postcards From Lorraine & TrishContact us: hello@postcardsfrommidlife.comFollow us on Instragram: @postcardsfrommidlifeJoin our private Facebook Group here Check us out on YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stress is affecting so many people – in fact, it's a global pandemic. And what we've all discovered is that the shallow, band aid solutions that the world offers us, simply don't work. What we need is power. Power to deal with the stress in our lives, once and for all.   Have a Cheerful Heart Sometimes we need to be pretty direct, pretty blunt about dealing with the blockages in our lives that are interrupting the flow of the power of God in our life. Because God means to bring all His power to bear to deal with the stress that we suffer from, but sometimes, we're working against Him and then we're wondering – hang on, where's that power that Jesus promised? So … … Sorry to be a bit blunt here, but it doesn't hurt every now and then we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some questions like that. So – are you one of those people that exudes joy or sadness; a positive outlook, or a negative outlook; encouragement or discouragement? Which one are you? Are you a sad sack? Or do you fluctuate between the two – up on the mountain-tops one day, down in the dumps the next? The reason I'm asking is that if you're someone who spends more than a little time down in the dumps, then it's having an impact on you … it's having an impact on the people around you … and it's having an impact on your relationship with them. That's pretty far-reaching. Because if we damage relationships, we damage career prospects, we damage marriages, we damage our children. This is serious stuff. Stress is debilitating and a negative, untrusting attitude that focuses on the problem rather than the on the God who can make all the difference, interrupts the power that He wants to pour out on us. On top of that, the world wants us to believe that we can wave a magic wand and make stress disappear. Here's what one of those body and soul web sites recommends. Ten quirky stress busters it's called. Chew gum, eat chocolate (oh that'll be just fine and dandy when you come down off your sugar high), get a cat, keep a diary, do some yoga, hum a tune, blow up a balloon, snack on walnuts (Well, that is a lot better than sugar filled gum and chocolate I have to admit), have a laugh or ring your mum. Oh please … stress is so much deeper and more profound in our lives. It's a constant companion for many, many people – everything stresses them, or if not everything, then they go through prolonged periods of stress over one or two very important issues or situations in their lives. You've probably figured out that eating walnuts (as good as that maybe for you) is not going to solve the problems in your life or relieve your stress. At least I'm hoping you have. You see the world's answer to stress is to conjure something up out of nothing. Or to apply en external band-aid, to heal a deep, internal wound. Have you ever had this experience? You're driving along in the car and it's bright and sunny – so you pop your sunglasses on. But gradually the clouds roll in and at some point you're thinking, it is so dark and gloomy today. Then you realise you're wearing your sunnies so you take them off and it's only then you realise that it's nowhere near as dark and gloomy as you thought it was. Sure the clouds have rolled in, sure it's overcast, but not that dark and gloomy. The attitudes of our hearts are a lot like those sunglasses. Some people are walking through difficult times, with a gloomy, darkened heart, and so the whole experience feels about a hundred times worse than what it really is. God knows that and that's why He's concerned over the state of your heart. Have a listen to some of the things He says in His Word about what's going on in your heart: An anxious heart weighs you down, but a kind word, cheers you up. (Proverbs 12:25) A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22) God's interested in the state of your heart. He's interested in what's going on in your life. Now last time we chatted about how to get God's peace guarding your heart and your mind – do you remember? Philippians Chapter 4, verses 6 and 7: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Simply by praying instead of worrying, giving thanks, laying out our worries and concerns and needs openly before God, He will replace the fear and stress and worry with His peace which will actually guard your heart and your mind. Imagine, God's peace standing guard around you to keep worry and stress away. That's a pretty good deal. But what the Apostle Paul goes on to say straight after that – writing as he is from his cell on death row – is equally instructive in terms of how to foster that peace and how to keep the cheerfulness and joy that God's peace brings, strong in our inside. Philippians 4:8,9: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. So, instead of mulling over the bad stuff and what might go wrong, think about the good stuff. Now, you might say to me, I can't control what I think. Sure you can. When you find yourself thinking about something negative, you can choose to think about something positive. Try it, it actually works – and if you're struggling you go back to prayer and the Holy Spirit, who is – remember – guarding your heart and mind with God's peace, that same Holy Spirit is right there in you to be a part of that and to help you. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as your counsellor and comforter. And now the exciting thing that happens, is that we get benefit from that on the inside, but other people, the people around us get benefit from that as it oozes out of us on the outside. Do you want to be glum? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life being downcast? Do you want to be feeling down in the dumps all the time? Of course you don't. So now you implement these two simple things – pray instead of worrying, and when you find your mind wandering into the down things, grab it back – with the help of the Holy Spirit who is on your inside and who's on your side – and focus it on the good stuff. The stuff that God is about in your life. The things that bring you joy, the things that God's doing, God's faithfulness, the fantastic things He's done in the past. And now, you are living a much, much better life on the inside. You're at peace. Your heart is cheerful – Jesus wants you to have a cheerful heart. Remember what He said to His disciples, John 16:33: In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. So, now your life is much better, now this peace and joy is oozing out of you, and all of a sudden – you can't help it – you want to encourage others. You're having an impact on their life: A cheerful look brings joy to the heart and good news gives health to the bones. (Proverbs 15:30) So the cheerful look on your face is going to bring joy to someone else's heart. The encouraging word that you give to them, the good news that you can share with them, is going to give health and life to their bones. Your joy touches their lives. Your life improves. Their life improves. Your relationship with them improves. All because you took the time and the wisdom of God to lay hold of the peace and the joy that God has for you. Talk about a stress buster! Not bad, eh? And on top of all that, the Bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Do you get it? When we let the joy of God fill us amidst the gloom, all of a sudden, we experience His strength, and His power.   Lift Up Your Eyes Well, over these last few weeks, we've been chatting about how to deal with the stress in our lives. Not that all stress is bad – some stress from time to time helps to get things done, gets us to sharpen our game and deliver and perform. Think about an athlete about to run the 100 metre dash at the Olympics will harness that nervous energy, let's call it, as they line up on the starting blocks. That's a good thing. It's just not good, if we're constantly living our lives under stress. And so we've been chatting –in this series that I've called Stress Busters – about dealing with the root cause of the stress. No band-aid solutions, like listening to soothing music, or having a nice cup of tea, or patting your cat. They're all nice and lovely, but when we're under real stress, all those things do is alleviate the symptoms for a short time. What we need, is to deal with the root cause of the stress. Now immediately people think stress, root cause – oh right. It's that person, that situation, that medical diagnosis, that thing out there – that's what I have to deal with. Well, perhaps you do. But pressure and stress are two different things. Those things out there put pressure on us. But stress is all about how we react to them, so if we're looking for the root cause of our stress, it lies inside us, in our hearts, in our minds. In what we feel and what we think. So we've chatted in this series about some real, stress busters. Things that deal with the root cause. Learning to trust in God. Learning how to develop a quiet confidence in Him and how to pray the prayer of peace. How to have a cheerful heart – if you missed any of those messages, you'll find them all in the Series Stress Busters on our website christianityworks.com. So … I'd like to bring all of those lessons together in a practical, case study if you will, by sharing the story of a woman called Hannah. She was the Prophet Samuel's mother in the Old Testament of the Bible. But as with many of the great things that God is doing, Samuel's entry into the world wasn't an easy one. At least, not for Hannah. It was a very stressful time. In fact, she was deeply, deeply distressed over a long period of time. So just sit back and have a listen to her story – it's real, it's stressful … and it's beautiful. Here we go, 1 Samuel 1:1–18: There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.  Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?' After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: 'O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and do not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.' As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.' But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.' So Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.' And she said, ‘Let your servant find favour in your sight.' Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. It's a beautiful story isn't it? You can't help but feel for Hannah and what she was going through. It was a really big thing in that culture for her not to be able to have a child. The basic belief was that if you were a good person who honoured God, He would bless you with many children. But if you weren't, He wouldn't. So Hannah was looked down upon by all in sundry. Particularly, Penniniah, her rival we're told. The other wife who was delivering plenty of sons. Just imagine how much stress this was putting on Hannah. Firstly, she couldn't have children – any woman whose body clock is ticking and who desperately wants kids but can't have them – knows how devastating that is, just on it's own. But now add to that the constant niggling and whispering and derision from ‘her rival' – there they were, these two women, competing for their husband's affections – I just can't begin to imagine what an awful, additional layer of stress that heaped on Hannah. And then there were the social and religious expectations – everyone treating her like she was some sinner or leper. She could have spent the rest of her life wallowing in that morass of pain and self-pity. But Hannah took some decisive action. She poured it all out to God. Instead of constantly looking down at her terrible circumstances, she lifted her gaze and looked up to Him and, deeply distressed we're told, poured her heart out to God and asked Him to do something. And before she even got an answer, before she even fell pregnant, listen again to the impact of this prayer on her whole being, on her countenance, on her life: Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. There you have it. The peace that passes all understanding. She did exactly what Paul the Apostle counselled his friends in Philippi to do over two thousand years later: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7,8) We don't need to clean up our act before we go to God. We don't have to be all confidence and self-assured and ‘together'. He just calls us to come as we are and pour it all out. And you should never, ever be afraid to do that. In fact elsewhere, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, this is what God says to us about this very thing: Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Don't you love that word – with boldness. So as our time in this series – Stress Busters – draws to a close, let me counsel you to do exactly the same. Do what Hannah did – lift up your eyes and pour your stress out on God, and my friend, He will act. And whatever the outcome to your stressful situation, He will give you peace. That's just what He does. God is a God who brings His power to bear for the people whom He loves – His people, the people who have put their trust in Jesus His Son. He doesn't always take away the person or the situation that causes the stress, but what He does do, is He works in our hearts, He gives us strength and courage and joy and peace and power to remove the stress. But there's one thing … on thing that robs us of all that. And that's the thing we're going to talk about.   Blackout Have you ever been in a power blackout? Here where I live, they're quite rare. But in many parts of the world, they're a daily occurrence and in some parts of the world, there's no power at all. I travel quite a bit and I regularly find myself in places where there's no power or there are constant blackouts. In a sense, you get used to it pretty quickly. When you're sitting and talking in a meeting and the power goes out, you just keep on talking until either the generator cuts in, or … if there's no generator, until the power comes back on. It's just a fact of life. You learn to live with it. But when I come back home again, to a place where the power almost never goes out, I have to tell you, it's a much, much better way to live. I think in the three years that I've been living in our current apartment, we've lost power perhaps once or twice. Many people are living their lives, spiritually, emotionally, morally, either in a state of regular power outages, blackouts, or in a place without any power at all. And the thing that flicks the switch on God's power in their lives, is their sin. Have a listen to this, the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 1:17–21: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. Paul's praying that his friends in Ephesus would realise the certain hope, the riches of their inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of God's power that they already have in Christ. The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead and put Him above everything and everyone. Do you see – God means to bring that power, that life-giving power, to bear in your life, to give you the new life that Jesus died and rose again to give you. But when we rebel against God, when we turn our backs on Him through our sin, the power stops. Why? What good father would continue to reward and bless his child when the child is rebelling? As much as the father loves the child, he stops the flow of blessing, so that the child will realise its mistake, and come back to him. It's what dads do. And it's the same with God: Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7) One of the most stressful things that we can ever do is to rebel against God – we talked about that earlier in this series. And as God calls us back to Him, often He turns the heat up on our stress, as we live through the consequences of our sin and our rebellion. When we keep struggling against and kicking against God, when we run away from His goodness and His plans for our life, man, be prepared for a wilderness experience, right? And I know that there are a few people in that place right at the moment. You're experiencing extreme stress, because you've turned your back on God. Well, in a moment we're going to pray together. And this is what we're going to pray about. Peter said to them: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'. (Acts 2:38) Do you see, when you repent, when you turn back to God, He promises you the power, the power of the Holy Spirit. The greatest stress buster of them all.

There are all sorts of things in this world that cause us stress. And I've heard so many ridiculous ways of relieving it – have a cup of tea. Take a hot shower. Okay – so they might relieve the symptoms for a short while. But what we need are some powerful solutions to the root cause of our stress.   Trust in the LORD When you Google stress relief, mostly what you discover is relaxation techniques. Take a hot bath. Watch some television to get your mind off things. Spend more time with friends. Some will even tell you to go and practise yoga and meditation. Play stress relief games. Identify your stress responses and manage them. Well, it all sounds great, but here's the problem I have with all of those things. They're a bit like taking an aspirin for a headache. They may alleviate the symptoms for a short while, but they don't solve the problem by treating the cause. If your headache is caused by a brain tumour, hey; aspirin just ain't going to do it. You need something that goes to the root cause. The same is true with stress and anxiety. You know, a mistake we make when we think about the root cause of our stress is we imagine that the root cause is that thing out there somewhere that's causing us stress. It's that difficult person; it's that difficult relationship; it's the fact that I'm struggling with my finances or I've had a bad medical diagnosis from the doctor. It's that thing out there that's causing me the stress. If I can get rid of that, then I won't have any more stress in my life. That's our rationale. That's what we think, but stress is our response to a situation. Stress is something we do to ourselves. Of course, sometimes scary things happen. Someone we love dies, and the process of grieving is stressful. We lose our job, and the process of dealing with our finances can be stressful, but a lot of what we stress out about is totally manageable, except for the fact that we're stressing out over it. Stress, anxiety, fear ... Those things immobilise us. They stop us from doing the things we need to do to deal with the situation, so when I'm talking about dealing with the root cause of stress, I'm actually talking about dealing with whatever's going on inside you that's causing the stress response, because each and every day of your life and mine pretty much is going to bring along circumstances and situations and people and stuff that have the potential to cause us stress. It's one thing to have an initial response of fear or shock when something potentially stressful comes our way; it's another thing entirely to spend the rest of the week, the rest of the year, the rest of your life, stressing out about it. So let me share my number one, numero uno, stress buster with you right now. Trust in the LORD your God. I know it sounds like a cop-out; it sounds like a platitude, but in a moment, I'm going to tell you why it's the one solution that decisively deals with stress. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. The thing that causes us stress by and large is when something that has the potential to negatively impact our lives is completely outside our control. Would you agree? The doctor tells you that she's detected a tumour on your scan, but she doesn't know yet whether it's malignant or benign, or whether they're going to be able to operate on it and get it all out. So much is out of your control in that scenario, and your very life hangs in the balance. Stress! Now bring God into the picture. There are three key facts that I want you to note about God in this stressful scenario: Here's the first one. He loves you beyond measure. In fact, He loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die and to pay for your sins, to give you eternal life, so there's absolutely no question about how much He loves you. Secondly, nothing escapes Him. He never fails to notice what you're going through. If He knows exactly how many hairs you have on your head, and He does because the Bible tells us that, then He surely knows what you're going through, and the third thing is that nothing is outside His control. If He created the universe, friend, He has the power to deal with anything and everything that's going on in your life. Now, you put those three facts together and what you have is a compassionate, loving God who completely understands, and who has just the right plan for your life. He knows what to do, when to do it, and how to get it done, and He will do it. The Bible has a name for that: It's called faithfulness. The writer of the book of Lamentations was looking over the destruction and the devastation after the Babylonians had completely and utterly destroyed Jerusalem, and taken God's chosen people into captivity as slaves. He pours his heart out, which is why the book is called Lamentations, but then despite what he sees, despite the devastation and the pain and the stress that he feels in his heart, he comes to this conclusion. Lamentations 3:22-24: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him. My friend, no matter what you're going through at the moment, no matter what lies ahead, no matter what the devastation and the ruin that your eye can see, your God is faithful; and when you put your trust in Him, all of a sudden, the stress goes away because He can and will act to make sure that His steadfast love plays itself out in your life. Look. Each one of us is going to die sooner or later, and along the way, each one of us is going to have financial problems, health problems, relationship problems, inadequacies, insecurities ... There are more than enough in each week to get you and me to stress ourselves into an early grave. Listen. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Let me tell you, no amount of relaxation techniques – yoga, TV, dinner with friends, hot showers, hot cups of tea – none of that stuff is going to come anywhere close to the impact of trusting your God with all your heart. He knows what to do; He has the power to do it; He loves you so much. Ok, we are going to die one day. That's part of His plan, but in the meantime, friend, He loves you so much. Whatever you're going through, He's in that place with you, and He is worthy of your trust.   Develop a Quiet Confidence We kind of stress out about our kids and our jobs and how we look and what other people think. We stress out about tomorrow. What will that bring? We stress out about ... Well, we stress out about just about anything or everything. Let me ask you this. What are you stressed over right now? What's the thorn in your side that keeps on making you worry about this or that? Pretty much everybody can name at least two or three things that are causing them to stress out right at the moment. Jesus hit the nail on the head when He asked this rhetorical question. Luke 6:27: Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life? Well, that's pretty much it. That right there just shows us how utterly useless worry and stress are. They don't achieve anything positive. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Stress and worry often immobilise us from doing the things that we can and need to do to deal with that situation that's causing us the pressure and the stress in the first place. We just kind of sit there on the sofa worrying about it, when getting up and doing A or B would actually reduce the risk or fix the problem altogether. Now you can call me crazy; plenty of people do ... Call me crazy, but let me throw this out there for you to think about. This is absolutely no way for you to live your life, or for me to live my life. Would you agree? I mean, being stressed all the time is totally nuts. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't achieve anything good, and yet countless people are caught up in chronic, repetitive, day-after-day, lifelong stress, and for what? So let me ask you, what if you could replace that with a quiet confidence? Not some false bravado; just a quiet sense of confidence on the inside that you know it's going to be fine. What if that were the overriding mind-set in your life, in place of the person who worries and stresses about everything? Would it be a worthwhile thing to achieve? Well, that's what I'm aiming for in your life today, not because I happen to be particularly smart or insightful or brilliant; I'm none of those things, but because the Word of God has the power to transform your life completely and utterly. If only you will receive this mighty, powerful Word of God in your heart today, your life can be utterly transformed. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. ‘This guy hasn't a clue what I'm going through. How can he possibly say that?' And in part you are right; I absolutely don't have a clue, but God does. I don't have the wisdom, but God does. I don't have the power to transform your heart and your mind and your thoughts and your emotions or your life, but God does. Have a listen to this. It's about a guy called Joshua. For the last forty or so years, he's been playing second fiddle to a guy called Moses, leading God's people (probably over a million of them) through the wilderness: Relying on God for food, and for water, and for protection every step of the way. Moses (the leader) has just died, just at the point when they're about to cross over the Jordan river into the land that God's promised them; just at the point where they have to gear up for battle after battle because the promised land is full of other tribes and nations, and they're going to have to take it by force. Just at that point Moses, the proven, trusted, experienced, wise leader ups and dies, and Joshua is put in charge. Stress? Absolutely! Stress with a capital ‘S”. This is life and death stress. If you put yourself in Joshua's shoes, man, you'd really be stressing. Right? Well he must have been, because this is what God says to Joshua right at this point in his life. Joshua 1:1: After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, ‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I'm giving to them – to the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness of Lebanon as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them; only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with the Law that my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.' No less than three times, God says to Joshua: ‘Be strong and courageous', and one of those times he says, ‘Be strong and very courageous'. Why? Because God has a plan. God is in this, and God will see His plan through, despite the overwhelming odds, despite the impossibility of the task. It's about God and who He is, not the enemy and who they are. Let me say it again: It's about God and who He is, not the enemy and who they are, and the foundation of Joshua's confidence is to be what? God's Word. "Stay in My Word; think about it; meditate on it day and night, so that it doesn't depart from you." As you read on through this book of Joshua, you see that under his leadership, Israel faced many, many life and death, stressful situations, but God called him to do it with confidence. You know, sometimes, our confidence is misplaced. We put our confidence in our strengths and abilities; we put our confidence in money or other people, but won't place our confidence in God. When He's the One we look to and we trust, lean on and co-operate with, then that confidence – my friend, it's never misplaced. Hey, listen. Without faith it's impossible to please God. God wants us to put our trust in Him during those difficult, stressful, dangerous, scary situations. That's the whole point! We develop this quiet confidence as we experience His faithfulness, and that's what carries us through.   Pray the Prayer of Peace Listen. You and I are going to find ourselves in stressful situations from time to time; we just are. It's par for the course. In a very real sense, it's kind of what's meant to happen, and for anyone in a stressful situation right now, my prayer is that just knowing that gives you some comfort. We all end up there from time to time. The question now is, what do we do about it? How are we going to respond in this moment of crisis? Well, if you're anything like me, you've been taught that the right thing to do is to put your faith in God. That's exactly what we've been chatting about on the program so far in this series of messages. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. And the other one that we looked at earlier, Lamentations 3:22-24: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him. And what did He say to Joshua? Joshua 1:5-7: As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong; be courageous, for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. You see, each of those Scriptures that we've been looking at point us in absolutely the right direction, without a doubt, but anybody who's been in a deeply stressful situation, and particularly anyone who's there right now in that stressful situation, is sitting there thinking: ‘Well, look, that's all fantastic and nice, Berni. I know those Scriptures too, but how do I do that? How do I put my trust in God? How can I be strong and courageous when I feel so weak and helpless?' And unless you get the answers to those questions, then the Scriptures we just read and plenty more of them to boot, they're just going to make you feel more and more condemned – more and more like you're failing God, because you can't conjure up that trust and that faith and that strength. Am I right? So right now, we're going to get the answers to those questions and not from me, but from God because He always has the answers. God knows how you and I can lay hold of that courage and confidence in God, because He loves us. He tells us very clearly, very plainly in His Word how to do that, and to be honest, in my walk with the Lord over the past ... mmm ... almost twenty years, this has probably been the most important how-to that I have ever learnt. Are you ready? Here we go. Stress buster number three. It comes from Philippians 4:6-7: Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a very plain piece of Scripture. There are not a lot of hidden meanings there, but you'd be amazed, amazed at how easily we skate over the surface of it and completely miss the point. I think I may have told this story once before on the program a few years back, so if you've heard it, just get over it (I'm just kidding). I was sitting in a Bible-study with a bunch of people who'd been Christians for many years, much longer than I had. We were studying this particular passage in Philippians 4. It was interesting; people hedged around – this, that; yeah, we all worry ... The discussion went on for ten or fifteen minutes and at the end of it, the Bible-study group-leader summarised it along these lines: ‘Well, yeah. God wants us to have peace but still, we're just going to worry, aren't we?' The crazy thing was that everyone seemed to nod in agreement with him and we were about to move on. Well, I don't know; I was only the new kid on the block, but I couldn't help myself. I kind of let out this loud, agitated, ‘No!' I don't think anyone had ever heard that before because there was stunned silence and all the eyeballs were on me, and I think my wife wished that the floor would swallow us both up, so I went at it with both barrels. I said, ‘Look at what this says. It's a promise from God through the apostle Paul, who (by the way) was sitting on death row in a dungeon when he wrote this thing.' God's saying, ‘Look. Instead of worrying, pray. The time that you would have spent worrying and stressing out about this stuff, take that time and spend it differently. Take that time that you would have spent stressing, and pray instead'. Thank God. Let Him know your problems and your needs and your requests, right there in the stressful situation that you find yourself in, and when you do that, says God through Paul, here's the promise bit: The peace of God which surpasses all understanding. There's this peace that in this situation, in this circumstance, simply doesn't make any worldly sense. That peace will not just fill your heart; it'll guard your heart and your mind in Christ. Now, think of the power of that. When worry comes along, when stress comes along and hits you, when it attacks you, when it knocks on the door of your heart and your mind, God's peace in Christ Jesus will be standing as a mighty, powerful, God-given sentinel to the door of your heart and mind. God's peace in Christ will guard your heart and your mind, and the impact of that: Think of a fortress being guarded by a mighty army. The opposing army simply can't get in, and so in this case, the worry and the stress just won't be able to get in because God's peace will keep it out. Hey, that's God's promise here, so let me ask you this: Do you believe God's Word or not? Do you believe that this is God's promise to you, or not? It's one way or the other. I don't know if they got it, these people in this home group that we were talking about, but I'm praying that you get it. The way that we appropriate the peace of God, the way that we lay hold of it, the way that we grab it with both hands and hang onto it, is by praying to God with a thankful heart, and pouring out our feelings and our needs on God. Let me tell you something. If you're in a stressful situation and you take this one promise, just this one Scripture (two verses) and start living it out by making it a habit to get away alone with God and pray and spend time with Him and pour your heart out and give Him thanks, I guarantee you that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will become the sentinel of your heart and your mind and your life. There's your stress buster. There's your peace, and remember, it's a peace that given your circumstances, you really shouldn't be able to feel. You shouldn't be able to have. It's a peace that in the face of this stressful situation simply doesn't make sense. That's why Paul calls it the peace which surpasses all understanding, but you know what? It doesn't have to make sense, because peace is peace, and God's peace is God's peace, and I will take that in place of the world's stress any day. How about you?

Sometimes stress is triggered by other people or circumstances – things out there, many of which we don't have any control over. Other times, it's something that we bring on ourselves. Whichever of those two it happens to be, you and I, we need to know how to handle stress.   The Stress of Circumstance I wish I could tell you that there is something that you could do to avoid every stressful situation and circumstance in this world. Wouldn't it be fantastic? But it just wouldn't be real. Because no matter who we are, where we live, how young or old we are, how rich or poor we are … there are going to be those days when tough, difficult, stressful situations and circumstances arise. Sure, some stressful things are avoidable. We've been talking about those already in this series that I've called, "Stress Busters". And when it comes to dealing with needless, avoidable stress – I'm definitely all for that! But some stressful situations are totally unavoidable, and they're the ones that we're going to chat about for a few minutes today. Because it seems to me that the trick isn't to hide our heads in the sand and pretend that we can make them go away. The trick is flourishing amidst the stress. Now, you might think that's a crazy idea! Flourishing amidst the stress? Get off the grass, who are you trying to kid? I know … I know that's what some people are thinking right now. But this isn't my idea. It's something that Jesus came up with. It's something that He said to His disciples right at the most stressful point in His relationship with them. He was soon to be crucified – the plot to kill Him was well afoot and His disciples could feel it. Not only was Jesus threatened, but they were probably wondering: well, are we going to be next? When they come to arrest Jesus and nail Him to a cross, are they going to do the same to us? There can't be any greater level of stress than that. So right at that point, right at that moment, this is what Jesus says to them: The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that you may have peace. In this world you will face tribulation. But take courage; I have conquered the world. (John 16:32-33) So, the persecution is coming, they're about to be scattered, running in fear for their lives, and Jesus tells them in this world you will face persecution. The original Greek word there that sits aback of the English translation for "persecution" is thlipsis, it means pressure, stress – literally it means to have the life squeezed out of you. Just fantastic Lord, they must have been thinking. Thanks for that, just what we needed to know. A promise from God right in the moment when we're in fear of our lives and Jesus tells us – in this world you will have the life squeezed out of you. Perfect! But Jesus doesn't leave it there. He goes on to say: but take courage, be of good cheer, don't worry, because I have conquered the world. All this I've said to you so that in Me you might have … peace. The exact opposite of stress. Which would you rather have in your life – peace or stress? Well, peace obviously! But here's the nub of what Jesus is saying – you can have that peace, right in this place where the life is being squeezed out of you. Did you get that? Jesus is saying – look, you won't always be able to avoid the pressure, in fact one thing is for certain, you will have pressure, you will feel squeezed. But in the middle of that you can have confidence and peace, because I have overcome the world – something they would just see in a few short days later when Jesus rose from the grave and appeared to them. And friend, that's His message for you today. I love how this powerful truth works its way out in the life and the ministry of Paul the Apostle, who down the track, had more than his fair share of pressure. Have a listen to what he writes from out in the field, out on assignment preaching the Good News of Jesus into a hostile world. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 to 11: We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we could not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. There it is again, the same word that Jesus used for persecution, that exact same word thlipsis – unbearably crushed so that in their despair they thought they were going to die. You'd call that serious stress, right? And yet in the middle of all that, what gave them strength and peace? They relied on God. They trusted in Him. They were at the end of their tether, they had nothing left, life itself hung in the balance – so they did the only thing that they could do. That's what happens, especially, let me say, when we're in the business of getting out there and doing God's business; serving God. I find it to be true that whenever I'm serving God, opposition comes thick and fast. The more powerfully I feel called to step out and serve my Lord, the more powerfully Satan hurls opposition my way. It's as though the armies of hell muster in opposition and they unleash all their fury. I remember once, it was the first time I was to lecture at my old Bible College, where I'd been taught. It was a Thursday evening and I drove off from my home. Before I'd gone half a kilometre, three different vehicles had tried their darnedest to run into me. What's going on? I thought to myself. And then I realised. That's what happens when you're serving Jesus. Opposition, disruption, stress, pressure, they all get hurled at you from every direction. So, let's not be amazed. It happened to Jesus. It happened to Paul. It's going to happen – guaranteed – to you and to me. It's exactly what Jesus promised. In this world you will have thlipsisi – you will have tribulation, you will have the life squeezed out of you, but be of good cheer, be confident, don't be stressed, because I have overcome the world. And you know something, He has. Our confidence in those places at those times needs to be in Jesus – in Him and in Him alone. Sometime later, in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 8 to 15, Paul puts it like this: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So, death is at work in us, but life in you. But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — ‘I believed, and so I spoke' — we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. Friend the message is clear. In this world you will have tribulation – but don't worry, because right in that place, Jesus is there, and He will carry you through. And when I've had nothing left in the tank, that's the only thing that's carried me through. Jesus. Let your confidence be in Him and in Him alone. Now that's what I call a stress buster!   The Stress of Evil Evil seems like a strong word, doesn't it? I mean, by and large, you and I don't think of ourselves as evil people. We're not a murderer, or a rapist, or a child abuser, well, 99.99% of us aren't. And so, the word evil seems just a tad strong. I'm guessing you know the story of Adam and Eve. God put them in the Garden of Eden, they had a fantastic life, they could do whatever they wanted, except eat the fruit of one of the trees in the garden. That's all. I don't think there was anything particularly special about the tree – no magic potions, no hallucinogens in the fruit. It's just that God nominated this one tree to give Adam and Eve a choice – either to obey Him or not. God always gives us a choice. Genesis chapter 2, verse 9: Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, what was the tree called? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Where evil is defined as anything that rebels against God. You see, up until the point that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from that tree, they had no idea what evil was. It may have been a concept, but they'd never experienced it in their lives. They didn't know it, they had no knowledge of it. And God warned them: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you will die.' (Genesis 2: 15-17) They couldn't say that they didn't know, right? But then the serpent tempted them, and Eve made the first move: So when the woman saw that the tree was in fact good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make someone wise, she took of its fruit and she ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was there with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:6-7) Would you say at that moment, when they, for the first time, knew for themselves the difference between good and evil, they were stressed? I'd think so – because the very next thing they do is to hide from God when they hear Him coming in the garden. Just think about how silly that is! But eventually God found them, and the consequences of their actions were devastating: To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.' And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.' … Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever' — therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. Now again, would you say that this evil that they'd done in God's sight caused them stress? Absolutely it did, and it was a stress that lasted for the rest of their lives. Well, right there you have it – whenever you and I rebel against God, it is going to cause us pain and stress. I don't care what it is we do to rebel against Him, but there are going to be consequences. Serious consequences. A husband doesn't cherish his wife; a wife doesn't honour her husband. Stress? You betcha! A man decides that his life is all about making money and being wealthy – so he chases after riches and sacrifices everything. Stress? Well, let's take another look at what may well be a familiar passage to you: But those who want to be rich will fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Timothy 6:9-10) Now that's what I call stress. What about anger and dissension and strife, back-biting, dishonesty? Well the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like those. I am warning you, says Paul, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-20) Now that passage tells us that all that stuff is going to end in some serious stress – for those who do those things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But from experience we know that all of those things will also create stress here and now. Strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, all that jazz. Would you like to work in a place that has one of those things happening – factions and dissensions for example. Maybe you do – well, that's what you'd call a stressful workplace. Would you like to live in a family where one member is constantly drunk? Anyone who has, will tell you that that causes tremendous stress. You're getting the picture, right? Sin – sorry to put that word up there, but that's what God calls it, or if you'd prefer evil perhaps – evil always results in stress. That's the bottom line. It promises a lot up front, it's so seductive, but it only ever delivers us stress and trouble. Some people, and maybe you're one of them … I'm being very direct here, kind but direct … some people are wanting to hang on to some bit of evil in their lives, some particular sin and rationalise it away as though it was nothing. But it's like a thorn in their flesh – it causes them stress and pain over and over again. I am not going to forgive her for doing that to me!! Okay, don't forgive her, but you're going to suffer the stress of unforgiveness for as long as you care to hang on to that sin. My friend, if you want to rid your life of unnecessary stress, then the quickest and easiest way of getting started is to root out the sin in your life, to pull it up by the root and throw it out. The moment you forgive, the moment you deal with your pride, the moment you stop quarrelling with people at work and stirring up trouble – the stress in your life starts to subside. Why? Because God only labels something as evil, as sin, if it's going to hurt us. Get rid of the sin, it stops hurting. It's that simple. The only question is … what are you waiting for?   A Time to Reflect If you had to sum-up your life right at the moment, where you're at, what you're feeling, the things that are causing you to stress out, the amount of pressure and stress that you feel under. What would you say in twenty-five words or less, where are you at in your life when it comes to stress, anxiety, fear and uncertainty? Is the picture that you'd paint me, a bright and sunny one? A bit overcast? Or maybe there is a great storm raging? I guess what I'm trying to do here is to hold up a mirror and get you to take a look at your life, yourself, your stress levels. Stress is a bit like a chronic disease, well actually, for many people, it is a chronic disease. I was listening to an interview on the radio just the other day of a man who had kidney disease. In the twelve months leading up to his diagnosis and treatment, he started noticing the symptoms, but being a typical male, he didn't go to the doctor. You know how it is, you're busy, you're focused on this or that, and this little symptom niggles away at you over here, and then it seems to go away, and then another one happens over there, and its kind of incremental, it builds up really slowly over time. After a while, he realised something was wrong, but he still didn't go to the doctor. So, by the time he was feeling really sick, and had it checked out, he was actually seriously ill. Its sometimes like that with the stress in our lives, tossing and turning at night, not feeling happy, this, that. But when you are busy, you kind of brush it aside, and all the time the stress is building up until something snaps. That's why people have break-downs. That's why relationships are torn apart. Most of us don't cut a pretty picture when we are under a lot of stress. It's not good for us and its not good for the people around us. So, how are you going? Are you noticing that things aren't what they should be? Are you burning the candle at both ends, wondering: Why am I so tired? Are you letting certain people get to you? Are money worries worrying you? Come on, what is it that has been niggling away there in your life? In you heart, in your mind? Bubbling away under the surface. And you've been trying to ignore it desperately, but the more you try to ignore it, the worse it seems to get. And as we sit here and speak about it now, you're really beginning to realise: You know what, something isn't right – I'm dealing with this stress and I've been trying to ignore it, and this is not right. God is a really practical God. You don't have to read very far in the Bible to discover that. And He is vitally interested in dealing with the stress in your life. Take Psalm 55 – its all about the treachery of a friend. Here it is in a nutshell – verses 20 and 21: My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me, with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war, with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords. Its not very nice, but it happens, and it causes stress. See how God deals with really practical stuff that happens in our lives? Just as He was interested in the plight of King David back then, who wrote that Pslam, He is interested in your plight, in your circumstances, and in your stress. And the solution to that stress, comes in the very next verse of that Psalm – verse 22 of Psalm 55, and that's what I'd like to leave you with this week: Cast you burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Isn't that beautiful? Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. And that is what I'd like to encourage you to do, starting this week. God wants to help carry your heavy loads. God wants to lighten your load. God wants to be part of the solution to eliminating stress and bring peace into your life. Friends, listen to it again: Cast you burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Come on, where are you at in your life? What stress are you grappling with? What are you struggling with and you are kind of thinking to yourself: I just can't cope with it anymore. I've been dealing with this for so long. I've been struggling in this relationship for so long. I've been struggling with this problem at work for so long. I've been struggling with my money problems for so long. I just can't deal with it anymore? Friend, we are often going to be under pressure. Pressure is often something we cannot avoid. Stress is our reaction to the pressure. Stress is what we do with the pressure. When you are lying there at night, turning it over in your mind, struggling, worrying, imagining all the bad things that can happen. Jesus is in that dark place with you. Jesus, who gave peace to His disciples is in that dark place with you. The Jesus that wants to bring peace to you is in that dark place with you. Cast your burdens on the Lord, He will sustain you, He will never permit the righteous to be moved. That is a beautiful truth. If you are struggling with some dark thing at the moment and you don't know how to deal with the stress, I want to take you and encourage you to read Psalm 55 this week. Maybe you read nothing else, just spend your time in Psalm 55 day after day after day. And experience the love and the power and the mercy of your Lord Jesus Christ. And in our next programme, in fact the next two programmes, in this series called ‘Stress Busters', we'll be discovering exactly how to do that. Where? Well, in the Bible of course! God's love letter to you. So I'm really looking forward to catching up with you again, next time around. Remember, cast your burdens on the Lord, He will sustain you.

Stress comes in all different shapes and sizes, but whatever its cause, none of us was made to be under constant stress and yet, that's how many people are living. In a constant state of stress.  Well, it's time to do something about it.   A Stress Free Life? Stress. For most of us, that word sends a shiver down our spine, and why wouldn't it? Who wants to be under stress all the time? And that's what it feels like for a lot of us, so what is it? Well, it's a state of mental or emotional strain or tension, and my dictionary adds, "Resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances", although I'm not sure that's always the case. We'll explore some of the main causes of stress in this series, but first, what sort of impact is stress having on our world? Well, a recent study conducted in Australia by the Psychological Institute (and by the way, I'm sure you'd probably find the same results no matter where you live) ... Well, the study found some interesting things about the reach and impact of stress. Here are the headline findings: 12% of people reported experiencing levels of stress in the severe range, with young adults experiencing significantly higher levels of stress and significantly lower levels of wellbeing than the general population. One in three reported experiencing depressive symptoms, with ten percent of these being in the severe range. One in four reported experiencing anxiety, with nine percent of these in the severe range. Young adults, 18-25, reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression than the general population. Although women reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress than did men, this didn't lead to differences reported in their levels of anxiety, depression, or wellbeing. Those people experiencing family or recent relationship-breakdown and those separated reported much higher levels of stress and distress, on all measures. If the relationship-breakdown had occurred more than one year earlier, reported stress levels were about the same as the general population. In the US, things appear to be more extreme. Seventy-three percent of people regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress. Almost half say that stress has a negative impact on their personal or professional lives, and the cost to employers in stress-related healthcare and missed work is estimated, in the US, to be about three hundred billion dollars a year. No wonder we want a stress free life! That idyllic life by the beach is looking pretty good to a few of us at this point. Right? But that's just not realistic and in fact, the reality is that a bit of stress in our lives isn't a bad thing. We enjoy a challenge, for instance, and working under a bit of pressure sometimes produces really good results. It's like a guitar or a violin. If the strings aren't under the right amount of tension and stress, it just doesn't work the way it was meant to. I know for instance after a longish holiday, say three weeks off over Christmas, I'm really looking forward to getting back into the cut and thrust of work. If we had no pressure, no deadlines, life would be missing something; and in any case, sometimes we're hit by circumstances that put us under a lot of stress, whether we like it or not. Take Jesus. He experienced huge stress. Luke 22:39-46: He came out and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed Him. When He reached that place, He said to them, ‘Pray, that you may not come into a time of trial.' Then He withdrew from them, about a stone's throw away, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.' Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and gave Him strength. In His anguish He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down on the ground. When He got up from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and He said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray, that you may not come into a time of trial.' The fact that Jesus' sweat was like drops of blood tells us just how severe His suffering was. This was stress, and it only got worse from here, as He was beaten and nailed to a cross. No, that completely stress free life isn't a reality for any of us. Even the rich and famous, in fact sometimes especially those people, suffer enormous amounts of stress. How many superstars have died from drug overdoses? What were they doing there in the first place? What drove them to drugs? The pressure and the stress of fame. So, sometimes stress is desirable; sometimes it's unavoidable, and sometimes we experience it because of our reaction to a particular person or set of circumstances, and yet the Bible says don't be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6). So what sort of stress are you under right now? Is it the normal cut and thrust of life which, at the end of the day, you kind of enjoy anyhow? Then that's probably not such a bad thing, is it? It's manageable, and you know that with a few adjustments to your life, you could easily get things right under control. Then you're probably in a good balance, but if the stresses that you're under feel like a huge burden, like a heavy load that you're carrying around twenty-four by seven ... well ... that's not such a good thing. We're not made to be under that sort of constant pressure and stress, and yet many people live their lives like that. That's why we're kicking the year off with this series called, "Stress Busters" because God has a lot of things to say about how to alleviate the stress that you're under; lots of practical, powerful things to say. Hey, why should that be a surprise to any of us? God cares so deeply about you; what you're going through; what stress you're under, and the stepping off point for that is what Jesus said. We see it in Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus said: Come to Me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke of easy, and My burden is light. Jesus wants to lighten your load, so over these coming weeks, we're going to discover what He has to say about your stress, because Jesus didn't say this lightly. Jesus didn't say this flippantly. Jesus meant it – come to Me, all you who are weary and who are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Come on! Take My yoke upon you. Learn from Me. I'm gentle. I'm humble of heart, and with Me, you're going to find rest for your souls. Hey, that's a powerful thing, and that's why we're doing a series over these next few weeks called, "Stress Busters" because God wants to deal with the stress in your life.   Stress we Put Ourselves Under You and I have this habit of putting ourselves under pressure and stress needlessly. Don't believe me? Well, right now, we're going to chat about how we do that exactly, and what we can do about changing our habits, because there are more than enough things out there that are going to cause you and me stress, whether we like it or not. There are going to be situations and circumstances completely beyond our control that cause us stress: The loss of a loved one; a difficult boss at work; financial problems; health issues ... There are plenty of things out there that are going to come our way, whether we like it or not, that are going to cause us stress. So, why would we possibly want to needlessly cause ourselves stress? Well, right now, we're going to chat about the main three reasons that we cause ourselves stress. I'd be surprised if you don't recognise at least one of them in your life. The first one is physical. Sometimes we think of stress as an emotional thing, even a spiritual thing; and of course, it is those things, but the physical reality is that God has given you and me a body, and there are three main things that we do to abuse this amazing body that God has gifted us. We eat too much of the wrong stuff, we don't get enough sleep, and we don't get enough exercise. How many times have you heard someone (including me) banging on about our diet and exercise and sleep? And yet still the first and most obvious thing that we can get wrong when it comes to managing our stress is how we treat our body, so come on. If the hat fits, wear it. Are you sick of feeling tired? Are you sick of feeling bloated and stressed and exhausted? Then do something about it. Last year, we had a whole series on the programme called, "Healthy living to a Ripe Old Age" and all of those messages in that series are available in the Resources section of the ChristianityWorks.com website, under the heading of Health. Grab them, listen to them, read the transcripts and please, if you're struggling because you're not treating your body properly, do something about it. 1 Corinthians 6:19: For don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? God expects you and He expects me to look after this amazing body that He's given us, and when we do, let me tell you, our stress levels drop dramatically. The second thing that we do to put ourselves under stress needlessly is constantly second-guessing ourselves: Constantly telling ourselves, "I'm not good enough. I'm not fast enough. I'm not smart enough." You know what that's called? Low self-esteem, and it might surprise you to know that this is a trap that I too find quite easy to fall into. Shocked? Here's how it works for me. I'm something of an achiever. I drive hard at things; I work hard; I try to deliver on-time ... It's just who I am, and when you're that kind of person, you can see not only all the things that you have achieved, but all the things that you haven't yet achieved, and so you start telling yourself, "Come on! You're not working hard enough for God. You should be doing better for God. You should be getting up earlier and working longer and delivering sooner. You need to get more done. Look at all the things you haven't done yet! Oh, Berni, you're failing God." You see how easy it is to do? Or at the other end of the scale, perhaps you only ever see your inadequacies, because you're constantly comparing yourself to other people. Anyone recognise that? It's like that song by Casey Chambers. "Am I not pretty enough or smart enough or liked enough or strong enough or articulate enough or" ... so we find all these ways to put ourselves under enormous pressure, and cause ourselves huge stress by believing this nonsense that we're just not good enough. Have you been there? Then I have a word from God for you today. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7: Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are a variety of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each one, He has given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Did you get that? Each one of us has been given a particular set of gifts and abilities. They're all different, but they're given by the one God; and the gifts He's given you, He's given you by His sovereign will and choice. You are who you are because He made you that way. He didn't make a mistake. You're exactly who God purposed you and made you to be. Get your heart around that, and you're set free from this nonsense of, "Am I not pretty enough? Am I not good enough for God?" Hello? Is anyone listening to this? I for one need constant reminding of this stuff, because I can end up stressing out by having a wrong view of who I am. It's about trading in your self-image for a faith-image from God, and this God says that you're beautiful, and that you're just who you're meant to be. So you've been given gifts by God now to be that person, and to use those gifts. Hallelujah! And finally, the third thing that causes us needlessly to put ourselves under stress is not letting go of the past. So many people are still holding onto the failures and the hurts and the regrets of the past. How many people are living under the reproach of the past? Come on, the past is the past. You and I can't change it, and God is in the business of setting us free from it. Mark this. Before Israel was able to cross over the Jordan River and enter into the promised land, God dealt with their past. Joshua 5:9: The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away from you the reproach of the past, the disgrace of Egypt.' And so that place is called Gilgal to this day. You've heard that saying, "Don't cry over spilt milk." Right? Yes, wipe it up. Yes, clean up the mess. Yes, learn from your mistakes so that you won't spill the milk again, but don't just stand there and wish you hadn't spilt the milk, and spend the rest of your life living in that one moment of failure, because you can't un-spill the milk. That just doesn't make sense. This Jesus came to set you free from the past, to bind up your broken heart, to give you a vision for the future, a new set of eyes to see, a new set of ears to hear, and a new life to live. Jesus came to lift the reproach of the past off your shoulders, so that it won't cause you any more stress. Come on. There are enough things out there for you to stress out over without your health, without these false feelings of inadequacy, and without your hurts from the past doing it all for you. Do you think?   The Stress of not Enough It seems to me that there are three basic resources that you and I need to get by each day: Time, money, and expertise; and when we're short of any of those three basic resources – time, money, or expertise, that can cause us enormous amounts of stress. Let's start by looking at time. I don't know when the term time-poor started to fall into common usage, but these days, you hear it a lot. People are time-poor. In fact, once you have enough money to cover the basics in your life, time becomes an even more valuable commodity than money, and for many people, time is way too short. ‘If only I had a few extra hours in every day!' I've heard people say. Really? The more affluent we become, the more options we have for spending our time. Take social media. Right at the moment, eleven percent of the world's population are active Facebook-users. Just think about that for a minute, and they are collectively spending seven hundred billion minutes on Facebook each month. That's 1.33 million person-years every month on Facebook, and that doesn't count watching TV and all the other entertainment options available to us. No wonder we're time-poor! So what's changed? Why have we, all of a sudden, become time-poor? ‘Cos we're trying to cram too much into our day. We're always connected. We're always working and chatting, and we've forgotten how to have disconnected, quiet down-time. If that's you, if you're burning the candle at both ends, something has to give, otherwise the stress is going to kill you. Really, and in case you're one of these workaholics, who just has to work eighteen hours a day otherwise civilisation as we know it is going to come to an end, here's a different perspective – God's perspective. Psalm 127:1-2: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guards keep watch in vain. It's in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for God gives sleep to His beloved. It's simply not God's plan for you to live like that, and I've recorded a whole series of messages on that called "It's Time to Stop Labouring in Vain". You'll find it in the Resources section of our website, ChristianityWorks.com. Now the second thing that causes us stress is a lack of money. Sometimes that's because people simply don't have enough money to get by, but sometimes, it's because we squander the money that we do have on impulse buys or on things we don't need; on food that we bought, and then because of our bad management, it goes off in the fridge, so we throw it out. I want to deal with wastage first because that's criminal. With people starving in the world, wasting money on stuff that we just don't need is criminal, but the problem is that advertisers have it down to a fine art. They seem to be able to get us to part with our money like nothing else, so the question you have to ask yourself, the thing that's going to get you to change your mind, is whether the stress of this is worth it; whether having all those things makes you happy or, at the end of the day, makes you stressed. 1 Timothy 6:9-10: Those who want to be rich end up falling into temptation, and they're trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pains. So ask yourself, "Is it really worth it for me? Really?" Or is it time to get your house in order? Is it time to get money-wise? And again, I've recorded a whole series called, "How to be Money-Wise" that you'll find in the Living in Victory section of the Resources library at ChristianityWorks.com. Sort that out, and the stress goes away. Believe you me, it's worth it. And for those who are poor, desperately poor, let me say this to you: In fact not me, but Jesus. Matthew 6:31-33: Don't worry, saying, ‘What am I going to eat?' or, ‘What am I going to drink?' or, ‘What am I going to wear?' For it's the Gentiles who strive after all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father already knows that you need them all. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. God knows what you need, and He will provide it for you. So, Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. But in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Your God will surely provide for you, and once you learn to trust Him to do the things you can't do and provide the things that you need that you can't acquire for yourself, the stress will be replaced by the most amazing peace and assurance. Finally, the other thing that causes us stress when we're without it is expertise. When I look at the ministry of ChristianityWorks that produces these radio-programmes, ok, I'm the front guy; you hear my voice, but without Max on the opposite side of the glass here in the studio and our dedicated team around the world, there simply wouldn't be any radio-programmes. One of the biggest things that you and I can do to cause ourselves stress is not to value and recognise the different abilities and capabilities of the people around us because when we don't cherish them, they desert us. I see this all the time: Leaders who think everybody should be exactly like them, so they drive their people hard and all of a sudden, there's no one left to lead. A true leader recognises other people's gifts and abilities. A true leader encourages and empowers people to be all that they can be, and whether we're leaders or not, we need other people around us who will co-operate in getting things done; because without them, we are going to be under stress with a capital S; because without them, we have to do the things that they're good at, and those things are invariably stuff that we're not good at. There's something incredibly stressful about being a square peg in a round hole. If I had to do Max's job here in the studio, I couldn't do it, and I've tried to get Max on the other side of the glass in front of the microphone, and he's not real keen on that either; because that's not his gig, just as much as what he does is not my gig. It's easy to be stressed by not having enough: Enough time, enough money, or enough expertise. But when we lean on God – hey; when we really trust in Him (come on, really), the stress starts to go away because what we discover is that God provides richly for those whom He loves. He just does. So if you're struggling under the stress of not enough, listen again, please, to this passage from Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In other words, don't look at the problem and keep turning the problem over in your mind, and just seeing the problem which then appears to be bigger than God. Instead, trust in the LORD with all your heart! Don't lean on your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge Him, and God will straighten out your paths. God will make it happen. God loves you. Do you get that? God absolutely loves you, and often we are going to be confronted with things that are much bigger than us. Pressure is different from stress. Pressure is out there; stress is our reaction to it, and God doesn't want you stressing out.

Carol talks Medicare enrollment savings, the Benefit Access Program, license plate renewal program, transportation, a Stressbusters class, and more on the WRAM Morning Show.

Stress buster

Feeling stressed? Believe it or not, one of the best remedies is to have a little fun. So we're sharing three silly ways to de-stress, from making yourself laugh to embracing bright colors. To support more content like this, become an AARP member at aarp.org. And don't forget to subscribe for more tips and tricks to help make your life a little easier — and happier!

Aryana Rollins is featured in this episode as the first Stress Buster Spotlight guest!  Aryana's primary issue of stress is her beloved dog, Roby's behavior when guests arrive, or in other situations where he becomes defensive.  Susi shares insights into ways Aryana can prepare for and maneuver through situations with a more calm and peaceful perspective, and draws on her personal experience in training animals to share potential reasons for the dogs reactivity.  Susi also shares flower essence remedy suggestions to support both Aryana and Roby in feeling more emotionally balanced.  Would you like to be featured as a Stress buster Spotlight guest?  You can learn more here and let Susi know that you'd like her help in targeting an issue that has been causing you too much stress!  Whether it arises from work, relationships, navigating today's world and your efforts to maintain a healthy home environment, Susi can address the three primary aspects of stress, physical, emotional and environmental, to clear obstacles and help you thrive more! Essences recommended for Roby:Star of Bethlehem, heals trauma and deeper woundsChicory, the motherliness flowerRed Chestnut, calms worry about othersVine, balances the power BalanceChestnut Bud, learning and changing unbeneficial patternsRock Rose, for terror and frightMimulus, relieves fear of specific triggersFor Aryana: Star of Bethlehem,Cherry Plum, restores energetic flow, releases pent up energyAspen, calms generalized fear, worry and anxietyWant to learn more about how you can use flower essences for emotional relief? Click here! Learn more about Aryana Rollins:Her book: Mindful AchieverFacebook: @highertrueselfFree resource: Kickstart Your Manifesting Journey 

Learn a biological hack for immediately creating calm in your body when you're stressed. I share how the Autism Mom Ice Water Challenge works and my top tips for implementing this technique in your everyday life.Get full show notes and more information here: https://theautismmomcoach.com/125

You do a lot. You juggle tons of responsibilities and relationships at home and at work, and nobody gives you any awards or praise for most of it. Well, that ends now, because today we're talking about celebrating yourself and how acknowledging your wins supports inner peace.In this episode, we talk about the psychological benefits of celebrating ourselves, why we don't generally do it and how to start. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Whether you've been to dozens of sound baths or have no idea what a sound bath is, you're bound to learn something from guests Julie Afsahi and Jessica Cross, both sound healers and yoga teachers and the authors of the new book, "Seasons of Sound."In this conversation, Julie and Jessica explain what sound healing is and why it works and how anyone can access the benefits of sound healing at home without any equipment other than their voice.And if you want to experience a sound bath at home, you're in luck! Jessica is offering a free audio download of one of her sound baths. Just click here (hear!) for the peaceful vibes.Also, be sure to connect with Julie at soulstrongyoga.com and Jessica at soundforstress.com. My thanks again to these brilliant sound healers! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Meditation helps with stress 100% of the time. This is mostly why everybody seems to be talking about meditation…Quite a lot. But how many people do you know they're actually doing it? Every single day? If meditation was a pill it would be a trillion dollar business! The health benefits of meditation are astounding, but only if you are actually meditating regularly and still we just can't seem to get it into our lives daily.  Meditation is about as good for you as water, people! So why aren't we doing it? And more importantly, how can we get meditation into our lives for real and for good so we can reap all of those magical benefits? We will cover this today (and it's WAY easier than you think!) so you're not a poser, a wisher, a tryer, a binge meditator, a crisis meditator but an actual, daily meditator without stress, procrastination or excuses!  The single most important skill to learn in order to get way better at stress is meditation! So, let's learn about AND do it, together! In this episode we will:  ~Get a nice introduction to a meditation practice ~Breath appreciation meditation Meditation Music by Sonic Yogi Deep Sleep With Singing Bowls Pythagorean Dream Listen to Sonic Yogi on:  Spotify  Apple Music Amazon Music Watch Sonic Yogi's Ted Talk Interesting Mentions: Heartwood Retreat Center : location for Cheri's Georgia Mountain Retreats Jekyll Island: Location for Cheri's seaside retreat The Host for this podcast: Cheri Augustine Flake, LCSW The Stress Therapist and Author Join Cheri Flake on her Next Meditation And Yoga Retreat! In the mountains or  At the beach Love the show?  Please rate and review us! Send some love bucks to the show: Paypal: cheri@thestresstherapist.com Venmo: @cheri-flake Thank you! Stay in touch with Cheri and be a part of the Stress Therapy Community! Twitter: @stresstherapy  Instagram: @thestresstherapist  Facebook  Linkedin  Website  YouTube  Join Cheri Flake on her next retreat!   Register for a meditation and yoga retreat in the gorgeous Georgia Mountains and walk away with a new, solid daily meditation practice with benefits that last a lifetime! OR Register for sweet, peaceful meditation and yoga beach retreat on Jekyll Island seaside right off the coast of Georgia. Want Cheri Flake to be your therapist? If you live in Georgia go here to schedule a free 15 minute consultation Follow Cheri Flake on GoodReads Buy Cheri's book: Honey Do To Honey DONE! A Simple System For A Productive And Happy Household With Absolutely No More Nagging! A word from your host, Cheri Flake, LCSW: Feeling good after our Stress Therapy session? Awesome. Check out the show notes to connect with me, The Stress Therapist on social media or go to www.iLoveTherapy.com to find out about meditation classes & meditation and yoga retreats.

Uncertainty is part of life, so when I heard a commercial for a psychic company recently whose tagline was "Discover the joy of certainty," I had to laugh. Humans prefer certainty -- it was key to our ancient ancestors' survival -- but uncertainty is the way of reality. Besides gravity on Earth, few things are reliably certain. Who could have imagined a global pandemic would shut down the world in March of 2020?! So in this episode, we talk about practical strategies for making peace with uncertainty, and dialing down the anxiety that accompanies facing the unknown.  Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Loving ourselves might not feel easy, but it's a practice we can cultivate -- and it's totally worth it! Self-love increases resilience, helps reduce stress, boosts confidence and inspires us to go after our goals.In this episode, we talk about what self-love is and why it matters, some signs you might need more self-love in your life, myths about self-love, and eight strategies for cultivating self-love that you can start today.Cheers to amazing you! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

As the owner of a human brain, you possess one of the most complex and sophisticated pieces of machinery on the planet. And you're in charge of it!We're talking this week about your brilliant brain and how to use it to generate greater inner peace. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Want a better brain? Of course you do! This week, brain health expert Mary Lou Tierney is on the podcast, sharing tips for turning down the stress response and keeping our brain healthy throughout our lives.In this episode, we discuss negative self-talk, limiting beliefs and how to bring your higher thinking back online when your nervous system has been "hijacked" by the amygdala and the stress response.Mary Lou offers tons of resources on her website, so be sure to check her out at www.simplybetterbrain.com. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Have you ever eaten something so delicious that you spontaneously close your eyes so you can more fully immerse yourself in its scrumptiousness, so you can truly savor it?Savoring isn't just for food. Research shows that allowing ourselves to savor the delightful but ordinary moments in our lives boosts our mood, increases well-being and can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety. It only takes a few seconds and we can do it right in the midst of our busy lives -- all we have to do is slow down and pay attention.This episode is about the practice of savoring, what it is, how to do it and why it increases a sense of ease and inner peace.Let me know if you try it and what you savored! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Life can feel like an endless to-do list, with lots of "stuff" but not a lot of meaning, to the point where we look around and go, "Is this it?! Is this really what life's about?"One way to shift out of this view and bring more richness and pleasure to our lives is by practicing gratitude. I know it sounds corny! But reams of research studies confirm that intentionally looking for things to be grateful for makes us happier and less stressed -- not just in the moment, but over time.So in this episode, we're talking about how to find the good in our lives, how being grateful changes our brain and what the science says about the power of gratitude. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Learn a quick and easy technique to ground yourself, get out of your head and change your mental energy in about a minute. I hope you love this "find your feet" exercise as much as I do! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

No matter how old you are, no matter what you've done or not done, it is not too late to go after your dreams or create a life you love.The biggest obstacle standing between you and your dreams is the mistaken belief that it's too late.Ava DuVernay, Julia Child, Stan Lee and Susan Boyle are just a few of the people who started building the life they desired in middle age.The inspiration for this episode is my own realization of not-too-lateness... I recorded it the week I'll be graduating with my master's degree in public health -- 25 years after earning my bachelor's. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Multitasking may be the norm, but monotasking is where it's at when it comes to making meaningful progress while maintaining inner peace.This week, I share my favorite technique for time management and mental focus -- the Pomodoro Technique -- and how breaking big tasks into bite-size chunks is a powerful antidote to overwhelm.I use this timer-based technique to make progress on writing projects, housecleaning, and school stuff. I know teachers use it to get through piles of papers that need grading.  Spending a chunk of time on a single task not only allows for focus and progress, it helps you learn how much time things really take, and lets you look back at your day with a sense of accomplishment because you know you spent dedicated, focused time on the task at hand.Let me know how the Pomodoro Technique works for you and if it supports a sense of inner peace! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Nothing interferes with our inner peace like having too much to do and not enough time to do it. This week, we're talking about what contributes to that feeling of overwhelm and how to shift how we think about the things on our to-do list in a way that allows for more breathing room.We talk about the "four burner theory" framework for our lives and how paying attention to which burners are on high can prevent us from burning out.We also discuss boundaries as self-care -- a loving way to make room for the things that matter most to us. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

The 1981 movie "Stripes," starring Bill Murray and John Candy as enlistees in the Army, features a scene with a tough-guy character  who says his name is Francis but everyone calls him "Psycho." And if you call him Francis, he'll kill you. And if you touch his stuff, he'll kill you. And if you touch him, he'll kill you.He gives this whole speech about how he's going to kill everyone, and when he's done, the drill sergeant says, "Lighten up, Francis."And that's some advice we all could use!It's easy to take ourselves super seriously, but that generally takes us away from the inner peace we crave.This episode is about how we can lighten up, Francis, and the many benefits for doing so. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

This time of the year brings on a LOT of stress. You've got testing around the corner, assessments, standards that need to be taught before the end of year, field trips, and so much more! So it's important to have strategies in your toolbox to help prevent feeling overwhelmed and getting stressed when you need to be focused.  In this episode we are sharing 10 stress busters that will help get you through this challenging season of life. You might not be able to avoid being stressed but these tips can certainly help to decrease or subdue the unpleasant feelings.  In this episode we share: Activities that help you destress from a busy day Steps for making the overwhelm seem do-able Reminders that we all need to hear from time-to-time Our favorite go-to items that help us prevent the stress from creeping up SUBMIT YOUR TIME SUCKING HURDLE! We want to know what is sucking up all of your time either as a teacher or just a person. Head over to our website and submit your TSH so that you can have a chance to be featured on the podcast! SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! Now if you're feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they're also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

We often think of inner peace as a state of mind, but it's actually a physical part of the brain, according to Harvard neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor.Dr. Taylor is the author of the fascinating book, "My Stroke of Insight," in which she shares her experience of having a stroke at age 37 and what she learned about her brain in the process.The human brain has two hemispheres that have different jobs but work together, and it turns out that the right hemisphere of the brain is where inner peace lives, and it's there all the time. This means inner peace is possible for any of us -- it's literally a part of the brain we already have!This episode is all about Dr. Taylor's insights and how we can experience the peaceful side of our brain more often.We read this book in our book club, and if you like books about well-being and personal growth, you should come join us! It's free, it's once a month on Zoom, and we read nonfiction, memoir and self-help and talk about how to incorporate their lessons into our lives. It's super fun! Here's the link if you want to join us!  Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

What if a 20-second "micropractice" is all it takes to feel less stress and more self-compassion?That's what researchers at U.C. Berkeley found in a study being published this month.They taught students a 20-second self-compassion practice and asked them to do it daily. After a month, the students who did the practice most often experienced less stress, more self-compassion and fewer mental health troubles. Twenty seconds!!In this episode, we discuss what the researchers found and learn the practice that brought more peace of mind to student volunteers. Please let me know if you try the practice and what you think! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

If your inner critic is working overtime to help you reach your goals -- and reminding you what a loser you are any time you fall short -- you're not alone. But there's a better way, and not only does it feel WAY better than constant berating and belittling, it actually makes you more likely to reach your goals and to feel good doing it.It's self-compassion, and it's scientifically proven to boost optimism, resilience, life satisfaction and purpose. It also boosts inner peace -- knowing you have your own back and won't kick yourself when you're down.Citing the work of psychologist Kristen Neff, this episode explains the benefits of self-compassion and how to practice it. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Series: N/AService: Sunday Morning WorshipType: SermonSpeaker: Mike Brenneman

What did you have to do to earn the ability to circulate your blood, digest your food, grow your hair and heal your broken bones? Not a damn thing!This week, we're talking about how our body's capacity to heal itself is evidence of your inherent worthiness. You don't have to do anything to earn it.You don't have to prove that you deserve your broken bones to mend or a cut on your hand to heal. It just happens, because you are alive. You are already as worthy as you could ever be of goodness and healing -- the goodness of being alive in a self-healing body as the unique you that you are. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Most of us have been raised to believe that our value comes from what we do -- whether we're successful at work, get good grades, make a lot of money, etc.But when you were a baby, you did none of those things, and yet nobody around you doubted your worth. Even you believed you were 100% worthy. You cried for what you wanted and expected it to be provided, never considering whether you deserved it.This week, let's remember our inherent worth, the value that comes with just being alive, a living creature on this planet, a piece of the divinity that inhabits every living thing.It's hard to shift from earning our worth to just knowing our worth, but thinking about how worthy babies -- or kittens, or a little basil plant on your windowsill that you're trying to grow -- can hopefully remind you of your inherent worth. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

When we think about who we are, we generally go to our name, maybe age or gender, and the roles we play in our life: a mom, a sister, a lawyer, etc. But there's bountiful peace to be had when we expand our notion of who we are to the consciousness that perceives our name, age, gender and life roles. When we identify more as the observer, the witness of our experiences, rather than the experiencer.The practice of connecting with awareness has been practiced for millennia in wisdom traditions and has been the subject of much research in recent decades. While neuroscientists are still searching for the origins of consciousness in the brain, psychologists have found that actively tuning into this consciousness makes us feel less stressed, more capacious and more resilient.This week, when you feel overwhelmed or stressed out, see if you can widen your mental and emotional aperture and observe yourself experiencing these feelings. You'll find that this "witness" part of yourself is a step removed from that overwhelm and stress. This awareness is always there, always available. I hope this brings some peace to your week and your life!  Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Our thoughts are a key way we make sense of the world, so it's easy to default into thinking our thoughts are true. It must be true because I thought it!Of course, our thoughts are just as fallible as any other human endeavor. Our thoughts aren't always true, and they definitely aren't always helpful. Our thoughts can stress us out and make us feel stuck. They can make us feel bad about ourselves and the circumstances of our lives.One simple way to know if your thoughts are painting a biased picture of reality is to notice if there are any cognitive distortions at play. These are common thought habits that result in us feeling bad, limited and stressed. But once you know what they are, they're easier to spot. And when you spot them, you know those thoughts are incomplete. They're flawed because they're filtered through a negative lens.This episode covers some of the most common cognitive distortions so you can learn to spot them and start thinking more accurate, helpful thoughts this week.  Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Years ago I saw a bumper sticker that said "Don't believe everything you think" and I thought it was so funny -- like that's even possible!?!But now, more than a decade into my journey into developing more inner peace, I know that deciding which thoughts to invest in and which to ignore is essential to living with less stress and more happiness.In this episode, I talk about the concept of not believing everything you think, why you might want to be more discerning about which thoughts to give credence to and how to unhook from unhelpful thoughts.I mention the incredibly insightful and helpful work of Bryon Katie, who suggests asking four questions to investigate our thoughts:• Is it true?• Can I absolutely know it's true?• How do I react when I believe this thought?• Who would I be without this thought?In the heat of the moment, if you can't remember these questions or don't have time to go through them, simply ask yourself: Is this thought helpful?I hope you find this strategy useful. Please let me know if you try it and what you think! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy and at innerpeacetogo.com.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

I am on a holiday break so please enjoy a holiday stress buster episode from last year! Plus, a special gift from me to you, my song, “Christmas Makes Me HOT!” Listen wherever you stream your favorite music. Sometimes it seems more like the most stressful time of year, so how can we make it more wonderful? Here are two super simple, but truly effective stress tips to get you back on track to enjoy the holiday season rather than dread it. Then, we do a quick meditation to get you back in the Now where all the magic happens. In this episode we will learn: ~How to reel ourselves back in when we feel overwhelm ~A new way of shopping for a gift for someone ~What the best holiday gift is of all time! ;) ~Om Meditation The Host for this podcast: Cheri Augustine Flake, LCSW The Stress Therapist and Author Join Cheri Flake on her Next Meditation And Yoga Retreat! In the mountains or At the beach Love the show? Please rate and review us!Send some love bucks to the show:Paypal: cheri@thestresstherapist.comVenmo: @cheri-flake Thank you! Interesting Mentions: The Humans by Matt Haig Heartwood Retreat Center : location for Cheri's Georgia Mountain Retreats Ethereal Network of Shows Spotlight! Derek Loudermilk Show: Derek LoudermilkWebsite: https://derekloudermilk.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/DerekLoudermilkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DerekLoudermilkShow/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derekloudermilk/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCECrw6uCmVsb1mzIvT1pbQQTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekrloudermilk/ Stay in touch with Cheri and be a part of the Stress Therapy Community! Twitter: @stresstherapy Instagram: @thestresstherapist Facebook Linkedin Website YouTube Join Cheri Flake on her next retreat! Register for a meditation and yoga retreat in the gorgeous Georgia Mountains and walk away with a new, solid daily meditation practice with benefits that last a lifetime! OR Register for sweet, peaceful meditation and yoga beach retreat on Jekyll Island seaside right off the coast of Georgia. Want Cheri Flake to be your therapist? If you live in Georgia go here to schedule a free 15 minute consultation Follow Cheri Flake on GoodReads Buy Cheri's book: Honey Do To Honey DONE! A Simple System For A Productive And Happy Household With Absolutely No More Nagging! A word from your host, Cheri Flake, LCSW: Feeling good after our Stress Therapy session? Awesome. Check out the show notes to connect with me, The Stress Therapist on social media or go to www.iLoveTherapy.com to find out about meditation classes & meditation and yoga retreats.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5624757/advertisement

See what's going to get your health humming! And then a case study in hummus – check out one example of figuring out how to take a potentially processed food from good to better to best!   LET'S TALK THE WALK! ***NEW*** Facebook Group for Our Community! Join here for support, motivation and fun! Wellness While Walking Facebook page Wellness While Walking on Instagram Wellness While Walking on Twitter Wellness While Walking website for show notes and other information wellnesswhilewalking@gmail.com Wellness While Walking on Threads   RESOURCES AND SOURCES (some links may be affiliate links) HUMMING FOR HEALTH Humming as a Stress-Buster, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve for Better Mental Health, uottawa.ca Is Humming the New Walking? oprah.com HUMMUS Easy Hummus Recipe Creamy Tahini Dressing Recipe Grain-Free Tahini Brownie Recipe   HOW TO SHARE WELLNESS WHILE WALKING Tell a friend or family member about Wellness While Walking, maybe while you're walking together or lamenting not feeling 100% Follow up with a quick text with more info, as noted below! (My favorite is pod.link/walking because it works with all the apps!) Screenshot a favorite episode playing on your phone and share to social media or to a friend via text or email! Wellness While Walking on Apple – click the up arrow to share with a friend via text or email, or share to social media Wellness While Walking on Spotify -- click the up arrow to share with a friend via text or email, or share to social media Use this universal link for any podcast app: pod.link/walking – give it to friends or share on social media Tell your pal about the Wellness While Walking website Thanks for listening and now for sharing! : )       DISCLAIMER   Neither I nor many of my podcast guests are doctors or healthcare professionals of any kind, and nothing on this podcast or associated content should be considered medical advice. The information provided by Wellness While Walking Podcast and associated material, by Whole Life Workshop and by Bermuda Road Wellness LLC is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment, and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including walking.     Thanks for listening to Wellness While Walking, a walking podcast and a "best podcast for walking"!    

"Correct Audio_12-02-23_DLM". Released: 2023.

Are you ready to get ahead of your holiday stressors?! Listen in as I share how to survive the holiday stress and create a perfect plan for your upcoming holiday (or next stressful event!) And YES: you can love the holidays and still acknowledge they can be STRESSFUL

Who's feeling stressed about hosting Thanksgiving this year??

Did you know that stress is actually something we create in our own minds? It's true! And Dr. Bridget Cooper shares specific Stress Busters that can help you become calmer in the face of any challenge. This is a must-listen episode if you'd like to ditch the drama in your life while maintaining your inner peace and personal power. Bridget, or Dr. B as she's called by her clients, is a cage rattler. Over the past 20+ years, she's  helped teams and leaders think and communicate more clearly so they can navigate problems proactively and effectively. She works with clients to overcome the attitudes and behavior patterns that derail their success by offering down-to-earth insights and action plans.  Bridget does this through coaching, corporate consulting, and leading workshops that guide people to live more authentic, peaceful, and powerful lives. Her mission is to change the world, one life at a time. She has also done this in her new book, Unflappable: How Smart People Quit Overthinking, Ditch the Drama, & Thrive at Work, which is packed with practical suggestions you can start implementing right away. You'll discover: Why Unflappable is the perfect title for her bookHow we create stress and what we can do to reduce itThe benefits of creating a “bubble” in conflict situationsWhy it's important to create a Professional Avatar and why Bridget calls it “the holy grail”The power of using the “Meet Them Where They Are” strategyCheck out all the episodesLeave a review on Apple PodcastsConnect with Meredith on LinkedInFollow Meredith on TwitterDownload the free ebook Listen Like a Pro

In this episode of Dental All-Stars, mindfulness expert, Piero Falci shares the stress buster toolkit. Discover the power of mindfulness for a happier, more peaceful life. RESOURCES:Learn more about Piero Falci Dental Practice Growth Webinar  Learn more about All-Star Dental Academy Subscribe to Dental All-Stars Podcast Write a Review on iTunes Visit Dental-All-Stars Podcast Website

Through a studio scene talking about stress, with "John", the elements of stress in his life were identified, along with some simple solutions to remedy them. Following this scene, we find John at home having dinner with his family. Having implemented some of the suggestions, John now has more time for his wife and children, along with more energy and zest for life. I hope you enjoy the light-hearted comedy inserted into this sketch. 00:00 Introduction 01:11 Effects of stress in life 04:25 Physical effects of stress 05:00 Ways to relieve stress 11:02 Effects of managing stress Contact Sarah Web: www.sdessentialhealth.com Resources to help yourself Heal Yourself Book: https://amzn.to/3JRHmFY ​Heal Yourself At Home Course: https://sarahdawkinshealyourself.teachable.com/p/heal-yourself-at-home Heal Yourself Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/healyourselfsarahdawkins

Episode 190 - Unmasking Defensiveness: Building Stronger ConnectionsJoin us for an insightful and transformative episode on the "Nourished Connections Podcast" with Health Coach Heather. In this episode, we delve deep into the fascinating topic of defensiveness and how it impacts our relationships and overall well-being.Defensiveness is a common human response when we feel threatened or criticized, but it often hinders effective communication and personal growth. Health Coach Heather shares valuable insights into the roots of defensiveness, why it happens, and most importantly, how to break the cycle.Through engaging discussion and real-life examples, you'll learn practical strategies for overcoming defensiveness, fostering healthier connections, and building stronger relationships with those around you. Discover the power of empathy, active listening, and self-awareness in transforming the way you navigate conversations.Whether you're looking to enhance your family dynamics, improve your professional relationships, or simply gain a deeper understanding of human behavior, this episode is packed with actionable tips and wisdom to help you unmask defensiveness and create more nourishing connections in your life.Tune in to Episode 190 of the "Nourished Connections Podcast" for a transformative journey toward healthier and more meaningful relationships. Don't miss this opportunity to enrich your communication skills and unlock the potential for personal growth and connection.Be sure to register for my upcoming webinar "Stress Busters" on Sept 26th. CLICK HEREReady to come coach with me as a family? Apply HERE for my coaching programSupport the showLearn how to rate and review this podcast HERE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Check out my website HERE

Listen on Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google | Amazon | Blog The start of a new school year is usually full of excitement and anticipation for our teens. But new schedules, teachers, friends and activities can also be really stressful for them. If your teen seems more anxious, overwhelmed, snarky, angry or annoyed by everything, there is a good chance that they are stressed-out! While you can't do much to alleviate the causes of their stress, there are some things you can do to help. Try these 7 strategies to help your teen manage stress and help them learn healthy ways to cope with stress in the long run. Want more ideas to help your teen manage stress? Join the ENJOY community and get instant access to all the resources inside. Mentioned on the Show: Ready to make parenting teens easier, more effective and more fun? Join the ENJOY Coaching Community now. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook Get the full show notes and blog post here: https://jenbelltate.com/episode57/

How do you know when it's time to take a break and if you really need one?Breaks are part of the rhythm of life -- and they're essential to success.We all need them. That's why football games have halftime and bears hibernate all winter!I will be taking a break from producing weekly episodes of "Inner Peace to Go" until I finish the internship required for my Master's of Public Health degree (almost there- woohooo!)I'll still be hosting my monthly book club, so if you'd like to connect in person on Zoom once a month, please join me there. It's free and super fun. We talk self-help!Thank you so much for supporting this podcast and please keep an ear out for the occasional episodes I'll be dropping during my break. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy (also @YouKnowSandy on Twitter) at innerpeacetogo.com and my NEW website (whoop whoop) sandycohen.net.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

In the hustle culture we live in, it's always about GO GO GO! What's next, whatcha doing, whatcha getting? We look out at the horizon at all the things we want and goals we hope to achieve.There is great value in taking a moment to look back and appreciate how far we've come. Yes, there are things we're working on, dreams we're in the process of making come true. But we couldn't even consider these dreams if it weren't for everything we've done so far.Looking back at how far we've come can give us the grit and faith that our future goals will be realized, too. We've got what it takes.P.S. Come join our book club! Click here to join the free club of big-hearted self-help fans. Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy (also @YouKnowSandy on Twitter) at innerpeacetogo.com and my NEW website (whoop whoop) sandycohen.net.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Because it's Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to share my own mental health and medication journey with you.It can be so scary to confront our own mental health issues (it certainly was for me), and it's often complicated by whatever stigma and hangups we have about medication, therapy and all of that (true for me).So I am sharing my warts-and-all journey through diagnosis and treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder and my experiences with Zoloft and attempts to get off of it.I am not a licensed mental health professional, just a human being sharing her experience. If you need medical help, please connect with a doctor. But if you want to talk to someone else walking on the path to mental wellness, feel free to reach out! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy (also @YouKnowSandy on Twitter) at innerpeacetogo.com and my NEW website (whoop whoop) sandycohen.net.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Sharing gems of wisdom from Mel Robbins' newest book, "The High 5 Habit."The Self-Help Circle book club (join us!) dug into this title this month and we all gleaned some practical tools and eye-opening insights from it, so I wanted to pass our discoveries along!My favorite takeaway, which I've been doing daily, is "high-fiving my heart" and telling myself, "I am safe. I am loved. I am held."If you like reading personal development books and are looking for some loving folks to discuss them with, please join our book club! We meet once a month on Zoom and we'd love to have you.Have a peaceful week! Please keep in touch! I'm on Instagram @YouKnowSandy (also @YouKnowSandy on Twitter) at innerpeacetogo.com and my NEW website (whoop whoop) sandycohen.net.Get your free Stress Busters ebook, packed with actionable tips to bring on the chill!

Eau de Halloween, Jumping Jackpot, Kid Climber, Stress Buster, Swim Shocker, Larry the Cat and a Slam Dunk Dad!