Whenever I ask people what is causing their stress, they will usually say “this person” or “that experience” is the cause of their stress.  But they are wrong.  Those things are all external or outside of themselves.  They are only events.  It is how we interpret or perceive these events that determine whether something is stressful or not.

Our interpetations or perceptions are based on the filters of our values, our beliefs and our early childhood conditioning: from our parents, peers, education, religious training, media exposure, etc.

For example: Did you know that by the time the average child starts elementary school, they will have seen 8,000 murders on television?  Do you thik that kind of conditioning might affect how they feel about violence?

70 to 80% of our beliefs and attitudes have been formed by the age of seven.  Children think emotionally with their limbic brain.  Then, around the age of seven, there is a huge growth spurt in the frontal cortex of the brain and they start to think logically.  That 70-80% of already created beliefs and attitudes is locked in the limbic or emotional brain and can’t be changed by logical thinking.

So what is the true cause of our stress?  It is our negative belief systems, based on negative conditioning.

As a Stress Relief Coach, I am not as concerned about what is going on in your job or your life right now that is stressful to you.  Those things are just symptoms. 

I am more interested in finding out what happened in your past that created the trigger or negative emotional block that is causing you to react the way you are.  Once it is identified, it is usually very easy to remove the trigger and eliminate the block.  When the emotional block is broken, the symptoms or problems you are experiencing will usually disappear.