Prescription for Stress

I know you’re probably saying stress is stress. I know I have it because I just know. Okay – but what exactly is stress – it’s important to understand what stress is so that you can address it, change it and eliminate stress. Let’s go by the proper Definition of Stress, which says:

"Stress is the by-product of thoughts.
These thoughts that cause stress fit into 2 categories:

1. Stress causing thoughts are related to an event that has already taken place – better known as the past and
2. Stress causing thoughts are those that relate to a situation or event that may or may not take place – also known as the future."

For example: when you think about an argument with a friend that took place recently – your thoughts are focused on a passed event – you are in the past. If you think about the bills that have to be paid tomorrow or next week – then your thoughts are on the future. You may worry about the stock market – your thoughts are on the future. You may recall a troubling experience – your thoughts are on the past. In all situations your thoughts that cause the anxiety, and stress are thoughts of the past or the future.

If you find you are experiencing stress or anxiety – make note of your thoughts and you’ll find that a majority of them are focused on the past or the future. Stress and anxiety are brought out by focusing mostly on the past or future. With this being the case there is little or no opportunity to have thoughts that focus on the present moment.

So if you’re mind is not in the present moment, if you’re thoughts are not in the present moment – then you are sure to experience stress and anxiety.

Your mind is not where it should be – in the present moment – and you’re subconscious is only getting more confused because it is trying to create opportunities for you in the present moment – but you’re not there – so you can’t see them. Then you get angry or frustrated (experience stress) because things don’t improve – but you’re not there anyway – so even if they did improve you wouldn’t know. In the end you wind up experiencing stress.

Here’s an example:
Say you’re at a park – waiting for a friend who is going to repay you some money. You wait for an hour – then you start worrying about your car – you had parked at a meter and can’t remember if you had put enough in for an hour or 2 hours. Stress gets the better of you so you decide to go back to your car and check. Sure enough – you had enough for 2 hours. If you had just paid more attention earlier by living in the moment you wouldnt have had any stress at all. So you come back – wait another hour and your friend never shows. Now you leave. Hours later you talk to the friend who tells you he was running late – he came by the park an hour late – didn’t see you and assumed you had left. You missed the opportunity because you had stress about something you did an hour earlier. Get the idea. I’m not saying don’t check the meter – I am saying pay attention and live in the moment – then you’ll see new opportunities and eliminate stress. Be here now and the stress will disappear.

Music has always been a very important part of our lives, from childhood to our being an adult. In addition, everyone experiences stress in their lives in one way or antoher. As a part of our experience, music can have both a physiological and psychological affect upon us as human beings. Stress also has these effects on human beings. In addition to the influence that it has on our life, music also has many therapeutic qualities and has been utilized in promoting a variety of healings throughout the ages. As we know further, music can be a very powerful medium for altering our state, of changing how we actually feel (such as reducing stress or anxiety). More specifically music can be very effective in producing a very deep and healing state of relaxation and in the process, reduce stress and even promote sleep. Music can also be used to assist one in improving his or her self-esteem and furthering an individual’s personal growth and development or transformation.

As a therapist I have always used relaxation music in my clinical and counseling work with others to help reduce stress and anxiety or improve self esteem. I have found that when I use relaxation music during both an individual and group counseling session that my clients do more productive work, are able to focus more effectively on themselves and the issues that they are becoming present to because they are more relaxed with less stress, focused and centered and as a result, better able to concentrate. Having less stress and being more relaxed during the counseling process always tends to generate more productive results for the individual being counseled. Relaxation music can be a very effective and powerful aid for assisting a client with stress, anxiety, or self esteem issues to reach resolution with respect to that which he or she is working on with their counselor.`Prescription for Stress` is an audio healthcare product I developed for just this purpose.

The relaxation music that I now utilize during both my individual and group counseling sessions with others is that which is found on the CD, Prescription for Stress. The musical patterns that are on Prescription for Stress were originally developed for my work in counseling and especially in my hypnotic work with clients. In addition to its application for a traditional counseling session, the musical patterns on Prescription for Stress are excellent for assisting in the induction of a hypnotic state in that this music helps the client enter into a very relaxed state of hypnosis more easily. In the past I have used a variety of other musical compositions in my counseling practice but was very dissatisfied with the results that my clients and I achieved with them. As a musician I eventually decided to compose my own music and have found the results of my compositions with the clients that I work with to be excellent. After using the relaxation music that I composed for my work in counseling, I also discovered that the music had another application as well, that is, to assist anyone in achieving a very deep state of relaxation and as a result to effectively and efficiently reduce the stress in their lives.