Here is the story about Beth and her family getting off the crazy ride of stress recycling. Beth had a transformational moment after watching the videos on the Stress Shifter Skills Course for Module 1: Facing – The Brain Manual. She was so blown away with how much understanding the Brain Manual helped her transform her stressors in her life. With great relief, she called me. She explained that her husband was working overtime and that her teenage kids have school projects and have to be driven to many sporting events.
Her own parents were also calling her with personal challenges, and her volunteer organization was needing help. She was in chaos mode. She felt she was just spinning faster and faster on a crazy merry-go-round. She was feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. Her statement of joy to me was “The Brain Manual in Module 1 got my off the merry-go-round of my dizzying life.”
She explained that she had no idea when she became more stressed that her brain would slip into old unhealthy patterns which just lead to more stress. She did not realize this was true for her brain and true for everyone else’s including her husband and her kids. She now realized that as she became more wound up, she triggered her family to be more wound up and vice versa. It was on the inside that had she to make the stress shift in her home. Beth knew it had to start with herself. She began to face her own stress reaction that placed her on the dizzying merry-go-round which she was calling her daily life.
This awareness of how her and her family’s brains were reacting to the chaos which they believed to be inevitable brought a huge relief. She realized if she changed her thinking in the situation, even if the situation stayed the same, then she would have a different physical and mental reaction.
She started to breathe more, pause before responding, and become more mindful in the moment. When she felt different, her family began to respond differently. Slowly but surely everyone started to not be on the crazy merry-go-round anyone. Another huge change was if someone did get upset, the others in the family did not fuel the fire. Module 1’s Brain Manual brought calm, centered, creative thinking into their home.