Stress and anxiety – a cry for help?

The symptoms of stress and anxiety can be debilitating and include:
fear, panic, sleep disruptions, eating too much or too little, excessive sweating particularly at night, bodily tension, nausea, migraine, headaches, panic attacks, fear or dying and a general sense of dread. What is going on here?
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Anxiety and stress – Overwhelm or Existential?

Anxiety and stress are our alarm bells that tell us that something is not working in our lives.  As a psychologist who has worked with hundreds of clients over twenty years, I believe that being out of integrity with our values is always a factor.  This means that we are not listening to our own 'inner voice' that says something is not working for us. This may be a relationship, an unresolved conflict, an unbalanced life or compromise in the work we do or how we spend our time.  Life has become busy for us all it seems and many of us forget that we have  a  choice to change things. 

There are costs of changing things and there are costs of not.  Everyday anxiety can occur in relation to external circumstances or from inner demands and myths we place on ourselves that we can't fulfill.  Often this is existential in nature whereby we begin to question how we are living, the purpose of our lives and if indeed there is any meaning at all.  Instead of being something to ignore, avoid or distract ourselves from, it can be an opportunity to make some changes and take full responsibility for how we choose our lives – and that doesn't mean responsibility according to external 'shoulds, oughts, or musts' of how we live our lives. It means responsibility for choosing everything in our lives and not blaming anything or anyone else for what happens to us.

Stress and Anxiety – how can I change my life?

Stress and anxiety are such a part of our lives and yet many approaches focus on 'alleviating stress symptoms' exclusively without seeking ways to identify the underlying problems.  For many people, once the symptoms are removed, they simply return to their daily demanding schedules and routines, only to find themselves, over time, faced with the same symptoms.  Stress and anxiety are our internal responses telling that something is seriously amiss in our lives.  The rate of change we face, constant background noise, pollution, demanding schedules and the unrelenting interruptions through email, mobile phones and text messages.  Not enough time is given to relaxing and reflecting our our life choices, instead our free time is spent 'ensuring we have a great life' which means more stimulation and demands.  Changing our lives does not require us to give up all the pleasures of modern living; however, a well life is one where we live 'on purpose' and not merely falling upon the next holiday to recharge our batteries.