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The Power of Stress

Name a six letter word that seems to encompass every pain, fear, and challenge of life. No, it's not George, but that would be a good guess. Let's try s-t-r-e-s-s.

From the common cold to cancer, stress appears to be that proverbial causal straw that breaks the camel's back! However, not everyone experiences stress the same way. Some people actually thrive during stressful circumstances while others in the same scenario barely survive.

The body's self-regulating system can be termed homeostasis, and every moment every cell strives towards equilibrium (or homeostasis) while maintaining disequilibrium. This movement enables the body to maintain balance, no matter the environment. When everything remains the same - equilibrium between the inside and the outside of a cell - there is no potential for movement. Because movement is the essence of life, tension is a necessary ingredient for cells, people, nature, to exist. Life is in a constant flux, and living in the Now, the balance point is always changing. Without a certain level of stress, we would lose our ability to adapt and survive. Bottom line, if there is no tension or movement, the result is death.

For most people, the greatest fear, even beyond death, is the fear of change. But because change is a necessary constant for life, people who fear of change often find themselves feeling extremely stressed out!

Stress can be due to negative thoughts, eating dead foods (sugar or processed food), relationships, finances, dehydration, pollution, injuries, geopathic stress (water lines), cosmic stress (Mercury in retrograde), lack of good quality sleep, electromagnetic stress - the list goes on. Although not all stress is negative, and one stressful experience usually does not have the ability to create a catastrophic result, multiple stressful experiences can break down any system.

However, just as the roots and bark of a tree grow deeper and thicker with every storm the tree endures, with the right set of tools, every cell in the body has the potential to become stronger when it experiences stress. The ability to change in response to each and every experience (stressor) we encounter is at the very heart of the process of growth, adaptation, and flow. This can be observed from the cellular level to the macrocosmic level of species survival.

The body's transition from stress to degeneration occurs on an emotional, structural, biochemical and spiritual (electromagnetic field of the body) level when you do not have, or do not understand, the tools or strategies necessary for moving through life's experiences. In an attempt to restore balance, the blood pH becomes acidic. But even a minor fluctuation in the pH of the blood sets off a chain reaction: The body immediately responds to buffer this acidic reaction by pulling calcium from its greatest reservoir - the bones. While this is a wonderful homeostatic response, if the stress is not alleviated the bones eventually weaken. This acidic response leads to inflammation. Inflammation, either localized or systemic (throughout the entire body), will result in degeneration. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis are well-known imbalances in the body that are a part of this cycle of stress to degeneration. (For a more in-depth understanding of this process, read The Anti-Inflammation Zone by Dr. Barry Sears, or The Sugar Control Bible and Cookbook by Dr. Jacqueline Paltis.)

However, because the body is an amazing self-healing organism, the degenerative affects of stress can be reversed! You can transform the stresses of your life into empowering experiences for evolving and thriving. There are two simple steps to reversing the disabling affects of stress: 1) Learn to recognize the difference between stressors you can control and ones over which you have no power. How many times have you found yourself holding on to negative emotions about an experience that you literally can't do anything about? This creates further stress that adds to the process of degeneration. Remember: You always have a choice.

2) Adopt healthy lifestyle habits, such as The Five Basics for Optimal Health: quantity, quality, and frequency of water, food, rest, exercise, and owning your power. Follow The Five Basics and you will find that you are able to flow through life as life flows through you.

Remember, we are all part of an infinite universe that is infinitely one. Recognizing this fact will help you to begin your journey back to optimal health and happiness!


Darren Weissman is a doctor of chiropractic and alternative medicine. The creator of the LifeLine Technique and author of The Power of Infinite Love & Gratitude. For information infiniteloveandgratitude.com

  

Zelda Leah Gatuskin, 1977 collage, "Fate" - 15"x 12" cinderzelda.com

SynchroDestiny

by Dr. Deepak Chopra

We have all experienced coincidences that seemed extraordinary. Perhaps you were out on your bike and collided with another rider in front of a small café you'd never noticed before. Later in the week, you decide to eat lunch there and end up meeting your future wife at the next table. Or maybe you pick up the Sunday classified ads for no apparent reason and notice a job opening that interests you. A couple of weeks later you find out that your corporation is laying off everyone in your division. You suddenly remember the ad you saw and decide to apply. You go for the interview and the new company offers you an even better position that they hadn't advertised yet.

Whenever such coincidences happen to us, we can dismiss them as random or choose to recognize their amazing potential. We can pay attention and try to hear their messages more clearly. Life's coincidences aren't meaningless occurrences in a chaotic universe: They are clues to discovering our path to fulfillment.

Each of us is connected to the field of infinite intelligence that endlessly creates all of the physical forms in the world. When we awaken to the true nature of creation, we become aware of the eternal patterns and rhythms that govern life. We also realize that the universe is constantly sending us messages in the form of serendipitous events. In fact, we're completely immersed in a web of coincidences that guide us to fulfill our dharma or purpose in life.

At this very instant, your destiny has led you to read these words. The fact that you turned on the computer, opened your email, and are reading this article is a coincidence offering potentially life-transforming opportunities. What circumstances led to this moment? Why are you perusing this article instead of one of countless others out there? What are you beginning to dream about creating in your life?

Awakening to the Field of Pure Potentiality

Realizing that you're connected to a network of coincidences is only the first stage in learning to access the field of pure potentiality. In the second stage, you begin to recognize coincidences while they're happening rather than just in hindsight. From this state of higher consciousness, you're better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

The more you notice and appreciate coincidences, the more likely they are to appear. And as your awareness expands, you start to understand the way life works . . . how the quantum domain orchestrates the flow of energy, information, and intelligence to manifest your intentions. You'll also discover that you can consciously participate in the creation of your life and achieve the spontaneous fulfillment of all your dreams. This is the miracle of SynchroDestiny. However, it's a miracle we all can experience by focusing both our attention and intention.

To nurture coincidence and become aware of valuable opportunities, you can begin by using a few simple techniques:

• When a coincidence happens, don't ignore it. Instead, ask yourself, "What is the message here? What is the significance of this event?" Don't strain for answers: Just ask the question and the answers will come easily. They may arrive as a sudden insight, a chance encounter, a relationship, or in another way. Whatever form the response takes, you'll immediately know that you're receiving an important clue.

• Focus on one of your five senses - sight, taste, hearing, touch, smell - for a minute or two each day. Notice as many different aspects of this sense as you can. When a powerful or unusual stimuli draws your attention, focus on it, for this is what you need to look at most closely. As you become more sensitive to your environment, you'll become more of the messages coming your way.

• Keep a journal of your coincidences. Writing down the coincidences you experience, whether tiny or huge, encourages more of them to unfold. More coincidences provide more clues to guide your actions and more possibilities for fulfillment.

If you'd like to access an even higher level of coincidences, I recommend using the process of recapitulation, which I discuss in the book Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire and teach at the Chopra Center's SynchroDestiny workshop. Every night before you go to sleep, sit up for a few minutes and imagine everything that happened to you that day unfolding on the screen of your consciousness. See yourself waking up, eating breakfast, getting ready to drive to work or care for your children, going about your various activities, coming home, eating dinner - and everything else you do right up until bedtime. Watch each event take place as though you were viewing a movie.

As you recapitulate your day, there's no need to analyze, judge, or evaluate; simply watch yourself objectively. Sometimes you'll observe yourself doing something you're especially proud of, while at other times you'll see something that embarrasses you. Just keep in mind that the goal isn't to judge but to get little insights into the main character in your movie: yourself. Your review can be as short as five minutes or as long as half an hour.

When you finish the recapitulation, say to yourself, "Everything I just witnessed is now complete and safely stored away. I can bring these images to mind when I desire, but as soon as I let them go, they disappear." The next step is to tell yourself as you go to sleep, "I've recapitulated the day and now I'm instructing my soul (or subconscious or spirit) to witness my dreams."

You might not notice any changes at first, but if you do this practice every night, you'll have a clear sense of being the observer watching the scenery of your dreams. When you wake up, you'll start to recapitulate the night in the same way that you recapitulated the day before you fell asleep. Once you can remember your dreams, write about them in your journal and make a special note of coincidences. You'll gradually begin to see correlations or recurring images and patterns that appear in both your dreams and your daily life. These coincidences are messages from the universe and invitations to more creativity, success, and fulfillment. As you master SynchroDestiny, the amazing potential in every moment will reveal itself to you.

Deepak Chopra, MD, is the author of more than 50 books in 25 languages and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing located in Carlsbad, California. For more information about SynchroDestiny workshops please visit www.chopra.com or call 760-494.1639.

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