The sources of STRESS
See also Grief – Cause and Effect
Almost anything can cause stress levels to increase and to cause anxieties about the future, but the trigger events must be in memory before the mind can produce a negative outcome.
Let me explain. We can only create anxiety if we are comparing a current situation with a past event or knowledge. You cannot get anxious about your job unless there is a past belief system already in existence at deep subconscious level to say that then A, B or C occur then the result will be X, Y, or Z.
If you are aware that you are not performing as well as you should and it worries you then you’re relying on a number of pre-existing beliefs to create that worry. The first is that you should be performing in a certain way. That can only come from a comparison with past knowledge or expectations. The second belief which would cause the worry is that people who do not perform get fired. Again this can only come from past experience or knowledge that this is so. So if you don’t have the original belief system to say something is wrong then you don’t get the anxiety reaction!
Our structured belief systems stem from the information we are given or events that we see or become aware of when we are very young, usually during the first five to seven years. This is the period defined by the sociologist, Maurice Massey, as the “imprinting period”. During this time of our lives we are in a state of waking hypnosis, absorbing everything that comes our way like a sponge – uncritical and all believing. This is especially so with people who we regard as being in authority over us like parents, grand-parents and teachers. Close friends of the family also often fit into this category.
Such learnings can sometimes be traumatic. Traumatic from the point of view of being emotionally disturbing or frightening. Later in life these events and beliefs, with their emotional content may continue to be presented to consciousness to have the negative emotional content dealt with in a way which will diffuse the trauma. Another way that early learnings can later cause problems and stress is when later belief systems, developed whilst in contact with new friends, come into conflict with the earlier imprinted beliefs of parents.
A common occurrence of this type of conflict that appears in therapeutic practice is in sexual self identity. Most of us become aware at a very early age of certain limits to sexual activity and expression. This awareness is often generated from “non specific” input – being aware of how parents act or of their discussions, and sometimes from an awareness that certain subjects are not discussed! The input from very religious families, often lays the basic groundwork for a guilt ridden sexual self identity. This input doesn’t become a problem until later in life when you begin to realise, through greater awareness, that those original beliefs may not be all they are cracked up to be! But by then the original beliefs and values, often at a subconscious level are powerful indeed and the conflict produced can plague you for the rest of your life, affecting your self image and relationships.
The most common source of stress in our lives is our self image created when we are very young and always based on our awareness of what others think and say about us. As a source of anxiety this probably is the most damaging to the outcomes we produce in our lives and often the cause has nothing to do with anything that we have even been involved in!
When we use Age Regression or Time Line Therapy to determine the root cause of emotional or physical trauma it is not uncommon for the original sensitising event to be fiction. A client came to me because he could not make money. He wanted to consciously. He had the resources to do so mentally and the knowledge, and he had a burning desire to create a certain dream that he had. Yet with all this going for him he still found it difficult to make money, and when he did he lost it quickly. The original root cause event produced an awareness of being in his mothers womb, before birth, and hearing two people argue about money. His mind had installed a decision in this memory never to be in the situation of having to argue about money.
So it was his subconscious mind that had made that decision based on a conversation it had over heard and the subconscious mind had proceeded to use all its resources to ensure that he never made money! But the exciting thing about this story is that we were able to show the mind how it had made a mistake. I asked my client to allow himself to float up out of the womb to checkout what was actually happening. He was startled to find that his mother was in a picture theatre watch a film and that the argument was between two people in the film. His entire life had been restricted and had caused untold stress because of his minds reaction to a fictional film plot!
Because of this virtually any belief system which is in conflict with another belief system formed at another time will cause elevated levels of anxiety and consequently produce emotional and physical dis-ease. If this is allowed to continue it will produce physical disease.