How to Permanently Release Stress & Find Rest

Rest

Do you wish you had more rest in your life? Not the temporary kind of rest, meant to discharge a year’s worth of stress just so that we can fill it up again. The kind of rest or release that is permanent and life-changing.

In this season of summer vacations, long weekends, and special excursions, the idea of rest comes to mind. I’ve been thinking about it a lot myself as I look forward to my vacation at my family’s old summer home in Rhode Island (yes!). It turns out that “rest”—the permanent kind—is an important idea in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Stress is natural, and so is release. If we step out on to the curb and are narrowly missed by a car, our fight/flight response kicks in, we have a huge increase in hormones that tighten our muscles, and we step back before we’ve had a chance to register consciously what we are dealing with. Then, we’ll stand there for a while, feeling our heart race, our muscles jumping, sweat in our hands, and a dizzy feeling in our head. Fairly quickly, though, we notice the threat is gone, our heart beat starts to slow again, our head clears, and we say a word of gratitude that we are safe and can continue with our day.

The first half of that equation is generated by what is called our “Sympathetic System,” and the release part comes from our “Parasympathetic System.” We have complex systems in our bodies intended to regulate stress and relaxation for our long-term survival. Usually, these systems work remarkably well for us.

But humans—especially children—face an overwhelming array of life challenges to which our Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Systems haven’t had time to evolve. The many and heart-breaking difficulties posed by modern living are not well-suited to these systems of stress and release. Alarms get triggered…and they don’t get turned off. A trauma or an ongoing pattern of pain is experienced in childhood, the stress response kicks in, and it never gets released, even though the threat itself (like the car) is now long past.

The stress responses are the problematic patterns we experience in adulthood, whether it’s an employment issue, relationship problems, overeating, or chronic anxiety. These are the Sympathetic Systems set into action and never eased by the corresponding Parasympathetic Response. No one ever told that part of us that the survival threat is past, and now it’s stuck on “go.”

Many modalities provide awesome stress relief and relaxation. But NLP has a unique way of finding the precise trauma or childhood pain pattern that is still in stress mode. From there, we can respect the Stress Response of so long ago—intended to keep you safe and well—and then stimulate the Relaxation Response so that the perception of threat can be released…permanently.

I invite you to experience the power of NLP to give you deep and life-changing rest.