How To Reduce Stress, Anxiety & Pain In Your Life
So I was going to talk about a different topic today, but at the last second I switched.
You see, I got to go on a family vacation for a couple of weeks, about a month ago, and then I report turned back to my normal workday as a physical therapist for a few weeks and, and then I got to go away on an amazing hiking trip in the mountains with my son.
Now, this time away always helps me to reset, recharge, and reframe my thoughts about what’s important.
Now, after this, I was sitting down and thinking about what I was going to talk about this week.
And whenever I get time to reflect and think, I always come back to…
How do we live a more focused life?
How do we enhance a focused mind or ask another way?
How do we reduce pain and stress, anxiety and tension in our lives?
So how DO you live a more focused life that reduces stress, anxiety, tension, and pain?
So for me, the realization came after a life-threatening car accident with severe injuries and multiple surgeries.
Now, I was in this accident over two decades ago, and I suffered with chronic pain for years.
The last thing I remember was the screeching of tires and a blinding light of headlights.
You see, I was a passenger in a car that got T-boned right where I was sitting. The local fire department, that saved my life, had to cut me out of the car, and they helicoptered me to the local trauma university hospital because they had bad head wounds and they weren’t sure if I was gonna make it.
Now, as it turned out, I had woken up three days later in the hospital. I had shattered my right leg in eight places and fractured my back.
The doctors did a surgery where they put rods and pins and screws and plates in my right leg. And another doctor, put my wounds back together on my head. I have a 14 inch scar on my hip and another one on my lower leg. I was in the hospital for a week. I didn’t walk for about five and a half months, and I was out of work for a year. I also had a second surgery about 10 months later.
Now, the doctors did an amazing job and they saved my life. But what ended up happening was that after all the healing was “done”, I ended up having chronic pain for years.
Now, I could go much further down this road and explain all the gory details, but the short version is, is that I finally got to a point where I said, enough was enough.
I said, “There’s gotta be a way that I can break this negative cycle in that I’m in.” So then what happened was, I researched everything I could. I went into what I call the search phase. I researched pain management, the psychology of pain, psychology, personal development, and everything I could get my hands on.
And “the aha moment”, finally came to me over time when I realized it was your mindset or my mindset that was most important.
And what I focused on was the key, because when you are not properly focused, your mind will wander away from the present and you will ruminate on past events, past traumatic events like I did with my accident, or you’ll worry about a future that hasn’t happened yet…
and down the rabbit hole we go!
And it’s not that you can’t focus, it’s that you’re focusing on the wrong things. And when you focus on the wrong things, it pulls your mind away from the present.
And when you’re not in the present moment, you can’t make progress.
Your mind keeps getting pulled away and replaying past events and worrying about a possible event that may not even happen in the future. But the more you do this, the more you cease to be in the present moment.
But when you start to become aware of this, you start to realize that the only moment you’re ever in is the moment you’re in.
When you’re in that moment, it is always the present, and it is always now. And being in the now is how you continue to make progress.
So being in the present moment is how you reduce stress, anxiety, and pain, both physical and psychological.
So how do you stay more focused and in the present moment?
As I said before, it’s all about your Mindset.
Now, if you’re not ready to hear this, you may say, “Mark, you don’t understand. This happened to me and that happening, and that’s why I have all my problems!”
And if that’s what you say, then you’re probably not ready to make this step.
But if you’re ready to move forward despite what’s happened to you, despite what’s happening to you now, or what could happen to you in the future, then you are ready to make this step, or you’re ready to hear this and you’re ready to make real progress in your life.
Now, when I enhanced my mindset and I changed my focus, it was a game changer. It made all a difference in the world in my life. I don’t have chronic pain anymore. Now, do I have physical challenges? Because what happened to me? Absolutely I do. Do I get pain? Yes, I do. And if anybody tells you that you’ll be pain free or that you’ll never have pain, they’re probably not telling the full truth.
But I work hard to move past my challenges despite what happened to me or what could happen to me in the future. I just got back from a two day 18 mile grueling backpacking trip in the mountains. Now, I couldn’t have done that trip two decades ago, but I’m doing it now at the age of 55.
So now what I want to do is give you some simple tips from my…
Focus Mind Formula.
Now, as I said a couple of minutes ago, it’s all about your mindset. It’s about breaking that negative mindset loop you’re in and developing what I call a Positive, ProActive Mindset.
It’s about Finding Clarity in your life, deciding what you want, deciding specifically what you want to create in your life.
It’s about having a Positive Outlook about your life and all, all the things that go on in your life.
It’s about making the choice to move forward and making a commitment to your goals.
It’s about Being Present in the moment.
It’s about being solution oriented and finding solutions to your challenges rather than focusing on all of the problems in your life.
Now, I could do a full day workshop on any of the tips I just talked about, but I want you to realize that you have the power to change.
I want you to realize that you ARE in control and the world is not conspiring against you or happening TO you, although it may seem that way when you’re having days where you have stress, anxiety, tension, or pain.
I want you to realize that the world is happening FOR you because that’s what happens when you create your world by focusing on the things that you want, not focusing on your problems and what’s happening to you.
Well, I hope this information helped you out.
Be Positive, Be Motivated, Be Focused and Be Well,
Have a great day.
Mark
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