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Dealing With Emotional Stress

Does it often feel like dealing with emotional stress is the most challenging?

Most of my clients would say yes to that question. Dealing with emotions can be challenging for any of us from time to time.

There are many life situations that create emotional stress:
  • Financial stress
  • Workplace stress
  • Relationship stress
  • Family stress
  • Employment stress
  • Health stress
  • Depression
  • Grief and loss

What to understand about emotions

There is a physiology to stress .

And, contrary to what most people think, emotions do not just occur out of the blue.

Do you know what creates an emotion?

A thought process…either conscious or subconscious.

Stress and worried woman


“Think about that.”
  • When you are sad…it is because you are reacting to a thought that makes you sad.

  • When you are happy…you are reacting to a thought that made you happy.

  • When you are angry…you are reacting to a thought that makes you angry.

Truly. Emotions are a reaction to a thought process, or belief.

So, how does that make dealing with stress any easier?

When you are struggling with emotional stress, here are some thoughts to comfort you:

Emotions are fluid because thoughts are always changing. Even in some of the most painful of life’s situations, you can find comfort in knowing that it won’t always be that hard.

Writing this makes me think of my mother. She had a major stroke, and in an instant the stressors in her life flew off the charts. In spite of all the physical stressors that she faced, the most difficult stressor was her inability to control her emotions. That part of her brain had been affected by the stroke.

But, even on her hardest of days she would say to me, “This, too, shall pass…”

Those are words that I hang onto to this day. Perhaps they will help you as well. My mother somehow understood that even the hard emotions do not last.

Practical strategies for dealing with emotional stress

When you are struggling with your emotions, here are some strategies that will help you ride the tide:
  • Do frequent slow deep breathing from your abdomen. When you breathe deeply from your abdomen the vagus nerve will then activate the relaxation response. In essence, it creates balance for you.

    Balance creates a greater capacity to handle dealing with emotional stress.

  • stress and relaxed woman


  • If you can identify the thought process that is triggering the emotion, then you regain control to work on changing your thoughts. Even small changes will lessen the intensity of the emotion.

    One such thought could be, “This, too, shall pass…”


  • Your emotions always mirror your truth. That is such a gift. Your emotions are there to help you adapt to a stressor.


  • The less you resist the emotion, the quicker it will pass through. As you are able, create a safe place for the emotions to just pass through you.

    Think of the emotions as being a messenger that is just passing through to inform you of something that needs to be adapted to. Once the message has been delivered, then it can move on.


  • And, lastly…healing always has its own sacred timing. Honor the emotions that are present with you along your journey.

    Remember as you are dealing with the emotional stress, emotions are a call to action as you adapt to a stressor. Emotions are there to help you adapt.








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What Other Visitors Have Said

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can u get stress pain  Not rated yet
Can u get stress pain from just being stressed?

Thank you for the question, Linda. The simple answer is, "Yes", you certainly can experience pain ...

how to cope with client emotional stress  Not rated yet
I have one client who I really have trouble not reacting to. Can you give me some tips for how to cope with client emotional stress?

Good question ...






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Stress Tip Of The Day!

Throughout each day, the primary cause of stress is because of threats of uncertainty.

It is thoughts of fear and worry that are triggering the stress response.

Staying focused on maintaining a positive attitude is an important stress technique.



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Testimonials

“Ms. Churchill is the unique health care worker everyone hopes to encounter, but rarely does. She has an extraordinary gift that allows her to do much more than diagnose and treat.”
Abbie K. – Minneapolis




K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole




I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.

She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.

In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer








“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.




N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.

Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole




“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada




M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.

The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.

In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.

She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.

My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.

Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer




“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center




S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.

S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".

S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole




“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.


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