It’s early Sunday morning today in the Philippines but my body clock is still on Saturday mode, around 6PM US Eastern Time. Since it’s the weekend and I’m at the farm, I want to write a little something about stress and how to beat it. I’m not stressed though. I haven’t been in a while. And I’m always a lot happier when I’m here at the farm.

However, I know that many of us live most of our days in a stressed state despite the fact that we know it’s not good for us. Stress can literally kill you overtime because it can cause sickness, the worst of which is cancer (I’ve personally known 3 people in my life who had cancer and from what I observed, it may be mostly because their family and situations stressed them out so much), and if not cancer, then so many other illnesses are brought about by stress that are slowly building in our body. Cortisol is good in small amounts. We do need it to survive. But if you are constantly producing cortisol in your body because you’re in a constant state of stress, that’s when it becomes bad.

So why not find ways to beat it, right? And I mean, beat it right at its core and not just put some band-aid solutions for it. This way, we get to live longer and better.

There are numerous kinds of stress — emotional, mental, social, spiritual, acute, chronic, etc. Just thinking about these things can be stressful enough so let me focus my post on the spiritual kind of stress, one that I can most relate to right now and one that I’d like to share some thoughts about because in a way, it does encompass all those other kinds of stress too. 

Spiritual health pertains to a person’s purposefulness in life. Without it, then you have spiritual stress. Those who go through life aimlessly, most often than not, tend to experience chronic stress, mental breakdown, and emotional fatigue. Have you experienced this? I know I have and it’s not a pretty state to be in. Take for instance a person whose core value revolves around his family yet he spends so much time at work that he rarely gets to see his family. Sooner or later, stress will catch up on him making him feel burnt out, exhausted, irritable and much worse, sickly and depressed.

As for me, my core values revolve around my being able to do what I want which are:

• • be able to spend time with my family (we’re always together I’m so thankful!),
  • travel with my family and take as many photos as I can to document our life
  • pursue a job that I want no matter what (which is what I’m doing now),
  • be able to blog (so happy about it!),
  • be able to write about helpful stuff (like this one, hurray!),
  • pursue my other hobbies (which I plan to share here with you too, some of which I already did like soap making, planting vegetables, reading books)
  • and be able to do and share my other little hobbies like acting (I’m collating some of my videos from TV commercials I did in the past and I will share them here with you soon), playing my guitar, keyboards and drums (my drums got stolen by my previous tenants and I have yet to buy a new set. I did buy a new guitar though. The keyboards I left in Manila).

It’s no wonder that I am happy most of the time, it’s such a blessing. I may be lacking sleep from time to time because I juggle being a mom, a traveler, and entrepreneur, I may be very exhausted more often than not due to the demands of my work but because I’m doing what I love to do, I really don’t mind the little physical inconveniences. I feel healthier than ever and I am always in good spirits.

 

So how do we beat stress?

Tony Robbins has the perfect answer for this…  I learned about this strategy from one of his podcasts: O, P, A — Outcome, Purpose, Action

1. KNOW YOUR OUTCOME

Know what you want in life. What is your life’s goal? Really dig in inside of you and answer the question “What do you want?”

As for me, I want to be a mother, a traveler and an entrepreneur. (So happy!)

2. KNOW YOUR PURPOSE

This is the “Why” behind your goal. Why do you want what you want? What is your purpose? Because if you don’t know why you want it, you will soon burn out doing what you’re doing. Your purpose will get you going when the going gets tough. So know your purpose.

As for me, I aim to inspire, influence and impact others through my way of life, even if it’s just my immediate family or my immediate circle of influence. If I get to inspire more people than that, then that is already a big bonus for me! ❤

3. TAKE ACTION

Like Tony Robbins, I’ve stopped being a “positive thinker”. I mean, positive thinking is good, yes, but I cannot just simply positively think my way into getting what I want. I now see things for what they are. For instance, I cannot keep thinking that my vegetable beds have no weeds when in fact, there are a ton of weeds in them. I need to take action to get the weeds out so that my vegetables can grow healthily and I can have the harvest that I want.

It’s the same way for other areas of our life… we cannot keep thinking good thoughts and not take action. Acting on our goals is what will give us what we want. We want to have the best relationship? Do something about it. Show up in your relationship and follow through with your words. You want to get good grades in school or get that promotion at your job? Study well. Do a better job at work, more than what your boss expects of you. You want to quit your job and travel the world? Then take the steps you need to take to fulfill your goal — save enough money, quit your job and find another means of income if your savings is not enough, then travel the world one place at a time! This is actually what I did, and I’m still doing. The world is our oyster!

So, act on what you want. I’ve learned that from my 3-year-old son as well. He literally will not stop taking action until he gets what he wants from me. It’s true! He will dance, he will shout, he will sing, he will throw tantrums, he will give me beautiful eyes… whatever works! Let’s all be child-like in that respect so we keep taking action until we get what we want!

As for me, like what I said before in my other previous blog posts, I quit my high-paying corporate job in 2007 and became a digital entrepreneur starting 2008 so I can have a laptop lifestyle and do what I want. I now do my best work for my clients, I allot quality time for my family, I give quality time for my blogging, and for sharing my life, all of these while we also travel. These are the actions I took and continue to take to fulfill my goal and my purpose. It’s really not very hard to be stress-free when you use Tony Robbins’ OPA strategy.

 

 

MY TAKEAWAY

When you know what you want and you’re taking action to get it, and you eventually get it, that’s when stress disappears from your life! You have taken 100% responsibility for your life and it feels awesome, right?! Keep at it!

So folks, take a little time to think about what you’re doing in your life now. Is your lifestyle a reflection of your core values, your desires, your needs, and wants? If yes, then great! If not, do you find yourself more stressed than usual (either mentally, emotionally or socially)? Do you feel like you’re getting farther and farther away from the direction you’d like to go to? Then stop, reorganize, prioritize and start living your life. Being spiritual doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be religious. It’s much deeper than that. It is being able to discern the voice of “God” (something greater than all of us that we can never fully comprehend), know your purpose and be able to act on that purpose. Make sure the choices you make are consistent with your inner values. By aligning everything in your life, you are aligning yourself with the universe. When you are aligned with the universe, we all know what happens next…. your life will then be a series of one miracle after another. You will experience joy and blessings like you never did before. Try it! It is never too late.

 

If you need help in deciding what you want, this other blog post of mine could guide you:

HOW TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT

HOW TO FOCUS ON YOU SO YOU BECOME MORE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL

 

TODAY’s HOT TIP!


“Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a “must” and “want.” – Jim Rohn

 

See you tomorrow!