How do we get stuck in emotions or stress?

Imagine that any stressor in your life is a rock. Some are pebbles, some are good skipping stones, some may be boulders, others may be no larger than a grain of sand. What may be a boulder sized rock for one person, may shrink to a grain of sand for another. It’s all how the individual perceives the stressor.

I drop my pencil, bend over and pick it up. No big deal, for me it’s a grain of sand I choose to leave on the floor. I walk away without a second thought.

Someone already battling a load of rocks may drop their pencil, bend over and pick it up, but believe everyone around them saw them drop the pencil and is judging them. For this person that may be a large river stone that she picks up and adds to her already heavy load.

See, we all have the choice to pick up that stone or leave it where it lay. Sometimes we forget that the choice is ours to make, not the stones.

We may pick up several pebbles a day for many years and carry them with us wherever we go. It gets heavier every day. We get closer to our limit. Suddenly we pick up the last stone and everything around us crumbles. To an outside observer, it probably looks like we “suddenly” fell apart. We may think so too, especially if we forget about all those other, littler stones we’ve been carrying.

This can manifest as anxiety, or insomnia, or stress. We develop many coping mechanisms. Sometimes we drink alcohol, or take drugs, or overeat. Sometimes we may self-harm. We may start having nightmares or anxiety attacks. These are all symptoms of carrying too much.

The point is this, if we continue to pick up all the small rocks in our path, we have an increasingly difficult time dealing with the next rock, or the one after that. Our load gets heavier to carry. When we are already carrying so much extra weight, we can’t deal with anything unexpected. We can’t cope when we encounter the boulders in our lives.

We all have boulders we must overcome. We all have challenges to face. If the burden we bear is already overwhelming us, we can’t lift our heads up high enough to step over the boulder strewn path. We can’t lift our feet under the burden they are already carrying. We will stumble and we will fall.

What are your boulders? The loss of a parent or child? The loss of a beloved pet? Changing jobs? Health challenges? Building a business? Getting married? Going to the grocery store? Leaving your house? The size of the boulder depends on who’s looking at it, and how big their load already is.

I see this in my practice every day. The burden has become too great and we are overcome. People come in stressed, injured, worried. They are being crushed under the weight of their own past and looking for answers. With acupuncture we are able to help them lay down the burden and let go of whatever is no longer serving them. People who came in hopeless, leave refreshed and unburdened; better able to navigate the boulders life will present.

There is good news here:

You can choose to put the rocks down.

You can choose to never pick them up.

Acupuncture, Therapy or Counseling, Craniosacral therapy, Reiki, Yoga, Meditation, Massage, Nutrition, Chiropractic, Bio Feedback, Homeopathic remedies, Kickboxing, Martial Arts; all of these, ANY of these can help you put down your rocks and move on WITHOUT that burden.

You have a choice to make.

Are you ready to put down your rocks?

Ask for help.