I was so excited to read an article at the gym last week from Shape magazine called How to Melt Iceberg Stress. I had never heard the term “iceberg stress” before but was more than aware of its existence!
The sub-heading of the article reads, “Some tension is so buried, you don’t even know it’s there. But that kind of stress and anxiety is hurting your health and stealing your happiness.” You can read their article here.
They’re not exaggerating. Like an iceberg, this kind of stress is huge but below the surface and hidden. This type of stress–not the daily or weekly irritations–is what really drags us down–and can even cause serious health problems later in life.
Like background noise, long-term stress, whatever it may be about, eventually goes unnoticed-and therefore unaddressed. Yet this stress has a powerful effect on our physical health as well as our ability to experience peace, happiness, and even simple relaxation.
Iceberg stress is present for so long, and we are so used to it, that the way we feel with it is our baseline for contentment. We say and think we feel good only when there is no other stress on top of this baseline.
An example of iceberg stress can be long-held anger. Just because you haven’t thought of the person you feel anger toward in 6 months does not mean you do not still harbor anger toward them. You might believe you feel fine when you are actually a bit agitated or unsettled on a constant basis. You don’t know that letting go of and healing from this anger would allow you a new level of peace and happiness on a day-to-day basis.
This subconscious but still present anger manifests in a very real way in your energy system. It is, quite literally, negative energy which sits in your energy field–in your aura, and in the related chakras. In this example, old anger manifests as congested energy in the back solar plexus chakra (among other areas). The chakra will be clogged with dirty, clumpy, grayish energy. And this energetic blockage has many negative side effects!
We will feel dragged down–without knowing it. It will take more for us to feel happy than it would if that old anger wasn’t there. We might feel agitated most of the time in general, and also get angry more easily than otherwise. This kind of person will naturally blame their daily angers on the small annoyances of life, but is unaware of the important factor of the long-standing anger already present. This long-standing anger makes it easy to explode over very little.
Since these blockages hinder the flow of prana, or energy, throughout the system, they eventually hurt our physical health as well. This is because each chakra is in charge of pumping energy to certain organs as well as throughout the entire body.
Let’s take another example: say someone is a perfectionist. Naturally, they don’t consider this habitual way of thinking about themselves to be stressful or a cause of stress. This person’s view is that they simply have a certain standard for their work or whatever they do. However, perfectionism may easily impact a person by them being subconsciously and constantly hard on themselves: negative thoughts and emotions are created and directed to themselves.
The person is unknowingly blocking much potential inner peace, relaxation, happiness, and possibly self-love. Negative self-talk and negative emotions directed at oneself will manifest as congestion in multiple energy centers.
Anxiety is a common side-effect of perfectionism, and this specific kind of energy becomes a block in the throat chakra. Over time, it can cause the throat chakra to malfunction, as well as block the flow of energy to the organs connected to it. This congestion can potentially lead to health conditions related to the throat over time.
Stress and tension of any kind inhibits the flow of prana throughout the system.
Ironically and unfortunately, the biggest stress we have is very often the most hidden and subconscious. And the biggest stress we have is going to be the most likely to cause health problems!
Daily things like getting stuck in traffic, a tiff with a co-worker, an approaching deadline at work, we naturally let go of within 15 minutes of getting home–at most, a couple of weeks. The negative energy of stress and frustration are released. What we don’t release within 15 min is the fear of losing one’s job over years of bad economic conditions, the guilt of lying to someone we care about, constant hatred or negativity directed toward others or the world, betrayal, old trauma, and much more.
How can you identify iceberg stress?
One thing to notice about yourself is if you have a hard time being happy even when things are going fine. If you easily get into a bad mood or just aren’t cheerful even when nothing really happened to cause it–or something really trivial caused it–you most likely have some more deep-seated stress of some kind. If most of your words are negative, then most of your thoughts are–and your emotions will be too. Your words can be an indicator of iceberg stress.
Some of the stresses stuck in our energy systems are things we genuinely don’t even care about anymore! But the congested energy gets stuck in our channels and we feel it anyway! It causes us irritability, depression, a bad mood, emotional fatigue, and just takes the fun out of life.
Take time to analyze your habitual thought patterns. Question every single thought you have for several days. Is it yours or someone else’s? Is it something so old you don’t even agree with it or care about it anymore? Is it a bad habit you picked up? Is it a repetitive negative mental or emotional loop you need to drop? Do you have an old grudge? You lose out on happiness and inner peace every day you hold onto this old stuff.
If you are still not sure what your thoughts are like, do 15 minutes of writing every morning or evening. Just write every thought that you think down on the paper. It may surprise you to take this look inside your head. Don’t over-think it, but just blurt it all out with the pen. This is always a good way to blow off steam as well.
Stop negative thoughts in their tracks! Think positive thoughts contrary to them. The negative thoughts and negative energy will eventually dry up and evaporate from your system.
Much faster and easier though…. You guessed it!! Pranic Healing can wipe your slate clean in a jiffy. What would take you a couple of months can probably be done in a session or two. Imagine what an 8-session package will do to your thoughts, your mood, and your energy level!
You clean your body in the shower every day. Don’t you think you should clean your mind and emotions even once in a while so you can start fresh??
Sessions with me are available (see Services page), but even better, why not learn to do it yourself?
Pranic Healing Level I is scheduled for February 26-27 in Bellevue! Taught by Gayle Nelson.
Ultimately, you will want to take Pranic Psychotherapy (for which Level I is a prerequisite). But Level I will teach you some techniques you can use for stress as well.
Come to a Free Introduction to Pranic Healing! Find out what Pranic Healing is all about and learn a technique or two before committing to the full weekend class! The Intro is just two hours. I have three scheduled at the moment, and you can check this page regularly for updates and additional free introductions as they are scheduled.
Body Spirit Health 