Discover Ways to Unwind Stress

Welcome to LegalBiz Cafe! Digitally remastered with AI, in this podcast series, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold gives to frustrated professionals like YOU the tools and resources you need to make the LEAP to entrepreneurship so you can start, build or fix a business you will absolutely LOVE. 

In this heartfelt episode we dive into the sneaky thief of success—stress. Discover how entrepreneurs can reclaim peace through meditation, exercise, sleep, and sanctuary. With personal stories and practical tips, you'll learn to stop worrying and start living with clarity, calm, and power. 

Transcript

Hello friends and welcome to Legal Biz Cafe. I am your host, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold, and I am happy to be here with you today. I'm not feeling at all stressed out about it. ...Are you feeling stressed out? Well, that's what we're going to talk about here on Legal Biz Cafe today…We're going to figure out ways to unwind all of that.

You know, here on Legal Biz Cafe, we talk about those things. We grab a cup of coffee and just sit and chat. It's just you and me as entrepreneurs, and we deal with the things that make us…as entrepreneurs…and as people…afraid. Things that might knock the wind out of us. We deal with all of those things here, one subject at a time.

I also invite you to follow me on Your Business, Accelerated! That podcast deals with hardcore legal and business issues that you run up against as an entrepreneur, someone who is doing your best to just fight the good fight out here in the marketplace. When you listen to Legal Biz Cafe and Your Business, Accelerated!, you get two sides of the same coin. You get information that's going to make you strong and that’s going to put you on the right path.

So, let's talk about stress today.

You know,…it's insidious. It absolutely robs us of our peace, and frankly, we all know that stress kills….It causes hypertension,…eating disorders,…heart attacks,…strokes,…you know. Stress destroys.

So, where did it come from? …And how could we as entrepreneurs, handle it, release it, and, frankly, avoid it all together?

Those are the things that we're going to chat about in the few minutes that we have together today. We are going to talk about handling that stress, releasing that stress, and, frankly, avoiding it all together.

So, where does it come from?

A lot of people would believe that stress comes from our environment, and I would invite you to look at it a different way. Stress really comes from our minds.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells us that nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. And I believe it was Mark Twain who said, …and I'm paraphrasing, …most of the worst events that ever occurred in my life never actually happened.

We make stories up in our heads, and we attach a value to those stories, and then we take that forward with us. We wind up with diseases and strained relationships. We wind up with all kinds of failures that are unnecessary in our lives.

You know, we cannot see, taste, smell, touch, or even hear stress, but it has a profound effect on most of our lives. Wouldn't you agree? That having been said, I find it really interesting that most of the main causes of our stress are really just sort of created.

I was looking around as I was taking my walk the other morning, when I noticed that the birds and the squirrels and the raccoons, they're not experiencing a recession or any reaction to our elections. The most stress that they seem to be experiencing, at first glance, of course, is how to get out of the street, how to avoid birds if they’re really small, and how to avoid raccoons if they’re a bird or squirrel, etc. They deal with life and death struggles, but not mental anxiety about bills and issues in their larger society.

They seem to be trusting in the Universe to take care of them, and quite frankly, I am going to hitch my story to their wagon. In that respect, I am going to think of myself as an animal, as a creature of this most profound intellectual universe, and I'm going to believe that it's going to take care of me, and that's about trust.

That's an issue that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. That’s one of my personal favorites.

So, stress can cause estranged family relationships. It causes divorce. I talked to a friend of mine today who doesn't live with his two baby girls, and it breaks his heart. It’s very sad. Many of you who know me know my own history of being a foster kid and leaving my own family at the age of 14. And, you know, frankly, I kind of blew the wing off that plane, meaning none of us had a real relationship after that. The entire family basically disintegrated over the next few years.

I had to learn ways to handle stress, and most importantly, I had to learn ways to avoid stress altogether, and I'd like to share some of those ways with you today.

The first thing is, you know, the Bible will tell you that God will never give you anything that you can't handle. And so there is absolutely nothing wrong with throwing your hands up and saying, “You know what? Uncle! I cannot handle this.”

Handle the things that you can handle and the things that you can do nothing about, leave it like bird crumbs. …Set it aside and release it.

Understand that if you can't do anything about it, don't ruminate on it. We often get stuck going over the situation again and again, as though thinking about it would turn it into something that we can do something about. If you cannot do anything about it, release it to the universe. Release it to God.

Also, I encourage you to meditate. We've talked about that quite a bit. I just really believe in going down to the beach and or wherever your special spot is, …mine is at the beach, …and just spending some quiet time.

I believe that people are called to a place. Some are called to the desert, some to the mountain, some to the ocean. I was called to the water's edge. There, I can hear the voice of God speak to me, just to me, very, very clearly. So where is YOUR space?

Where is your place of sanctuary, where you can have that quiet time, or where you can meditate, maybe early in the morning or late at night.

Exercising is also a very, very important part of getting rid of the stress in your life. Exercise on a daily basis, if you can do it, something that's not going to hurt you, so that you'll go back and do it again. That's so important.

We get so enthusiastic. We get in the gym, and we throw the weights around, and then we jump into the aerobics class, and then we, you know, we jump on the bicycle and the next day we can't move. And we say to ourselves, ...Well, I'm done with THAT.

Exercise daily if you can, but take it easy. Try walking. It’s a phenomenal exercise, especially if you walk uphill. I recommend it.

Here's another tip. ...Take back your sleep. That's very, very important. You know, our body heals when we are in deep delta sleep. And if we when we get stressed, our deep sleep is one of the first things that we lose, and when we can't get into those moments of deep sleep, we will struggle, will struggle. We physically get diseases. Our bodies break down. Our immune system will become compromised. So, get your sleep.

Here's another one. …Beyond getting your sleep, get your rest. This is something that I am learning belatedly. I love to work because I love what I what I do, but I am learning to just sometimes in the morning lay in the bed.

I recently heard a great tip from a husband and wife metaphysical team. They suggest that we don't get up in the morning until our left nostril is clear. How about that? 

...I never really noticed that until I heard them say that, and then I noticed in the morning that my left nostril is not clear when I wake up, and so I'm learning to lay there and just rest until that left nostril clears, and then when I throw my legs over the side of the bed. They suggest we put our right foot on the ground first to get your biorhythms moving correctly...

Isn't that fascinating? ...All these little things. You know, we're so busy paying attention to the world outside of us that we don't really pay attention to our own body.

May I suggest to you also that you get organized to get rid of stress. That is extremely important, because if you've got piles of stuff around you, then you can't think clearly. And if you can't think clearly, then you cannot really access your emotions and the source of your emotions. You're not really cataloging things that are going on inside of you clearly.

Clean up your office, your living room and your bedroom …wherever you see the piles of mail and magazines and things like that. Spend a day. Just pick a day and make that your cleanup day and really get rid of the clutter piles.

Have tea with a friend, somebody who you're not going to enter into a moaning pity party with, but somebody who understands you and understands what you're going through, and who will give you comfort. Make one of those people YOU. Be compassionate toward yourself. Most of all, stop worrying! Stop making up stories in your mind that create problems for you.

You really can choose not to worry. Make an affirmative choice to release the stress.

Thank you, folks, for joining me on this week's episode of Legal Biz Cafe. I am your host, Attorney Shaune B Arnold, and as always, I am reminding you to maximize your COMPETENCE to get the CONFIDENCE YOU NEED to succeed.

I will see you next week, right here on Legal Biz Café. …bye, bye now.