Clinical Relevance

Stress

As the end of last week progressed I caught myself paying special attention to Beverley's quote, "Stress is held above the waist." While I am very aware that my back and shoulders are often tight, that choas in my life tends to migranes, and that my right hand looses feeling when I prioritize activities over food.... I've never taken it upon myself to move my stress to a different part of my body. My general attitude is that I must calm down and find a way to expunge it completely. This often takes much longer than I desire and in turn, has an affect on my being until it is accomplished. I spent Friday attempting to "Push my stress down. Make your feet like lead." On Friday we had a session in clinical skills and I was much more focused than I had been in the session two weeks prior. I was able to communicate with the standardized patient effectively, listen well, and organize my thoughts in a linear fashion. My standardized patient responded that I was a calming presence to his hysteria. Reminded me of Shah's active horse. In addition, I left the session feeling I had accomplished something; more positive vibes to balance out the negative ones.

It worked for the day-- by Saturday I forgot about it again. Now if only I can internalize it into my everyday mode of operation. Hope the rest of you are having better luck grounding yourself as it seems like many of us are going through trying times.