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Dedicated to Life's Battle against Daily Stressors
Susan Del Gatto has a degree in social work. Works in the field of Management Consultant and is the author of 'Cobwebs of the Mind' - How to Take Control of Stress. She is also owner/operator/writer/editor for abc-stress.com
What are cobwebs of the mind? Picture a cobweb. There is one center, and in this center is where all thoughts are born. From here there are many paths; these paths are developing thoughts, and these thoughts reach outwards. As these thoughts continue to project in one direction, other thoughts intersect these thoughts.
For a simple example take this one thought, “I’m hungry,” this one thought generates other thoughts such as, do I want to go out to eat? What is it that I am in the mood to eat? Do I want Italian, Mexican, American, or Chinese? If I think I’m in the mood for Italian then, do I want to go to David’s Italian Restaurant down the street or Tony’s a few miles into town? If I go toTony’s, there is a great salad bar but David’s is a larger restaurant and I probably won’t have to wait for a table. There’s that nice Chinese restaurant just a few blocks from here, and so on and so on. Every thought intersects another and branches off to follow a separate path of its own. It is simply taking a thought and attaching a possible outcome. With each decision that we face there can be many different outcomes and because of this there are many intersecting thoughts or paths. These outcomes are determined by the choices we see as being available to us. Of course, ultimately we will only make one final decision after weighing all of our options.
All these intersecting thoughts that stemmed from that one initial thought, which was “I’m hungry,” form a cobweb of thoughts. But wait, I said cobwebs. How many thoughts do we entertain at one time? If I am deciding what and where I want to go for lunch and my supervisor calls and says he needs me to complete a report by 3:00 pm and then my sister calls to say that her car broke down and she needs help and my computer decides to jam up and I can’t get it to print etc., etc. How many cobwebs are multiplying in my head? Everything we act out in our life is a product of a thought, and each thought has many potential conclusions. It’s when there is an overwhelming amount of action taking place in your mind that I refer to these thoughts as cobwebs. All of these thoughts produce many cobwebs, all overlapping other cobwebs.
All of these cobwebs can throw us into a state of confusion and panic as our minds reach an overload capacity. Have you ever been walking in the woods and,before you had time to react, run smack into a cobweb that has been stretched from one tree across the path to another tree? You lift your hand to sweep away the cobweb attack, but this just worsens your problem as other cobwebs attach to your arm and your hand. Now you’re trying to sweep off cobwebs with cobwebs,and the more you try the more you feel cobwebs all over you, and the panic of being swallowed by cobwebs takes over your mind. The frantic reaction subsides, and you feel somewhat embarrassed that you panicked, but it caught you off guard, and of course you didn’t have time to stop and think about how you were going to react.
We tend to become frantic when too many demands are placed on us at one time. Our brains reach overload, our thoughts become cobwebs over cobwebsover cobwebs, with too many thoughts.We are being pulled in too many directions at one time and asked to complete too many tasks. When you don’t have the knowledge and techniques to untangle these cobwebs, you feel overwhelming anxiety. The result is stress.
The book Cobwebs of the Mind and the website abc-stress.com attempt to guide you to safe places that allow you to take the time to react. You will learn that you make the choice as to how you react and that your choice will either increase or reduce the level of your stress.
You will learn how, through organization and prioritizing, you can cut a path through the cobwebs in your mind, setting thoughts on one side and thoughts on another side and, as a consequence, reduce the number of cobwebs while you coordinate these thoughts. You will discover what triggers your stress and you will learn relaxation techniques to help you better manage your stress. Because we are human beings with emotions, we can never eliminate stress, but we can live healthier, happier, and longer lives by controlling stress rather than letting stress control us.
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