{"id":1207,"date":"2014-06-07T18:21:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T18:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2014-06-06T18:30:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T18:30:34","slug":"stress-buster-the-stress-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html","title":{"rendered":"Stress buster: The stress within"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maureen<\/a>So often, we talk about stress as something that comes to us from without. Traffic, work, a new diagnosis, disappointment over how a loved one reacts to our illness, or other factors happen outside of us and can stir up a mound of stress that has all sorts of ill effects for us and our lives.<\/p>\n

But, there’s also stress that is generated within us, and it, too can have a negative impact – if we allow it to. How we react to external stresses, how we set our expectations, how we view our lives with illness, and even the “food,” spiritual and physical that we feed ourselves with can bring on stress. Why, it can even be stressful to think we are stressing ourselves! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Self-awareness is a huge key to understanding what stresses we cultivate internally, and how we can ease them or even eradicate them. If we listen to ourselves and truly hear the negative thoughts and language we use, we can begin to stop the flow of stress-inducing words and replace them with more positive ones.<\/p>\n

If we recognize negative things that we do that work against our emotional, physical and spiritual health, we can put the brakes on them, too, and move into a more nurturing and health-filled way of life.<\/p>\n

Worry is a huge stressor in anyone’s life, and as people with serious health conditions, we probably worry more than most. When I catch myself worrying, I try to turn it over to God in prayer immediately. Sometimes, I feel as if we play a game of catch, God and I, where I lift up my worries to Him, and then moments later they’re back in my proverbial baseball glove only to be tossed back up to Him. But after a few \u00a0moments of “catch,” I realize what I’m doing and heave those worries heavenward and don’t take ’em back. It’s very freeing – and de-stressing!<\/p>\n

We cannot do without stress (unfortunately). But the more aware we are, the more we’ll be able to take control of some of the stress that builds up within, and be all the stronger to withstand the stress without.<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So often, we talk about stress as something that comes to us from without. Traffic, work, a new diagnosis, disappointment over how a loved one reacts to our illness, or other factors happen outside of us and can stir up a mound of stress that has all sorts of ill effects for us and our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,4],"tags":[29,44,854,1074,175],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","tag-chronic-illness","tag-chronic-pain","tag-inner-peace","tag-inner-stress","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\nStress buster: The stress within - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stress buster: The stress within - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So often, we talk about stress as something that comes to us from without. Traffic, work, a new diagnosis, disappointment over how a loved one reacts to our illness, or other factors happen outside of us and can stir up a mound of stress that has all sorts of ill effects for us and our…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-07T18:21:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-06T18:30:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stress buster: The stress within - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stress buster: The stress within - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"So often, we talk about stress as something that comes to us from without. Traffic, work, a new diagnosis, disappointment over how a loved one reacts to our illness, or other factors happen outside of us and can stir up a mound of stress that has all sorts of ill effects for us and our…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2014-06-07T18:21:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-06-06T18:30:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html","name":"Stress buster: The stress within - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-07T18:21:06+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-06T18:30:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/stress-buster-the-stress-within.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stress buster: The stress within"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}