Recently, I had the pleasure of being featured in a blog post on spirituality and stress, 43 Spiritual Ways To Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among a bunch of other great experts. Take a look at my advice below and read the full blog post here!
My favorite way to cope with stress spiritually is through dreamwork. Ever since I was a young girl I had dreams – good and bad.
Early in my life, I suffered from an early childhood trauma and as a result, developed PTSD and experienced terrifying nightmares.
As you can imagine when I was young my dreams scared me.
I didn’t know what they meant, if anything, and felt overwhelmed by the narratives my subconscious would create. Over time I realized that my dreams were a gift.
My dreams were allowing me to shine a light on what I’m feeling (in my waking and sleeping hours) and what direction I need to head next in my life.
An alternative way to manage stress is to tune into your dreams. In the morning when you wake up, do your best to recall the previous night’s dream (bonus points if you write it down) and ask yourself ‘what was the most powerful emotion I experienced in last night’s dream?’.
Usually, this highlighted emotion points to an unresolved past or present experience that could use your attention and work.
Once you identify that past or present experience that needs working through and take action to address them, you are sure to reduce deep anxieties and stress.