Stress Fractures

Photo of Mikayla taken by Sonia Fernandez Leblanc

     I have been listening to a podcast lately of a collection of Ted Talks.  Ted Talks are a series of talks about a different range of topics, and its slogan is "Ideas Worth Spreading".  One such talk was about stress and its effects on our health and well-being.  The woman who gave the talk spoke about a research study that was done on stress.  It followed a number of people who were listed as having high levels of stress.  Without going into all the details of the study, the study showed that stress can have harmful effects on your health.  This in itself is not all that surprising.  What was surprising from the study is that it was only harmful to those people who thought that stress was harmful to their health.  It had relatively no adverse effects on those who did not believe stress was harmful to them.  Let that sink in for a moment.  This is a testimony to the power of our thoughts and attitude.  Our thoughts on what we believe stress to be, fractures us.  We can literally think and believe ourselves into a certain state of mind and health.  I believe God must have created us this way to show that our spirit has a great effect on our being.  I highly recommend watching this Ted Talk if you are interested.  It is done by Kelly McDonigal, and here is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.html.
    People in our circles will often tell Heather and I that: "It must be so stressful having a special needs child.  All the worry, all the heartache, all the extra daily tasks you have to perform with/on your child."  I remember thinking when I heard this, that I never really think of it as extra stress.  It wasn't until I heard the results of that research study when it really hit home with me that Heather and I need to always maintain a healthy and positive frame of mind about things.  Especially when it comes to Mikayla, since she is probably the greatest addition to the source of stress in our lives.  However, we won't let the stress have adverse effects on our lives because we don't view this stress as being harmful.  Whatever stress there is, she has brought more joy, faith, & gratitude to our lives with simply her presence.  I am sure we all have stress in our lives, so the message today is to not let stress fracture you.  Embrace it for what it is, and instead let it fuel you to greater heights than you thought possible.