Taking Another Look - Blushing, Pain and Stress

Sometimes an effective way of dealing with a problem is not by confronting it head-on, but by changing the way we see it and maybe even learning to accept it. This very act of acceptance helps to diminish its importance in our lives.

Blushing for example can sometimes become more of a problem the more a person becomes aware of it. Trying to get rid of it may heighten that awareness and actually make the condition worse.

Because blushing is a physical response which is triggered unconsciously, it can be difficult to bring it under conscious control. Its onset can be hard to predict so self-help strategies to deal with the triggers may not work. A way of tackling it can therefore be to start caring less about it. Alleviating the fear of blushing diminishes the frequency and intensity of the blushing itself.

The same can be true of some kinds of pain. By focusing on the pain and trying to overcome it a person’s consciousness of the pain is simply heightened. What that person really needs to do is to learn to forget about the pain more often.

Rather than directly attempting to diminish the discomfort it can be better to open up awareness of the body as a whole. The pain needs to be recognised as just one of many sensations the body is experiencing at any one time.

Our client case studies also include another simple example of how changing the way a problem is seen can help. A teacher suffering from stress was feeling the pressure of the fact that she passed the gym on her way home from work everyday without stopping to do a workout.

Her solution to this problem was to stop bothering about the gym and drive straight past. In this simple way she relieved herself of yet another self-imposed pressure that was adding to the things which were putting her under stress.