A great holiday to look forward to, late spring and the weather is mild. It's a perfect time to get out into nature or have a BBQ in the backyard. Here in the Northern States we can start planting as the danger of frost is gone. Yet, since our blog is about stress there are some serious issues to talk about.
 
Wars and Veterans
The US has been blessed having peace within her borders for a very long time. But our troops are being sent into wars far away in hostile lands. We celebrate these veterans as our heroes on this holiday. Yet what happens when these heroes return from battle to their peaceful homes?
 
Memories of Stress
When these women and men return, it is often the memories they carry back in their brain which make it difficult to integrate into “normal” life. Many adapt well to civilian life. But others have stressful memories of harsh and unbearable experiences. These memories can be so powerful that they penetrate the mind and affect the ability to function “normally”.
 
Why does that happen?
Because these stressful memories are managed in the subconscious, “emotional” part of our brain. Emotions drive our day-to-day reactions to life. The intense memories of omnipresent danger, sudden violence and death, often in strange inhospitable places put the vet’s brain easily into heavy stress and “survival” mode, often so much so as to result in PTSD.
 
Veterans Need Our Support
Therefore veterans need more support than only our respect and parades. Start with understanding how stress can affect us.
> Stress Symptoms

In Michigan, "Hire MI Vet" helps veterans get jobs through hiring and networking events.
 
What SciStressEFT Can Do
SciStressEFT, scientific stress management, can help veterans reduce and get rid of stress. Here is EFT research that shows the results veterans with PTSD can achieve:
> PTSD improvement in veterans

For Memorial Day, let's take action in support of our heroes. 
 
Your stress coach, who has suffered from PTSD himself.
>  Why Do I Work With STRESS?

Warmly,
Fred George Sauer

What a strange thought!
How can a wonderful day which honors mom be stressy?
​Why would feelings of guilt intrude on such happiness?
 
Because being a mother can bring a lot of stress with it. And being a daughter or a son, we do not always fully appreciate the pressures mom experiences. For one thing, mom usually does most of the jobs around the house. That is true even if she has a full-time job like many of you moms have.
 
Therefore, it is easy to feel guilty for not looking after the children enough, not spending enough time with the family, not having the home perfectly organized and clean.
 
Or mom experiences stress about the children in their teens becoming independent, wanting to be free, and pushing all kinds of limits to the nth degree. Or the children being far away and worrying about their well-being.
 
My own mom, I am certain, resides in Heaven since the year 2000. I can only fully appreciate her skill, courage, perseverance and love since I began my work with stress 5 years later. Mom was born in the middle of World War I. She lived through the 1920s which were much worse in Germany than e.g. the Great Depression in the USA, and then the Nazi era and World War II. She lost her 2nd son, my little brother, at the end of the war. She raised me, then an only child, as a single working mother. She used her wits to get jobs as her family thought the girl didn’t need to go to college.
 
Now I hope your mom had it a bit easier and grew up in peace. Still it is never easy to carry and raise children, even if they bring you lots of joy. If you are a mother you know.
 
So this Mother’s Day make it easy and sweet for mom! If you are mom, make sure to tell your family clearly what you want and what you would appreciate. Make sure there is good communication. And there can be tension and misunderstanding between mothers and the kids. That is more common than we think and often quite natural. Therefore, exercise kindness and forgiveness for this special day and all the time to come. Your life and mom’s will be easier and happier for it.
 
Plan this important day well and it can be a joyful stress free experience for mom and family. And practice gratitude which is a wonderful experience for those who give it and those receiving it.
 
Wishing you and yours a wonderful and stress free Mother’s Day.
 
Your, being so very grateful for his mother, stress analyst,

Fred George Sauer