More Calm, Less Stress: 4 Tips for 2019

The links between psychological stress and physical illness are well proven: When you are under stress your body produces adrenaline, cortisol, and other stress hormones that can impair its ability to fight off disease and lead to cardiovascular and other disease.

"You owe it to yourself to find ways to reduce stress in your life for your own mental, emotional, and physical health," Dr. Nelson says.

Dr. Bradley Nelson has trained thousands of healing practitioners worldwide and is recognized as an authority on how "trapped" emotions ��– unresolved feelings from negative and traumatic life experiences – affect mental, physical, and emotional health. Some tips he recommends for reducing stress in your life include:

1. Recognize the source
"Stress is nothing but an imbalance of energy, partly conscious and partly subconscious. The energy that you spend focusing on negativity and fear is directly proportional to your stress level," Dr. Nelson says. "Possibly even more powerful than these are energetic imbalances such as trapped emotions – the remnants of trauma that have become stuck in the body, leading us to unconsciously choose certain feelings, thoughts, and expectations."

2. Find peace through forgiveness
"If there's someone who has hurt you or wronged you in some way, and you haven't forgiven them, your stress level will inevitably be greater than it should. On the other hand, when we learn to let go and forgive others, we experience greater peace, calm, hope, gratitude, and joy – all of which can improve our physical health as well as our emotional outlook."

3. Make intelligent and balanced decisions
"You are the pilot of your own course in life. When you find yourself automatically being guided toward the emotion of anger, for example, wait a few seconds and ask yourself if it would better serve you to change course. The ability to choose more positive emotions is something all of us have, but it's like a muscle that needs regular exercise in order to serve us best."

4. Release emotional baggage
Learning energy healing techniques can "lower your stress level by quickly getting straight to the underlying causes of negative emotional choices and nagging, negative thoughts," Dr. Nelson says. In live, on-air demonstrations he shares how to identify and release trapped emotions.

"Removing these underlying causes of stress will help your physical body to heal and function optimally, providing you with more energy to fulfill your commitments, meet your deadlines, and create a state of acceptance and forgiveness on a daily basis," Dr. Nelson says.