Recently, near the beginning of my talk, “Choosing to Thrive Even in High Stress Times”, I asked a hundred professional women, “How many of you are pharmacists?”
Two women raised their hands.
When I asked that same question, “How many of you are pharmacists?”, thirty minutes later, nearly every woman raised her hand. They were claiming the power of their Inner Pharmacies.
You, my friend, are also a pharmacist. A brilliant pharmacist.
No matter what your profession, your educational background, your age or your gender, you have within you an exquisitely sensitive and responsive pharmacy.
Your Inner Pharmacy is always brewing up chemicals and sending them to every part of your body. Sometimes your Inner Pharmacy brews up stress chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline designed to put your system into red alert and to activate the Fight/ Flight or Freeze reaction.
Sometimes your Inner Pharmacy brews up soothing, tranquilizing or feel- good chemicals such as serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.
The concoctions brewed up in your Inner Pharmacy affect your mood, your immune system, your beauty, your rate of aging, your creativity, resilience, productivity, quality of sleep, energy levels, happiness and relationships.
The dial of your inner pharmacy is set to certain chemicals by many triggers. Thoughts. Emotions. Memories, News reports. Words or emotions from other people. Foods.
Within seconds of one of these triggers your inner pharmacy sends a cascade of chemicals through every cell in your body.
It is an amazing gift to have within you this sensitive ability to respond to the world so quickly.
However, If you are like most of us, your extraordinary Inner Pharmacy is usually producing chemicals without your awareness and without your direction. Without awareness you are at the mercy of whatever happens inside.
When you become aware of your Inner Pharmacy you can use its power to create remarkable health, vitality and happiness. You can truly thrive, even in times of high stress.
The first and most important step toward becoming a Master Inner Pharmacist is to begin to notice.
Notice with kind curiosity: What are you brewing up right now?
You can tell what’s brewing by tuning in to how you feel.
Calm, happy, peaceful and optimistic? Your inner pharmacy is brewing up a calming brew.
Agitated, fearful and worried? Stress hormones are brewing.
Notice kindly throughout the day,
What's brewing in your Inner Pharmacy?
What triggered the dial to be set where it is?
Which thoughts and attitudes help you brew up soothing hormones and which help you brew up stress hormones?
How could becoming skillful with your Inner Pharmacy change your life?