Stress – What Does it Do & What Can Help Me To Relax?
So many of us are living stressful lives and many of us do not know how stressed we truly are or what stress actually does to our bodies. Stress is a normal part of life. Many events that happen to us put stress on our body.
We can experience stresses from our environment, our body and through our thoughts. Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response.
The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses.
There are good stresses and bad stresses and we all deal with them differently.
For instance, for me a deadline to get some work done is a stress but it motivates me, for others the word deadline stresses them out and they cannot work under any sort of pressure.
An example of a good stress is going to the gym. We stress our muscles and when our body likes this stress it sends out endorphins (happy hormones).
An example of a bad stress is having too much work on and never seeing an end to it. We can all manage a day or two like this but when it is weeks on end, the stress will start attacking the body and cause dis-ease.
So What Happens With Stress?
There is always a stress trigger – the body responds with tension and prepares to go into fight or flight mode. This produces adrenaline in the body. (Our body is designed to have adrenaline in short spells only…Think cavemen.
They used adrenaline to run after the animal to hunt their foods, or run away from the animal as they were being chased).
After this short time the caveman would go back to the cave for either protection or to cook the animal he hunted and then afterward sleep to rest and repair)
If this adrenaline burst (Negative Stress) persists for long periods, we can burn out our adrenal glands causing fatigue, exhaustion, ill health, breakdown etc.
What most of us do is run, run, run and forget to rest and repair.
What Needs To Happen In Order To Stop This Process From Happening?
We need to firstly recognize our own stress response and be aware of the way we are behaving. (It is very easy to go back to old habits of running).
We need to say NO sometimes. To tell our boss that they are giving us too much work. Tell our family that we need some me time.
Work Out What Makes YOU Relax. What Makes You Slow Down & Feel Happy?
There are many ways to do this and we need to schedule relaxation time into our diaries or many of us just use the “I am too busy” excuse.
Reading, swimming, walking, dancing, exercise, listening to music, deep breathing are all great relaxation tools.
Massage, meditation, crystal healing, hypnotherapy, sound healing, yoga are great therapies that help you relax.
Make a commitment to yourself to start relaxing more and watch your health improve.
