Stress and how it affects us

We all live with stress everyday, it's hard to handle at times but with the right tools and state of mind you can keep your health and learn to work through any tough times.


Here is an article from our website that I find to be a helpful overview of stress and how it affects our lives.



Stress Can Make You Sick....by Kelley Franzmann at
http://www.detoxologie.com


Many people try to enhance their image by talking about their busy lives. Whenever I ask my friend Bruce, “How’s it going?,” I always get the answer, “Busy, busy, busy…never enough hours in the day.” Needless to say, my friend’s relentless schedule has started to take a toll on his body. A 46-year-old single father, he has a demanding job at a southern California architect studio. At home, he finds it impossible to relax because "things will fall apart if I don’t do something about them NOW."

Lately Bruce has been suffering from stomach aches and migraine headaches. He also has trouble sleeping. "Stress has, unfortunately, become a way of life," he says. "I want to live long but fear my stress is going to create an illness later on." Bruce’s fears are not exaggerated. He is physically upset by the adverse conditions of his overbooked schedule and cannot escape the effects of the pressures he puts upon himself. He is a prime candidate for ulcers, high blood pressure, and heartburn. Stress is also the main culprit of his insomnia. How many times have you been unable to sleep because your mind is forever thinking about the items on your “To Do” list, or about the conflicts you are having with your work supervisor? Besides sleepless nights, chronic stress may also cause problems with Bruce’s metabolism, indigestion, and could decrease his sex drive. He could also develop an addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, or food, as a way of coping from the strain of being “so swamped.” Sound familiar?

The Physiology of Stress

Studies have linked stress to the body’s ability to resist pathogens, leaving people more vulnerable to infections, cancer, and a weakened immune system. Stress depletes the flow of oxygen, which cells need for maintenance and health. The term psychophysiology describes the body’s physiological response to a perceived stressor, meaning the stress response is a mind-body phenomenon. Every human being is born with a survival mechanism called the “flight/fight” response—a reaction to fear and surprise. This could be anything from waking up to a fire in your room, anticipating a deadline at work, to hearing your alarm clock ring in the morning.

Physical responses to such stress can include any of the following symptoms:

• The heart beats rapidly or irregularly. An increase in heart rate pumps blood around the body to get oxygen and sugars to the cells that are used for the body’s survival.

• The body releases stress hormones. Adrenal glands release adrenaline, also called epinephrine. This hormone helps maintain increased heart rates and prompts the liver to release stored sugar as energy to the body. Also, when a person feels angry, the body releases noradrenalin, which for most people, will raise blood pressure and cause panic or anxiety.

• Muscles used to “fight or flight” become very tight. Common everyday expressions are “feeling uptight,” “backache,” and “pain in the neck.” We complain of tension headaches, a tight jaw, neck tension, back pain, insomnia, fatigue, and loss of concentration.

• During the body’s “fight” for survival, blood is directed toward the brain and major muscles groups (legs can suddenly run fast in an attempt to flee danger), away from the skin’s surface in the hands and feet, and away from the digestive and reproductive organs. During stressful periods, many people skip meals (“I’m too busy to eat”) and experience a lower sex drive. This is because during survival it is not a priority for the body to digest food or reproduce. Many working couples with children report a decrease in sexual intimacy during periods of intense hardship and anxiety.

• Survival vigilance ignites heightened senses. The body is more sensitive to noise, such as ringing doorbells and telephones, light, smell, and touch. The thinking part of the brain—the neo-cortex—shuts down, and the survival mechanisms in the mid-to-lower, more primitive parts of your brain, take over. The body reacts to situations rapidly, sometimes neglecting to think problems through clearly. A person becomes irritable, anxious, depressed. He acts disparately and makes poor impulsive decisions. Couples in the midst of a quarrel say mean things to each other that they later regret. The basic emotions of fear, anger, sadness, and even joy (in the form of nervous laughter) take over the complicated, sophisticated higher-thinking, intellectual emotions.

• The body perspires and sweats to cool down its increased metabolism. This stress response is called hyperhidrosis. Excessive sweating causes dehydration. This is why it is vital that you drink more water when you perspire.

• Longer term, unresolved stress can affect the immune system that normally fights infections and promotes healing. Symptoms include frequent colds or flues, infections, cancer or tumor development, increased allergic responses, and auto-immune diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma.

Put a Lid on Stress

• Simplify your life. Many of us are caught in a time crunch. The solution—set priorities. Decide what needs to be done and delete the rest. Quality time with your kids is really important. Whether the cookies for your child's class are really homemade is not such a big deal. Enroll your son in only one team sport per season; he doesn’t need to be a member of a soccer, a basketball, and a hockey team all at once. Streamlining your children's activities will create less stress for all of you.

A lot of people need to learn time management. Rearranging your schedule in a way that will cause less stress can be quite rewarding. Look at your schedule. There will be several items that can be rearranged to make better time. By combining items on your calendar and taking off the nonessentials, you can give yourself a good 30-60 minutes of free time every day. Avoid impulse buying by going to the grocery store once a week with a list, instead of several times per week--when you suddenly realize you do not have the ingredients for that dinner casserole.

• Take time out for yourself. People today are in a constant frenzy. Between work and family there is little time to pamper you. If you do not take care of yourself, your body slacks. By not having good mental health, your body's immune system weakens, headaches are common, and human relationships seem impossible. How can you possibly relate to one another when your stress level is at an all-time high?

• Get connected with friends. Making deep emotional connections with friends and family reduces stress, creates more happiness, and actually keeps everyone healthier. Isolation hurts us and connections heal us through the same physical mechanisms as exercise and a healthy diet. Blood vessels are measurably more elastic in “connected people”—the heart’s ability to respond to extraordinary demands is higher, cardiac inflammatory protein levels are lower, and blood pressure response to exercise is better. Connected people’s stress-hormone blood profiles are also measurably healthier than those of isolated people.

• Eat a good diet. A good diet also helps in stress management. You should prepare foods that are rich in vitamins and flavonoids. Your soul will thrive on foods that help promote sleep: oatmeal, whole-grain cereals, and breads. The optimal diet should also be free of caffeine, chocolate, tea, and alcohol. A vitamin B complex can help the nervous system function, reduce anxiety and immune system damage, and improve brain function. Other nutrients like calcium and magnesium can also promote good sleep. The mineral zinc will help to prevent hair loss and strengthen the roots. It also heals wounds, promotes healthy skin, and boosts immune function.

• Meditate. Taking time out to relax, reflect, and contemplate is perhaps the best possible way to reduce stress. Yoga is one of the most successful forms of mediation and exercise, especially in a short period of time.

• Exercise. Physical activity has the ability to relax both your mind and body. A big advantage of exercise is that it forces you to get out and maintain some balance. If you are working a lot and having a hard time getting other things done, try getting out for a walk every day at lunch time. This will allow you to clear your head and be more focused on your work. It will also allow you to relax, spend some time with nature, and remind you that physical wellness has a huge impact on mental wellness.

• Reward yourself. Too often we get into patterns where we work too much, sleep too little, and run our body into the ground. Take breaks daily, weekly, monthly. Take a weekend getaway to freshen your mind from work. Take a yearly trip to experience something different from the 9-5 grind back home.

• Listen to music. Nature tapes are great to put your mind at ease. The human body needs only 20 minutes of relaxation a day to rejuvenate, and music can fill those 20 minutes with bliss. A lot of people enjoy sipping on herbal tea while listening to relaxing music. With the music on, take a hot bath with some cleansing bath salts or bath beads, light some candles, and read a good book.

Principles to Remember for a Stress-free, Healthy Lifestyle

Balance - A balanced life is very important to maintain limited stress. Balance means setting priorities, delegating, and streamlining. It does not mean trying to do too many things at once. A balanced lifestyle leaves room for work, family, friends, a healthy diet, exercise, and hobbies.

Planning – Failing to plan is a plan to fail. Unplanned situations inevitably cause an element of stress. Unknowns cause us to worry. It is better to take a little time to plan rather than to encounter unexplained situations.

Values - Take a moment to think about the things that are most important to you in your life. When we are living off the wall and not by our values, there is an increase of stress in our days.

Take care of yourself, people count on you on a daily basis. You need to be in optimal physical and mental health in order to perform your best.



Namaste,

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