I’ve written before about stress, both good and bad and its effects on one’s health. Stress, by definition, is the state of emotional, physical or mental tension or suspense as a reaction to a force (stressor) on the body or mind.
It’s obvious to anyone who knows me, how in tune I am with knowing what stressors can do to both the body and mind. This is because the mind and body while performing separate functions need each other in order to adequately function. A problem with one affects the other and a cycle of negative effects begins.
Emotional stress is sneaky. It can quietly damage your body and mind in severe ways oftentimes, without you even knowing it.
Picture yourself walking down the road and a car careens out of control and speeds towards your direction. In an instant, hormones like adrenaline and cortisal are released in order to give your muscles a sudden burst of energy to get out of the way of the car and save your life.
More than that, though, blood is diverted away from other parts of the body (like the stomach for digestion) to your large muscles, allowing for more strength and speed. Heart rate and breathing increase dramatically in order to accommodate the sudden need for “fight or flight.”
The body does this by design and most of the time we are grateful for its lifesaving skills. Other times though the stressor could be an angry co-worker yelling at you. For some, it’s the driver that cuts you off in traffic.
Even though the stressor is emotional and your mind tells you your life isn’t in danger, the physical manifestations are the same as those mentioned when dealing with an out of control car coming your way.
Even this would be an acceptable body response to a given emotional stressor at any one time. The problem is when these stressors or the mind’s perceived stressors are chronic.
Over time, the “fight or flight” response which leads to neither fighting nor fleeing builds up in our minds and bodies. Physically, side effects include: headache, back pain, TMJ (temporomandibular joint pain due to bruxing or repeated grinding of the teeth), heart palpitations, stomach pain and/or ulcers muscle, joint and even bone degeneration.
In conjunction with the above physical symptoms, chronic stress can lead to emotional and psychological problems as well. Anxiety, anger and depression can be the result.
And here begins the cycle. If you are feeling the above emotions (oftentimes in conjunction, we just say we’re “on edge” and it’s understood), you aren’t likely to exercise to remove the muscle tension and so it just builds up creating larger problems.
Additionally, feeling depressed angry or anxious leads to sleep and eating disorders which can lead to obesity, snoring, sleep apnea, self medicating through alcohol or drugs…you get the picture. Long term, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other life threatening diseases are the result.
Obviously, to remove the stressor is the key to not enduring a particular stressful event, however, reality often gets in the way. Continued stress over a major project at work, unpaid bills or other chronic events is most of the time just a part of life.
What’s important is to deal with the negative emotions as they arise. If you can’t, then it’s time to consider talking to a professional. If you aren’t sure what is making you stressed, I also recommend some sort of breathing and exercise program designed to relax both the mind and body.
My programs have proven to thousands of my clients that they can help relieve stress and increase health. If emotional stress is the culprit, any of my programs can help you (especially the Natural Blood Pressure Program). They can be located on the right hand side of my natural health blog page.
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