Today Stress Isn’t Just About Fight Or Flight - PromolifeNews

The air is alive with the spray from whitecaps crashing against the black lava rocks. Looking out over the ocean you remember the snow back home then think, “Vacations are great!” Approaching the water’s edge your worries flow away with each wave rushing back to its source. Stepping upon the first rock you feel a slick slime beneath your shoe. With the next step your feet slide off the rock sending you crashing toward the beach of lava. With a loud cracking sound your arm hits the slimy rock and wedges deep in a crevice. You don’t feel anything, but you know your arm has just broken. And then the feeling in the arm returns and you scream as much in fear as in pain. Arm trapped, water flowing around your shoulder, you try in vain to pull free.

Your heart races as blood rushes to your muscles. Your pupils enlarge in fright enabling you to see through the dark crevice trapping your hand. You breathe quicker, deeper, forcing oxygen into every cell of your muscles. The added burst of energy provided by the sugar in your racing blood, forces you to act without contemplation of pain. You place your functional hand in the pit where the injured arm is and force it free from its trap.

What you have just experienced is an adrenaline rush caused by a protective stress the body creates for survival. Stress is necessary for human life. Without it the word “excitement” would probably not exist. Without it the fight or flight mechanism triggered within people would be meaningless. However, in today’s world often the body’s stress mechanism kicks in while the instinct to react is held at bay. This creates the emotional trauma we experience as stress. But then not all people react the same to daily pressures. This reality is the key to handling stress, for many people learn how to control it.

How Stress Affects The Body

It has been estimated that around 70% of doctor visits have a stress related element associated with the physical concern.

When the body is under stress, the adrenal gland becomes super activated. Over the long term when this gland is constantly called on to produce adrenaline, the gland itself will begin to shrink causing it to malfunction.

Adrenaline causes the body to abandon its normal task of rebuilding the ever demanding immune system. Instead, the blood resources are used to increase both heart rate and blood pressure while causing the lungs to quicken the breathing rate. It isn’t hard to imagine how this lack of attention to the immune system will result in the development of several ailments. Some of the most noted are chronic fatigue, indigestion, muscular pains, high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, headaches and depression.

In time, the extreme levels of adrenaline within the body will contribute to the degeneration of the hippocampus, resulting in memory loss.

There are a number of other physical effects that stress has on the body. Serotonin production is lessened which will result in less effective nerve cell communication, and Vitamin C, an antioxidant, is excreted more quickly from the body. This deficiency further weakens the immune system. With a weakened immune system, any disease becomes more likely to invade the body.

What Sets Us Off

People who are stress prone are generally unable to control the little demon voice within their minds. They see things as being more dramatic than they actually are. This amplification can not only keep the person reliving the event, but can also result in the projection that the future of the situation will remain just as stressful. This is not to say that being “stressed out” is a figment of a person’s imagination. In reality, there are as many reasons to be under constant stress in today’s world as during the time of the Great Plague or the Inquisition. We are constantly dealing with demands from our family, job and daily events. Often a feeling of being out of control is warranted, yet some people just don’t wear their stress, they have learned how to empower themselves to control stress, or at least regulate it.

Stress Is Energy

Quite literally stress manifests as a surge of energy within the body. Those that convert the energy into a productive outcome are the people who take a proactive role in manipulating it. In his simple but elegant way, Abraham Lincoln probably said it best when he stated, “Most folks are about as happy as they choose to be.”

It’s easy to tell people to “manage their frustration level,” but without tools it’s difficult for a person to know where to begin. Knowing yourself is the first tool. Ask yourself a series of questions that will get at the underlying cause of what’s eating at you and why. Some questions are:

Did something in your life change at the same time your stress began?
Is there a person at the root of your stress?
Is this a new problem or longstanding?
Is the stress causing you to act unlike your normal self, i.e. drink, drugs, violence, etc.?
Is the stress causing you to feel ill, or increasing the degree of an existing injury?

Once you have found the answer to the right questions for your situation, controlling the stress will be a matter of learning and practicing some management techniques.

Ways To Manage Stress

The Therasage Healing Pads are far infrared heating pads. Far infrared increases blood circulation but not blood pressure, which strengthens the immune system while relaxing the muscles.

There is also the Shirodhara Therapy system which is an Ayurveda treatment. For an hour at a time a gentle flow of warm oil is poured over the third eye. As the comforting liquid flows over the forehead tensions are replaced by a deep relaxation.

Along with improved circulation and deep relaxation, saunas and massages are two other methods of cutting stress. Promolife carries all sorts of saunas and massage equipment.

Several Other Techniques

Be Proactive - So much stress is caused because we feel powerless. Whether it’s at work or home we think there is nothing we can do to change the situation. But there is only one thing that is certain and that is that if nothing is done, nothing will change. Maybe in the end the situation can’t be changed, but then again how do you know that if you don’t try?

Breathe - As stated earlier, when stress controls the body the breath becomes short and quick. It is important to slow your breathing down. Inhale slowly for four seconds. Take in as much air as you can. When breathing out, take twice as much time to exhale, then at the end forcefully push out the last bit of air from the lungs. Repeat this process three to ten times.

Communicate - This can be a hard one, especially when a person is extremely angry. Often they feel that no one respects them and that they aren’t being heard when they do speak. Yet when frustration is caused by another person and that relationship is important, discussing the issue is vital to resolving the problem. And remember, in a conversation it is as important to listen as it is to speak. Try not to interrupt and speak slowly, which will help keep the tone more civil.

Exercise - Working out can put you into a zone where thinking things through becomes easier. It also strengthens your immune system.

Humor - Laughing is so good for your body! Blood rushes to your brain when you laugh which in turn releases endorphins, the body’s natural feel good drug. Stress hormones are also hindered when laughter takes over. And remember laughter begets laughter. Enter a room laughing and soon most of the people in the room will also start laughing. And the really humorous thing is they won’t even know what’s funny.

Isolation - Even the introvert needs to feel they are part of a community, and it’s alright if it’s just a few people. If your town really has nothing for you, seek out friends on the internet. It’s better than feeling you’re a “stranger in a strange land”.

Journal - If something is just eating away at you and there is no verbal outlet to relieve the angst, write it down. This is one of the best methods of getting over a trying time. After writing your struggle down, your mind will act like a task has been completed and the pressure will lift. You might have to write about it a few times, but it will help ease pent up stress.

Music - Mellow music is so very soothing. Some music is meant to boil your blood so avoid those songs. You want any kind of music you could read or fall asleep to.

Perfectionism - Don’t do it and don’t require it from others, because by its very nature it can’t really be achieved. Do your best and realize you will probably be the only one who won’t know it’s not perfect.

Quick Ideas -

At work, look out the window or move around periodically to relieve stress
Don’t take work home
Set goals, become better organized
Do something for yourself that will boost your ego or make you feel good in some other way

Set Priorities – You can’t do everything the world demands of you, so do what is the most important to you. Write it down. In one column, write the most important things to accomplish. In another column write a really long list of things that aren’t really that important to complete. Then feel good about the fact that you know your priorities.

Time Management – This goes along with setting priorities. Once this has been done, make a list of things you want to accomplish on a certain day. Know yourself. If you think you can do one thing, then only write one thing down. Don’t make a huge to-do list, get little done, and then feel bad (stressed) that you completed so little.

Touch - Just like Bell Telephone use to say, “reach out and touch someone.” Do this for real. A mate, friend, pet, plant, or even a massage will fulfill this requirement. And touch is a requirement. Touch and be touched, it’s a rule.

Visualization - When you are really stressed, sit in a quiet location, close your eyes and let your mind go to the most relaxing place you can think of. Whether it is a beach, forest, the arms of another, it doesn’t matter. Imagine the comfort, feel the surroundings, let the calm of your vision flow over you. Not only will it help relieve stress, but if you practice this technique a lot, it will almost start to feel like you’ve been on a mini vacation.

When all is said and done, and a lot has been said in this article, controlling stress is always within your grasp. Be proactive, and with practice you will end up being as cool as a cucumber, most of the time anyway.