Feeling stressed out?
Yes, stress is everywhere.
You can’t escape it …really…
Well, maybe for a short while…
BUT, then you “come back” to where you were before you “stepped” out.
And nothing has changed…
Or has it?
Yes, something did change.
You stepped out momentarily.
This created a shift in your mind and in your body.
A simple shift rejuvenates you and re-energizes you.
Your quick escape allowed you to do something different for a short time, and then
return to the original situation.
I know, it’s so simple, and yet at the same time, can reduce the stress that you were
feeling.
What is Stress?
Dr. Hans Selye MD, the “father of stress”, defines stress as the non-specific response
of the body to any demand for change”.
Dr. Selye explained that the body passes through three different universal stages of
coping:
- Stage 1. Alarm reaction: the body prepares itself for “fight or flight.” An organism
cannot endure this state of excitement. A second stage of adaptation develops (if the
organism survives the first stage). - Stage 2. The organism builds a resistance to the stress.
- Stage 3. If the stress persists long enough, the body eventually enters a stage of
exhaustion (the body ages more quickly because “wear and tear”).
What happens When Your Experience Wear and Tear in Your Body?
We are generally not aware that we are in a constant state of stress. We react
immediately to stress and if this persists, the deep neural pathways that are formed
have deep grooves in them.
In other words, the stress accumulates in our cells over a long period of time and we
find ourselves in constant overload.
When you’re stressed out, your body is overloaded physically and you’re in a mental
rut and you don’t know how to get out.
When you’re overloaded mentally, your memory is affected – you find yourself
forgetting birthdays, people’s names and anniversaries.
And stress can wreak havoc with your weight. How?
Well, in the past thirty years we are all becoming more and more attached to our cell
phones, labtops and tablets. We are so immersed in the digital world causing “a
near-constant cognitive overload” (Daniel Goldman, “Focus: The Hidden Driver of
Excellence”, page 31).
Ultimately, we lose self-discipline, self-control and self-awareness, and start to eat
mindlessly, ignoring what we are stuffing into our mouths in the way of chips,
cheeses and chocolate.
We don’t care what we eat.. We ignore the point of satiation (when we’re full)
because we have allowed technology to rule over us and to control our habits (i.e.
eating habits).
This build up of stress takes place over days, weeks, months and even years if we
don’t stop to do something about it daily.
Yes, you can do something about it on a daily basis.
This is SO important for brain health and for the overall health of your body.
Identify the Causes of Stress
I mentioned earlier that most of us are unaware of when we are feeling over
extended.
And this feeling of being over extended or stressed is closely tied to our daily habits.
But we fail to make that connection most of the time.
We don’t pay any (or much) attention to our thoughts and actions in our daily lives.
We also ignore the impact of the choices we make in daily life with our diet, our
relationships and our career/job and how these all affect our emotions.
We’re also fail to see the connection between sugar, caffeine and alcohol on the
brain.
What is the bottom line here friends?
The way we live (our lifestyle) can make us sick and cause us to have issues with
remembering and concentration and feeling joy and alive.
The first step in all of this is awareness – to become aware of what you’re doing in
your daily habits.
Start thinking about your daily habits.
Be gentle with yourself.
Be mindful this next week.
No shame.
No guilt.
Just mindfulness.
