Managing Stress

What creates Stress

Life is filled with challenges, conflicts, problems, and sometimes hardships and tragedies. Some of these are personal, others involve major world events, the news of which can create stressful feelings. For example, in recent years there has been a global pandemic, food shortages and rising cost of living, multiple wars, and a range of natural disasters. How you are managing stress is important for your health.

It’s important to learn how to deal with the stress you feel over world events and your challenges because chronic stress adversely affects your health. Feeling stressed interferes with digestive function and can lead to indigestion, gastritis, constipation, or diarrhea. Stress also creates muscle tension, which can cause various types of pain such as back pain, neck pain, and headaches. Stress increases heart rate and blood pressure and it’s a contributing factor in heart disease. It also depresses immune function, which leaves you more susceptible to infections and illness. It may also be a contributing factor in diseases like cancer and dementia.

The good news is that all of these health risks can be reduced or even eliminated by learning better stress management skills. That’s because stress is not just about what happens, it’s also about how you react to it. In this issue of Sunshine Sharing, we’ll be exploring what stress is and how you can respond to it in healthier ways.

Understanding Stress

Stress is part of the fight-or-flight response. Anything that makes you worried, scared, or threatens you involves stress. It is a natural mechanism of the body and is designed to protect you, not harm you. There is also good stress – like having a baby, moving into a new house, planning a wedding. Learn about adrenaline, cortisol, and your adrenal glands during the stress response.

Managing stress is a necessity for your health. Here are a few tips to help you manage your stress. Tips are discussed further in the newsletter.

Practice calming down – I know it sounds funny, but you can alleviate the body’s response to stress. Next time you are annoyed, before you run away or scream, try taking a deep breath. Deep breathing helps your body reset the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is responsible for rest in the body. This simple practice will help counteract the stress response.

Do something. When your body is under stress, it is looking for you to do something to get away from the threat. So do something, write a note about what is going on, and take a walk around the room.

Give your body some nutrients. Stress eats up those B vitamins and C vitamins, so consider adding a supplement containing those nutrients like Nutri Calm. You can also add some relaxing herbs or essential oils to further help.

Most importantly, take time for yourself. Relax and take a deep breath. As for myself, I take time and use the Chi Machine and utilize its relaxation benefits. J