Stress… what does it do to us? I have come to realise how much stress plays a part in connection to our total wellbeing or lack thereof. Of course, I realise that this is not news to most people. I wonder how much we do really, truly, know and understand this fact. How much we actually let stress affect us without us even knowing.
Situations have occurred which have prompted me have a look at my own stress levels. Actually, to see how much and how often I allowed myself to feel and become stressed. Now, I am pretty sure I, like many others, we do not show stress too overtly. As such, we all have learned to internalise our feelings (which of course makes the situation worse). Also, my life, as well as most people’s is actually really good. So the point I’m attempting to make is how by allowing ourselves to become stressed, irritated, (however you’d like to describe it) is how we become that way too often and without conscious thought. It seems to be part of the “norm” these days.
Little things can set us off completely. And we actually don’t realise that we are holding our breath, clenching our fists, tightening our shoulders. Our blood does not flow as freely, everything becomes stagnant. We go into “fight or flight mode”, thereby giving our adrenals a massive overload. This in turn produces other chemicals in our body that nowadays do not get to be released, as such they are stored in our system and become toxic, which in turn throws our hormones and physical bodies out of whack. I will not go into technical detail, although I can recommend some reading if you are interested. If we do not acknowledge these things or learn how to prevent ourselves becoming so anxious and wound up, they can lead to minor and eventually serious dis-ease.
What I have noticed by listening to my body system is what triggered my reaction. The thing I really realised (with a little help from some friends) was that different situations triggered me. AND the most important thing was that, my reaction to situations was paramount in my heart rate kicking up. Or my teeth being clenched; or the need to yell and scream was all my choice. Also, these new found (if not frustrating at the time) situations gave me the opportunity to look at what was really behind my frustration/anger/resentment etc. They were actually setting off something that had been set up long before and were reinforcing a pattern that I had set up on how to react to those specific situations. When I broke down these things I realised that mentality what I had going on was actually not really necessary or particularly useful.
How can we stop this epidemic?
Let us start with the first thing. At those times, we are having a physical reaction (even if we don’t fully acknowledge it). So, do something physical. There are various breathing techniques, focusing techniques, you could even meditate, sing, dance, write things down. Hey, you could even laugh at the situation.
I have learned that we interpret how we think about things and what is really behind that thinking that leads us to become stressed. So eventually if you are ready and up for it, you could have a look at what is going on behind the scenes of your stress. Is it really what you think it is?