Stress left unmanaged leads to harmful effects in our physical, mental and emotional aspects. A person who is in stress tends to be short-tempered, thus leading his/her family members, co-workers, friends, or significant others to be hurt. Some people are likely to be violent while some lose their sanity when they have high levels of stress. It happens when people are not willing to help themselves handle those concerns.

Hurting someone just because you are stressed is never a justifiable reason. As much as possible try to cope with stress, manage your stressors and choose to loosen up while doing your daily activities. Here are 3 tips to treat stress:

1. Bodywork and Manual Therapy – This therapy involves body movements. Manual therapy is a form of massage, bodywork on the other hand makes one execute different body movements to realign the body parts, especially the muscles. After a long day’s work, you will probably feel pain in your waist, butt, shoulders, and neck areas due to incorrect body positioning while you were at work. Bodywork and manual therapy will release stress from your muscles and stretch them back to their normal position wherein it will make you feel relaxed and give you a soothing feeling of peace.

2. Humor – This therapy allows the person to release anxieties, resentments and, of course, stress. Study shows that laughter changes the brain chemistry and enhances our immune system. Try to smile most of the time and laugh often. Indeed, laughter is the best medicine.

3. Guide your thoughts – All your senses are being used here to direct your imagination into a relaxed state. Your mind and body connects, that is the reason why your body responds to what you are thinking. For example, when you are thinking about strawberries, your mouth starts to drool, then you start to crave for them. This is how our body reacts with imagination. Achieving a relaxed state could also be attained by visualizing that you are in a beach, a garden, a waterfall or in any of the beautiful nature spots. You then will start to divert from stress and be in a positive mood, relaxing and happy thoughts fill up your imagination.

Good stress is also known as eustress. The prefix “eu” means “good”. (Contrast that to “dis”, as in distress, being “bad”.)

For instance, let’s say that you are getting ready to make an important speech. All eyes will be on you and you want to do well. The stress accompanying this task causes you to focus on the speech and nothing else. As a result, you practice until you are comfortable with the words and relax to be able to deliver it.

The same goes for a big competition. Your nervousness leads to more intense practice sessions to get you ready. Your pulse quickens but it strengthens your resolve to do your best.

Any time that stress is related to physical activity it produces endorphins. Those who are involved in practices and big sporting competitions reap the reward of good feeling endorphins from the physical exertion. The endorphins make us want more of the same to keep us in that feel good mode.

Have you heard of the fight or flight response? It is what happens when we are scared or confronted by someone who may want to hurt us. Adrenalin is released. Our senses become more acute as the body prepares to hit the ground running or stand and fight.

In those moments, our basic instincts take over and we are primed for the best response in the situation. You hear about extraordinary situations where people have lifted cars off of their loved ones who were hurt in an accident. Or, someone thinks to use their cell phone to call from the trunk of a car when they’ve been kidnapped.

People wonder how someone can think of those things but it is the fight or flight response that occurs when we are in the midst of those harrowing experiences. This response extends to people like hostage negotiators who talk a kidnapper into releasing his hostages or the doctor who is performing emergency surgery to save a person’s life.

Good stressors abound in our lives but often go unnoticed in favor of the unhealthy stress. A dose of good stress can save our lives. Cultivate good stress in your life.

“Today’s economy is stressing people out, and stress has been linked to a number of illnesses – such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and increased risk for cancer.  This study shows that stress is also linked to weight gain.”

Some other findings of this study suggest that people who are already overweight get heavier with stress, but not for people who are lower weight.

There are also differences by gender. Women tend to eat more when stressed by financial problems or a difficult work environment, strained family relationships, and a feeling of being limited by life’s circumstances.

Weight gain for men tended to be more likely affected by work problems rather than family problems.  Examples include lacking decision authority or lack of skill discretion (the ability to learn new skills on the job and performing interesting work assignments).

“Our findings show that stress should be recognized as a threat to the well-being of adults, especially those who are already overweight.”

I’m not surprised at the findings.  Stress is such a negative influence in our lives that I would wager that most of the illnesses we suffer are a result of chronic stress.  I think it’s only a matter of time before more studies show the direct linkage.

I think the good news out of this study is that you first recognize that if you have a higher BMI (body mass index), then you need to be watchful of your eating patterns.  If you start to gain weight, take a moment to evaluate whether the stress in your life has changed, possibly increasing.  If so, take active steps to counteract the stress.  Take more walks, make sure you have healthy snacks around, and identify what activating event is causing your stress.

Knowledge is power.  Use it to your advantage.

Stress Less and Live More

Dillon

I’m sure you’ve got a lot of examples. The ones that really get me are people who merge onto an interstate where the traffic is going at least 70 (probably more like 80) and they’re merging in at 50, talking on a cellphone and oblivious to the fact that I’m getting pinched between them and a huge 18 wheeler that is as big as the Empire State Building. Or when I always choose the wrong lane at a checkout. You see, I’m in my 50′s now. I don’t have a lot of time left to just stand around in lines. Leave that to the 20 somethings.

Anyway, I could go on and on. You can as well. It’s just important to know it’s not the events that cause our stress. It’s what we think about them that causes the stress. It’s like when you were a kid and someone called you a name. Remember “sticks and stones may break my bones . . .”? Same thing. You choose what you allow to have power over you.

Personally, I don’t like to have people or events to have power over me. I like to be in control of me. Don’t you? Then you need to start becoming aware (ever heard the term “mindful”?) of what has power over you. Do some thinking the next time you feel your heart racing. Come to a conclusion on what is causing it and how you can react differently the next time. Start becoming “mindful” of what these external events are doing to you (the power they have over you) and start to react differently.

You’ll stress out a lot less and you’ll begin to grow as well. Remember when the name-caller as a kid didn’t get to you anymore? That’s what it will feel like!

Stress Less and Live More
Dillon