Are you feeling stressed? Low on energy? Running on emergency mode all the time? You are not alone. Nowadays stress is so common in our fast paced lifestyle full of stressful deadlines, demands and frustrations leaving us so tired and overwhelmed.
Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you get motivated to do your best.
It’s when it gets out of control that it stops being helpful and could cause major damage to your health.
Stress is directly associated with most if not all illness, so it’s important to take action to protect yourself and reduce your stress using the mind body connection.
The Body’s Stress Response
Stress is a normal physical response to a perceived threat or danger, where your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.
These hormones arouse the body for emergency action giving you extra strength to protect yourself. This is called the ”fight or flight” response or the stress response.
What are the signs and symptoms of stress overload?
Stress affects the mind body and behavior in various ways and everyone experiences stress differently. Stress can be harmful to all body systems but your digestive, nervous and cardiovascular systems are the most affected systems.
- Digestive problems
- Chronic Fatigue
- Adrenal fatigue
- Anxiety and depression
- Sleep problems
- Frequent headaches and migraines
- High blood pressure
- Shortness of breath
- Heart palpitations
- Neck or shoulder tension
Stress and disease
Research shows that stress is associated with several health conditions, such as adrenal fatigue, weight gain or weight loss, lowered immunity, hypertension, digestive disorders such as peptic ulcer, IBS and inflammatory bowel disease, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and cancer, to name a few.
It has also been proven that chronic stress causes your fat cells, especially those around the abdomen to become resistant to fat loss.
How to reduce your stress using a holistic approach?
In my holistic nutrition practice, I find that managing stress is of utmost importance to improve overall health.
I help my clients with holistic nutrition by making sure to cover any depleted nutrients caused by stress. I also use essential stress fighting nutrients such as vitamin C, pantothenic acid and choline.
I also make sure to point out the power of reducing stress using the mind body connection.
It is not the stress itself that causes physical and mental harm, but it is the reaction to the stress that determines how you experience it. Therefore, it’s essential to learn how to control your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors when encountering stressful situations.
Stress and the mind-body connection
You can reduce stress by one of three ways:
- Changing the stressful situation when you can
- Changing your reaction when you can’t change the situation
- Making time for rest and relaxation.
Mind-body techniques to reduce stress
Practicing mind-body techniques can help change the way you think about the problem, which gives you more control over your response to stress.
Here are 4 easy techniques to reduce your stress using the mind body connection:
1-Humor
Humor and laughter can lighten up tense situations and help you deal with fear and anxiety. Bringing joy and hope to any stressful situation can help reduce stress.
2-Meditation
When you practice meditation, you learn to experience peacefulness and tranquility, as well as physical and mental health. There are different methods used for meditating, some include concentrating on a single thought or word for a set period of time. Other forms of meditation include meditation upon positive thoughts about healing the body or healing the relationships between other people and situations.
3-Prayer
The difference between prayer and meditation is that meditation focuses attention on a thought, and prayer focuses attention on a Higher Being or Higher Power. Prayer is an effective coping strategy that produces positive emotions, which can have a positive impact on the immune system and on stress reduction.
4-Visualization
Visualization uses the imagination to cause a change in your physical, emotional, or spiritual characteristics. Visualization is a powerful tool to promote deep relaxation. You can use the natural image making capacity of your mind in order to relax, achieve desired life goals or better health. When you create a strong mental image, neurons in your brain secrete chemicals. These chemicals change the nervous system which then sends messages to all parts of your body helping it to improve mental and physical health and relax.
These simple yet effective mind body techniques can help you a lot in reducing your stress using the mind body connection.
The secret for success
Whatever technique you choose, make sure to make it part of your daily routine. Committing to a fixed relaxation ritual every day is the only way to gain maximum benefits from these mind body techniques.
Back to You
Remember that stress is now part of a modern lifestyle and an ongoing relaxation plan is the only way to get your stress under control and balance your life.
If you have already tried any of the above techniques, feel free to share your experience here and leave a comment.
We offer tele-health coaching via Zoom, so we can help you if you are out of area. If you need help with your health and nutrition, sign up for a 15 Min Discovery Call where we discuss your current goals and concerns and how we can help you.
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