Dancing with Stress: It’s all about finding peace, however it comes to us
These are stressful times. We face a lot of challenges in our day-to-day lives, regardless of age or political bend.
Health, money, home, family (or lack thereof), environment, school, work… ALL these things impact our sense of ease or unease.
And then there are the challenges of the news and traffic and weather or natural disasters.
All of this impacts our well-being. But here’s the thing. Stress is essential to life. Our body perceives getting out of bed in the morning and hunger as stressful. It releases chemicals to help adjust to changes in position, to deal with blood sugars dropping or lack of certain nutrients. Without these, we couldn’t survive.
A certain level of stress in our lives challenges us and makes us perform better and can make us feel good about ourselves: “I’VE GOT THIS” is a great feeling.
Acute stress triggers surges of chemicals that provide internal resources for us to respond properly to threats. If we touch something hot, we pull our hands away, before we are even aware that we are doing so. If we are falling, we put our hands out to protect our heads or more vital organs.
But chronic stress wears us down. Especially if we are not finding ways to cope with the stressors in our lives. If it’s too much, we don’t perform well. We become overwhelmed and anxious. Chronic stress can negatively affect your health on so many levels. Blood pressure, autoimmune disease, cognitive health, sleep, reproduction. Virtually every chronic illness has “stress” as a triggering factor.
So how do we deal with it all? Most of us can’t abandon our responsibilities and live in a mountain somewhere.
It’s not about avoiding stress. Really, we can’t. It’s about managing it. Its about finding ways to take a break and breathe. Places to slow down. Reframing your sense of stress. When my kids we little, we got two puppies. (Never again…) I would come home from work, and the kids would be wound up and the puppies were into everything, my house was a mess and I would be tired but had to cook dinner and help with homework… Many of you know the drill. Then one day, I realized that although my life was crazy and messy it was also full of love and humor and I was rich with it all. I wanted it more than the alternative. I was choosing it. So, I named it, “Beautiful chaos”. And like that, my relationship with it changed.
Finding the calm in the storm helps offset the negative effects of chronic stress. Mindfulness helps. Meditation and prayer are awesome. But it can also be singing a song, coloring, reading, or having a cup of tea and walking outside. It can be taking a deep breath and being grateful. If you can get to gym or out for a longer walk, go for it. But little moments help.
Its about bringing ourselves out of the OMG mode and finding peace however it comes to us.
“Fighting stress” only creates more stress. Dancing with stress does not.
Dr. Jennifer Means welcomes you for Primary Care for the whole family: Nutrition, IV Therapy, Naturopathy, and Acupuncture. Contact us at 503-641-6400.
