Stress in your body
June 2020
CALM DOWN! RELAX!
If you’re like me, whenever anyone tells me that, it has the opposite effect. But here I am to tell you that we need to calm down.
Stress is a part of life, so I get it, there’s no way to completely eliminate it. But we have to find ways to take it down a notch. Every time you get stressed your central nervous system (CNS) cues your hypothalamus to get your adrenal glands pumping. Once that happens the adrenal glands produce the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones elevate your heart rate, which sends more oxygenated blood to your muscles and you experience a heightened level of alertness. Your body is saying “it’s about to go down, let me make sure I’m prepared”. This is what we call fight or flight mode.
If we are drawing on the system too often and any perceived slight triggers this reaction, the hormones stay on high alert, which can lead to catastrophic consequences. When you are stressed your muscles tense up to protect you. If you are always under perceived stress, those muscles don’t get to relax.
Now you have muscle pain, not because you were a gym class hero, but because your body is living on red alert. When we stress, the liver produces glucose as a way of giving you more blood sugar “energy”. But if it’s a perceived threat and your body doesn’t actually need the extra production of glucose, it could increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes. The list could go on and on with the effects of stress related injuries or illnesses.
How do we combat all this stress?
It starts with being mindful about what being stressed is actually doing to you internally. There are many ways to combat the symptoms of stress. I’m a huge advocate of meditation, but there are various approaches to coping with stress and stressful environments. Find what works for you. Like I say, there are no big things, only the culmination of little things. So let’s be a little more aware of all the little things.
