Do you feel stressed out?

If you live in the early part of the twenty-first century, chances are that your life is full of pressures, and you feel a lot of stress.

Many of us are stressed for money, and pressed for time. We are often sleeping too little, eating the wrong foods, drinking too much coffee, smoking too many cigarettes, juggling too many responsibilities, facing impossible deadlines, and exposed to a lot of chemical and noise pollution.

What is Stress Exactly?

The stress response is the body’s reaction to a perceived threat. Your body is automatically programmed to become instantly more alert, more powerful and fast moving whenever a situation of potential danger arises.

You are ready for action. Your thinking can become totally focussed and clear. Your body is instantly prepared to take action in a dangerous situation such as a fire or an accident, or an attack by a wild animal or a mugger.

During an acutely dangerous situation you will breathe much more deeply and quickly, taking in far more oxygen than usual. Your heart will be pounding in your chest. Your blood pressure will rise. You will have much higher levels of glucose in your blood in order to fuel your muscles.

These changes happen so that the major muscle groups in your body have the oxygen and blood sugar they need to enable you to fight, move heavy objects, or to swiftly run away.

For thousands of years this built-in physical response to danger has come in handy. In the past, most threats to humans were of an immediate physical nature.

If you had to fight off a marauding bear or run from a forest fire, the changes in your body chemistry would give you a chance to survive the emergency. The chemicals released into your body would give you the strength to fight, move heavy objects, or to swiftly run for your life.

This bodily reaction is sometimes called the “fight or flight response”. This is an ancient, primitive, and very powerful way that our bodies react to danger.

The fight or flight response still operates in us today. That powerful adrenaline rush still does its job, making us ready to take on dangerous situations.

Most of the time however, the stressors we face in modern life are not physical, but psychological in origin, and are long term rather than short term.

You may have a boss who constantly belittles you at work, or a mortgage payment due when you have just lost your job.

A small amount of occasional short-term stress can actually be good for you. You will feel more alert, focused, and energized to take on a challenge.

If the stress seems to go on and on, such as in a war or a bad marriage, or when facing long term financial problems or illness, your brain perceives the threat as never-ending and orders the release of a chemical called cortisol.

Cortisol locks in the stress response reaction, keeping your body systems in a constant state of high alert.

Long-term high levels of cortisol interfere with blood sugar metabolism, increase blood pressure, cause insomnia, irritability, depression, and decreased amounts of norepinephrine in the frontal lobes. Long-term stress can even lead to the eventual death of brain cells.

In one study, students with chronic high levels of cortisol scored 13% lower on IQ tests than a control group.

Many people today have lives that are so tightly scheduled with important commitments that they literally have no time to relax and unwind. After living for many months in a permanent state of high tension, these people may forget what it’s like to relax. They feel guilty or anxious whenever they have unscheduled time.

The body is not designed to live in a state of high alert permanently. Sooner or later the body’s internal systems will start to break down.

One important way to reduce stress is to change the way we think about upsetting situations.

If we react to every negative event, large or small, as if it is a catastrophe, we will be exaggerating the magnitude of many events that are not really serious. We will be throwing our body systems into a state of high alert for trivial reasons.

If we have a habit of telling ourselves every time something bad happens, “This always happens to me”, or, “Nothing ever goes right for me”, we condemn ourselves to a chronic over-production of stress chemicals.

During times of stress, turning for help to a
supportive friend can be very helpful. Or you might want to see a therapist.

People who have a strong emotional support system are better able to handle stressful situations than those who don’t have support from others.

Develop a circle of supportive friends you can rely on. Even pets can help relieve stress in their owners, perhaps because of their unconditional love.

When you are going through very stressful periods, remember to make time for yourself to relax and unwind.

Be sure to eat nutritious foods, drink lots of water and breathe clean air.

Take a walk or get some physical exercise everyday.

And remember to quiet your mind with prayer or meditation.
bio = This article is taken from the new book by Royane Real titled “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better, and Be More Creative” If you want to learn how to make your brain work better, download it today or get the paperback version at http://www.lulu.com/real

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 4:41 am and is filed under Self help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.