Stressed? ……A simple way to manage your stress

For many of us stress is all around us, nibbling away at us constantly. It comes in both physical and emotional forms with modern life providing more major life changing events than ever before.

Common signs of stress are headaches, insomnia, tight muscles, infections, twitches/ticks, itches, fatigue and on the mental side; loss of confidence, fuzziness, irritability, anxiety and depression.

Stress triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response in our bodies, but unlike our caveperson ancestors we rarely run or fight. In those days there was a physical threat, the cave person responded and then it was over … one way or another! If you survived then you had processed all that adrenaline that had been released in your response to the event and once safe you could relax. Todays’ world does not allow for that recovery as we are just bombarded with the next thing.

However (and this may not be a comfortable read for us), stress is ours. What does that mean “stress is ours”? Stressors happen to us. These are those events both big and small mentioned above. Stress is only created in how we respond to the events.

We can’t hide from these stressors without withdrawing from society…which itself would be a stressor. What we can do is manage our stress levels. Stress is like the drip tray on your coffee machine or the drain filter on the dishwasher….it needs a little maintenance to stop it overflowing. Personally the best maintenance that I have come across is a holiday away. Great, but not something that is always accessible or affordable at the frequency it may be required.

As you know there is always another way and the simplest and cheapest is to breathe well. I have covered breathing in a previous article, please refer to that for more detail. Other simple methods are getting back to nature, meditating or doing something you enjoy - maybe something like singing, or painting. The important thing here is to regularly do your maintenance. If you are not aware of your stress levels then ensure you do your maintenance at set intervals – like a car service, but more frequent!, If you are aware of your stress level then you can tune the frequency as required.

There is another way ...

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