Stress

Stress is something that we all experience.  Negative stress comes from pressure you can’t cope with, and this leads to overload, exhaustion and burnout.  Positive stress is experienced when you are feeling well, coping well and surrounding yourself with positive people and motivating thoughts.

Negative stress can manifest in many different health problems which can be difficult to diagnose and treat.  Insomnia; anxiety; depression; hyper-tension; headaches; heart palpitations; diarrhoea or constipation; loss of libido; aches and pains; exhaustion; anger; substance abuse; and feeling helpless are some ways your body tells you that  you are experiencing the long-term effects of stress.                         

   You need to shift your focus from external needs and pressures in your life and become aware of what your body is telling you.  If you have too many demands being made on you and you don’t feel on top of what is happening in your life, you are likely to suffer from feelings of stress.  These negative feelings are signals that something is not working in your life.  This means that your body is being flooded with the stress hormone cortisol.  When cortisol is flooding your body, your immune system doesn’t work as  well and you become more susceptible to infections.

Learn How to Relax

   Learning how to relax is an important skill to have.  You will find this an enormously helpful and enjoyable experience.  Also, you need to understand that you don’t have much control over what events you experience in your daily life, but you do have 100% control over what these events are going mean to you.  You can decide that this event is going to ruin my life or you can decide to see the event as a challenge you can work your way through and grow from.

A Few Ways to Relax Quickly

Here are a few easy methods you can use to induce relaxation. Choose one you like or try them all out, and then practice the one you like best for 10 minutes at least twice a day.

   1.  Focusing on your own breathing is the easiest way to relax.  Make yourself comfortable in a place where you will not be disturbed.  Make sure your clothes are loose.  Sit or lie comfortably with your hands by your side or in your lap, and legs uncrossed.  Close your eyes.  Take in a deep breathe so that your stomach inflates like a balloon, then breathe out.  You will feel your stomach deflate.  Breathe in slowly to the count of 7, then breathe out more slowly to the count of 11. Make sure you breathe in and out through your nose and repeat about 20 times.

   2. Another good way to relax is to settle comfortably and then make your hands into the tightest fist possible (however only use this method if you don’t have any problems with your hands).  Close your eyes and focus on the physical sensations for a moment or two.  Then, with your attention focused on how that feels, allow your fingers and hands to slowly unwind and concentrate on the changing sensation of growing relaxation spreading through your arms to the rest of your body.  Do this for as long as you like.

   3.  Work gradually through the main muscles of your body, tensing each in turn for a count of 10 and then relaxing them.  Try starting at your feet, move up to your calf muscles, then your knees, your thighs, your tummy muscles and so on.  This works on the principle that if you tense muscles and then relax them, your muscles are always more relaxed afterwards than before you tensed them.