Have either you or somebody you are close to been suffering from chronic stress or anxiety? In this day and age it’s hard to avoid some amount of stress, but when you are dealing with excessive pressure the strain can take it’s toll on your health. Fortunately there are a number of things you can do to begin to alleviate the effects immediately.
What is stress and why does it happen? Stress is a physiological response to external and internal pressures. Life events like divorce, a relocation, an illness or death in the family can trigger your sympathetic nervous system which in turn activates your body’s flight or fight response. While this response is useful in life or death situations, these days the causes of stress are not life threatening and tend to be more constant. Because of this the parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t have the opportunity to help your body calm down.
What is anxiety and how is it different from stress? Anxiety can be a condition that causes stress, but on it’s own is more fear based. Anxiety is a feeling of discomfort or fear in relationship to some future event or in reaction to random unknown causes.
Chronic stress or anxiety can lead to a number of other health issues including being overweight, anorexia, teeth grinding, migraines, insomnia, psoriasis, hypertension, ulcers, depression, loss of libido, acne, nausea, and any number of other health problems. It can exasperate chronic pain and can even compromise your immune system. It can take it’s toll on your relationships. When you’re on edge it’s harder to relax and enjoy time spent with loved ones. Looking at all of the ways stress can negatively impacts people’s lives can seem a bit depressing. The good news is that there are a number of things people can do to regulate their nervous systems naturally:
1) Are you overcommitting your time and life? Learn to say no without feeling guilty and be selective about what you choose to do with your time.
2) Ask for help. See if there is anybody around who can lighten the load. You don’t have to do it all. Ask yourself: ‘what are my resources?’
3) Regular exercise. Even a 15 minute walk three times a week will help you to take some time out for yourself and your body. Notice your surroundings as you walk. Feel the bottoms of your feet. This simple step can make a world of difference.
4) Daily stress reduction exercises, like mindfulness based stress reduction. These types of practices could include hatha yoga, tai chi, walking meditation, or meditation on the breath.
5) Holistic health care including Chinese Medicine (acupuncture & herbal medicine) Massage, Naturopathy, and Ayurvedic medicine. These holistic approaches include the patient’s lifestyle, diet, constitution and other individual factors. They focus on treating the symptoms (like insomnia or digestive problems), as well as the chronic patterns of disharmony underlying them.
Patients of mine have used the above methods to successfully begin the process of reducing their stress levels. The last suggestion of using natural healing modalities will also correct the patterns of disharmony that developed because of the chronic stress. This in turn treats the symptoms. Acupuncture in particular manages to help the body in releasing endorphins and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. For this reason patients go into a deeply relaxed state during and after treatments.
Rebecca Hindman L.Ac. helps people to recover their natural state of health with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. For more information about Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and natural approaches to resolving chronic health issues you can visit her clinic’s web site at Acupuncture Austin to download your free ebook.