It’s early morning and your alarm goes off. You reign supreme as you manage to get the kids out of the door, having partly eaten breakfast and pretended to brush their hair and teeth. A quick dash into the kitchen to tidy the breakfast things, put on a wash, get yourself together and dash out the door. You get to your place of work wondering why you feel as if you’ve put in a shift already. And who knows what else you’re going to face that day… But you’ll come through, you always do! If this sounds familiar, this is for you.
The fact is that stress is real and is affecting more and more of us as we try to keep pace with the relentless pace of our lives. It happens when there’s a mismatch between the demands being made of you and your ability to cope with them.
And it’s not just in your head. Stress is a natural reaction from your nervous system when your body feels threatened or overwhelmed.
You can’t just snap out of it because it’s affecting your body, your behaviours, your emotions as well as your mind. Typical symptoms include:
Body
- Headaches
- Lowered immune system
- Tension in your body
- Skin irritations
- Breathless
Mind
- Worrying
- Impaired judgement
- Indecisive
- Difficulty in thinking straight
- Knee-jerk reactions
Emotions
- Loss of confidence
- Apathy
- Irritability
- Apprehension
- Anxiety and depression
Behaviour
- Poor quality sleep and insomnia
- Increase or decrease in appetite
- Drinking or smoking more
- Accident prone
- Loss of sex drive
We all feel stressed from time to time. The important thing is to recognise the difference between the adrenaline rush and buzz you get when responding to a tight deadline or a single stressful event to coping with ongoing stress. The former is the body’s defence mechanism working at it’s best to see you through the stressful period so that you come out on top. The aim being to deal with the stressor and then allow your body to return to balance. For instance, think about that major presentation that you need to give on a Friday morning and the intensity of that, and then think about how you are going to chill at the weekend to recover.
Compare that to a situation where organisational change is on the agenda at work, but there’s no clear plan or timescale. You know your job’s under threat but you’re not sure when or how. Your kids are having problems at school, petty issues but they are unsettling them. You and your partner do not seem to be on the same wavelength or even have much time for each other anymore. The difference here is that there’s an accumulation of stressors, and they mean your nervous system remains alert. That means your body is constantly producing adrenaline and cortisol which are stress hormones which can damage your body in large doses. And as a result, your body’s defences weaken as your body uses energy to repair tissue damage and tries to reduce the level of stress hormones in your body. At this stage you may notice sleep problems, your blood pressure might rise, you might start to have stomach issues. Your body is likely to feel tight and tense.
If the level of stress continues, over time your energy reserves finally become depleted and your body becomes exhausted. At this stage your health is at serious risk. Severe health conditions affecting the cardiac, digestive, immune nervous and other systems can crop up resulting in cancers, heart failure, chronic fatigue and mental health issues amongst others.
It’s important to recognise where your stress levels are at and how they are affecting your body. We all go through periods where we feel overloaded and under strain. At that point it is necessary to find ways to help your body to cope with the pressures you are under and bring your body systems back into balance.
Our therapies can help to relax your nervous system and bring your body back into balance. They are natural and help your body to heal itself.
Also why not take a look at our top five tips for less stress in your life for simple things you can do to help you to feel calmer and healthier.