America is a hot box for stress, just look around you or take a look at your co-workers, family members, or friends, they are all talking about being stressed out and in need of stress management techniques. I have lived and travelled to many countries and haven’t seen it as bad as I’ve seen here in the U.S.
There are different types of stress which can be either helpful to the body or harmful. That’s right stress isn’t always a negative thing and in this day and age it is real. There are Physical stresses like exercise, moderate being helpful but overtraining is harmful for the body. Chemical stress such as sunlight on the skin producing Vitamin D or it can be harmful chemicals if you are taking synthetically manufactured medical drugs on a regular basis such as birth control pills. There is psychic or mental stress for example, using your mind to overcome adversity to become stronger or if we look at the harmful part of that it would be feelings of being rushed or taking on more work or responsibility than can manage thereby in desperate need of the stress management techniques I offer below. Nutritional stress, the beneficial would be eating what is healing for your body type. Your body would be stressed in a good way to extract the nutrients it needs. The harmful would be consuming foods with toxins such as pesticides, herbicides, food preservatives, colorings, thickeners, and emulsifiers.
1. Release of stress hormones that elevate your heart rate and blood pressure.
2. Shunting of blood away from your internal organs to the skin and muscles – greatly reducing or stopping all digestive and eliminative processes.
3. Increased sweating.
4. Holding fat around the stomach.
1. Identify your key stressors and make a plan to decrease them or get rid of them.
2. Eat and drink the right way for you, if a food or drink makes you feel tired or sluggish you probably shouldn’t be ingesting it.
3. Move and exercise, now that doesn’t mean you go and run 8 miles or take a boot camp class if you are overly stressed out and weary. Try taking a walk and focus on your breathing instead. Now when to workout or to working.
4. Mental exercise – you are what you think. If you want to attract positivity into your life think positive thoughts and, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff.’
For more information on stress management techniques and learning healthy lifestyle habits I highly recommend getting the book “Hot to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!” by Paul Chek – you can download a free chapter from the following link: http://www.eatmoveandbehealthy.com/