Myth #1: Stress is Normal or Natural Many people are under the impression that on-going stress is something normal or natural. But then why do those who suffer from this condition want to get rid of it? The fact is that on-going stress makes people feel bad or miserable. This is a clear indication that
it is not normal or natural. Feeling bad is not our natural state of being. Feeling good is. This is the reason why chronic stress sufferers seek assistance to get back to their natural state of being.
Myth #2: Stress is Caused by External Factors The fact is chronic or on-going stress is actually caused by your subconscious beliefs and perceptions stemming from previous negative or traumatic experiences and by your thoughts and perceptions regarding the current situation or circumstances in which you find yourself and not the circumstances themselves. For example two people can find themselves in exactly the same situation at exactly the same time with one experiencing the situation as stressful and the other not.
Myth #3: Stress is Best Dealt With Using Various Stress Management Techniques Treating stress with popular stress management techniques and practices such as breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and exercise for example are certainly helpful in temporarily relieving the negative effects of stress. They are therefore recommended. However these techniques and practices do not eliminate chronic stress and its destructive consequences. This can only be achieved by dealing with the root causes of chronic stress which are the beliefs, thoughts and perceptions described in Myth #2 above. To eliminate persistent stress requires neutralization of these negative beliefs and acquiring and applying effective thought-control techniques using various mind reprogramming technologies.
Myth #4: Stress is Necessary to Get Things Done Most people have been so stressed for so long that they have come to believe it is their stress that enables them to complete tasks or get things done. It has been such a long time since they have not experienced stress that they have forgotten that at that time in their lives when stress was not an issue, they also got things done (and probably more effectively and efficiently too since stress significantly inhibits performance) - but certainly without the destruction to their minds and bodies caused by their stress. The fact is that there is a difference between stress and motivation. People who set and achieve goals and who operate at peak performance are highly motivated and find their lives stimulating. People who are stressed feel miserable and all the other negative consequences of stress although they may also be motivated and get things done (but not as effectively and efficiently as non-stressed people). In other words stressed people may accomplish things and be successful not because of their stress but despite their stress.
Myth #5: Stress Can Be Good for You There is much confusion in the minds of many people regarding the matter of good stress versus bad stress. In fact it is a commonly held belief that some stress is good for people. This false belief unfortunately stems from the person, Dr. Hans Selye, who coined the term stress when he found that some good activities such as sports produced an increase in the levels of certain hormones which are also increased by stress. The fact is that stress is bad for you since it has been proven that this destructive condition is the underlying cause of almost 95 per cent of illness and disease. What is important though is to distinguish between short-lived stress and on-going or persistent stress. Short-lived stress, also known as acute stress, occurs when we experience the stress response over a short period of time, minutes or hours. It is a normal survival response. An example would be when you are walking along the road and suddenly come upon an aggressive dog which starts to come at you, growling threateningly. Thanks to the stress response you run like crazy and seek out the nearest safe location where the mad animal won’t be able to harm you. If you are lucky you get away from the animal and find such a location. You then realize that the animal can no longer harm you and pretty soon your rapidly thumping heart, fast breathing, fearful feeling and all the other symptoms of the stress response start to dissipate. You now start to feel calmer and more relaxed as your body returns to the normal physiological state that it was in before your scary encounter with the mad dog.
On the other hand when you are continually exposed to stressors such as continuous thoughts or anticipation about some possible future stressful event or the frequent reactivation of trauma-related memories then the stress response is turned on all, or most, of the time resulting in the continuous production of stress hormones, especially cortisol.
Since human beings have not been built to withstand such a persistent onslaught the inevitable outcome of a persistently turned-on stress response is damage to their brains, their minds and their bodies. In other words they become emotionally and physically ill. This is the unfortunate result of chronic or persistent stress which occurs due to a stress response which remains activated over a period of days, weeks, months or years.
As a medical doctor whose professional life also involves the business world at various times I, like many of my colleagues around the world, treat many patients who suffer from illnesses which are caused by stress. In fact it has been shown that most people who seek help from their doctor do so because they are suffering from an emotional or physical ailment which was brought on by stress. And in the business world I have seen the destructive effects that stress has on the performance of individuals and companies.
Unfortunately though many people do not recognize that this is the case and therefore do not take the necessary steps to prevent their stress from spiraling out of control and causing them some form of harm. And in many cases quite serious harm. But even worse untreated stress causes people to die!
So it is very important then to know exactly what stress is and what it can do to you. And the stress we are talking about is 'chronic' or 'on-going' stress. Short-lived stress or stress which lasts for less than an hour or two is normal and part of our survival mechanism. For example if you are hiking in the forest and you spot a grizzly bear coming towards you, your most likely reaction would be to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction until you are out of danger. You would have done so because of the stress response which was triggered by the sighting of the animal. Because short-lived stress helps to keep us alive our bodies and minds have adapted to withstand this type of stress and it causes us no harm.
The problem though, and I am sure your will agree, is that we live in a world where we are constantly exposed, not to grizzly bears, but to many things which we often think of as a threat to our well-being. Although these threats may be real or just perceived as real, our brain and body responds in the same way to both - by triggering the stress response in order to deal with the threats. And it is this constant triggering of the of the stress response which is so destructive to the brain and body since they are not designed to withstand such persistent stress. The end result is that we suffer from one or other emotional or physical illness, or frequently, both. But the scary thing is that many patients I have spoken to who were suffering from a stress-related illness and who were told that their sickness was due to their chronic stress actually believed that chronic stress is normal!
They often say something to the effect that 'I thought that being stressed was normal' or would ask the question 'Is stress not normal doctor?' This is just a sad reflection of today's world. A world which provides us with stressful experiences so often that we have come to believe that they are normal.
But chronic stress is of course not your normal or natural state of being because if it was you would want to experience its effects all of the time. You would want to be in a state of sickness and misery as often as possible because this would be your natural state of being. And of course you would not pay good money for assistance to get into a better, happier and healthier state of being - which is what most sick people of course do.
Alright, so what does stress actually do to you?
Firstly, as I have said stress can cause people to die. This, I am sure you will also agree, is its most devastating effect. And in many cases these are people who have died prematurely. In other words they would most probably have gone on to live long and productive lives had it not been for the destructive stress which shortened their lifespans so tragically.
Secondly, on-going stress causes you to get old before your time. Chronological or calendar age is your age in time i.e. it is the number of years you have lived or the period of time that has passed from the day you were born to the present day. Real age on the other hand is the actual biological age of your body as measured by special tests which scientists have developed based on their research into the aging process.
Now you can of course be younger, older or at the same age as your chronological age. In other words although your calendar age may reflect the number of years that have passed since you were born, from a biological point of view the state of your body may be the same as that of a person of the same age as you or that of a younger or older person. And people who are biologically younger or older than their calendar age tend to look and feel the same - and often also behave the same - as a younger or older person. So just by eliminating your persistent stress you will have gone a long way in slowing down your aging process.
Happy people generally feel continually positive and joyful and rarely do they experience negative emotions. Negative emotions are often referred to as 'baggage' and are usually the result of negative or traumatic experiences and memories, negative beliefs and negative thoughts. Unhappy, disturbed or dysfunctional people are frequently said to be 'carrying a lot of baggage'. What this means is that such miserable people feel weighed down or burdened by all their negative feelings or emotions and usually see the world as a difficult or harsh place to be in.
Since unhappiness is a miserable or unnatural state of being, most people engage in activities which will create the necessary conditions in which they will feel happier. Having a safe and comfortable home, other material possessions and wealth or financial security for example, are certainly conditions which add to one’s happiness. However even these conditions are unable to protect you from the unhappiness and misery brought on by chronic stress.
In fact it has been found that traumatic experiences such as abuse in childhood prevent the stress response from being inhibited by those parts of the brain responsible for this function. Such traumatic experiences actually suppress the genes in these parts of the brain from their normal function of limiting or stopping the stress response. It has been found for example that such suppressed genes are commonly found in the brains of unhappy, depressed people who have committed suicide and were known to have had traumatic childhoods. Such childhoods can therefore lead to a life of chronic stress regardless of conditions or material possessions. Of course chronic stress resulting from any cause, including inherited negative memories and traumatic experiences during anytime of a person's life and not only an unhappy childhood will reduce the feelings of safety, comfort and security that wealth and material possessions bring.
Now stressful experiences also commonly cause people to become anxious. And anxious people are unhappy people. As you may know anxiety in its various forms, is an extremely common emotional disorder suffered by many people around the world. And a large number of them rely on very dangerous medications such as the benzodiazepines. These dangerous drugs are not only harmful to you because of their side effects but also have tragic habit-forming or addictive properties. Anxiety-ridden people who are dependent on these drugs often experience a difficult uphill battle when they try to stop using them.
It has also been found that lonely people often suffer from stress and sadly, frequently become depressed because of it. And such lonely and depressed people are often more prone to infection and sickness due to their weakened immune systems.
I could of course go on and on describing to you the many other stress-related conditions which make people miserable and unhappy, conditions such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder for example but this is beyond the scope of this article. The point is that there is sufficient evidence which shows that stress and happiness have an ‘opposite’ relationship. In other words stress - filled people are unhappy people.
So, sadly, as you have seen, stress causes people much harm and misery. This is not surprising, since it is responsible for up to ninety-five percent of the illnesses that afflict human beings, as I have mentioned. And since we humans are made up of trillions of cells, stress inevitably has an effect on us at the level of our cells. Amongst others, these effects include the following:
O stress makes our wounds take much longer to heal
O stress makes us more vulnerable to developing auto-immune diseases
O stress weakens our immune system and makes us more prone to cancers and infections
O stress impairs the ability of our cells (both brain and body cells) to communicate effectively.
OK, we have seen that stress makes you sick and unhappy. But not only that, stress also makes you financially poorer! Stress takes money out of your pocket.When you are stressed and become ill because of it, you of course need to pay your doctor or other healthcare provider for his or her services in assisting you to get out of this unhappy state. And you either pay your doctor directly in cash or via your health insurance company or medical aid. However, regardless of how you pay you lose money each time you get sick.This is money which could have been put to better use. And the more often you get ill, the more money it costs you to get well of course until you reach a point where you are unable to pay any more – or your insurance company or medical aid informs you that your funds have dried up. Many chronically-stressed people are, unfortunately, all-too-familiar with this scenario.
And if this scenario was not bad enough, worse still is the fact that the cost of healthcare has been spiraling out of control for many years now, making healthcare unaffordable for more and more people – even those not suffering from chronic stress!
So sickness is not only a miserable and unpleasant experience but it also costs a lot of money to get out of this unnatural state of being. The reality is in fact that billions of rands in South Africa and trillions of dollars in the USA, for example, are spent each year on assisting millions of sick people in these countries to get back into a healthy state of being. The same situation applies to many other countries around the world of course.
Here are some of the shocking amounts of money spent on healthcare:
• R125 billion in South Africa (2005)
• US$ 1, 99 trillion - or an estimated $6,697 for each US citizen (2005)
• US$ 4.1 trillion globally! (2004)
But stress and illness not only makes people poorer, it also robs them of their time. So Stress also takes time out of your day – and makes you less productive. Stressed and ill people often take time off from work to rest and recuperate and therefore often have a worse absenteeism record than healthier people. Because of their frequent bouts of illness they also tend to achieve less or are less productive than healthier people. Time that is spent in a state of stress and illness could, like your money, be put to better use I am sure will agree.
Now, given all its negative and harmful effects, is it possible to get rid of chronic stress completely and prevent it from ever returning?
YES, it is possible! With an effective, scientifically-proven stress elimination program it is absolutely possible for you to live a life completely free of persistent stress.
If stress is making you sick and unhappy, disrupting your life and preventing you from getting ahead then completing such a program is a must for YOU.
And although the tools, techniques and practices of such a program should be scientifically-proven, in my view for any stress elimination program to be highly effective it should also provide you with an insight into chronic stress from different perspectives. Gaining an insight into stress from various perspectives is important because it deepens your understanding and knowledge of the condition. And equally important it shows you ‘why’ and ‘how’ the various tools, techniques and practices used to control and eliminate persistent stress work. A deeper insight and greater knowledge and understanding of chronic stress makes it more probable too that this knowledge will be applied through utilizing and implementing the various tools, techniques and practices.
So what are these perspectives?
Firstly, any highly-effective stress-elimination program should provide you with an insight into chronic stress from a clinical perspective. And what better way to do so than by enabling you to learn about this very destructive condition through the eyes of a very busy emergency room doctor who treats patients suffering from various stress-related illnesses. The narration of the experiences of such a doctor on one of his shifts for example provides you with a perspective of chronic stress you will never personally experience of course (that is unless you are an emergency room doctor yourself). Such a story should place you in the mind of the doctor, revealing to you his thoughts about his stress-filled patients and their conditions as he goes about treating them. But not only this. By being in the mind of the doctor his intimate thoughts pertaining to the control of his own stress in the high-stress emergency room should also be revealed to you. Your chances of eliminating persistent stress from your life are enhanced by getting into the mind of such a doctor and learning from his experiences.
Secondly, for any stress elimination program to be highly effective it should take you on a journey through the brain and body to see what transpires here when you experience stress. This journey should give you a vivid description of the important chemical and neurological processes which take place during the stress response. During this time you should get to know what a stressor is, including the most common one (which surprises most people when they are told about it). And you should also find out why you may become frozen stiff or either put up good fight or run like crazy when you feel threatened. This journey should also reveal to you what keeps you in your growth-inhibiting comfort zone and what you should do to get out of it. Such a journey is imperative for anyone serious about eliminating chronic stress from his or her life.
Now on to the third perspective of chronic stress which encompasses the various emotional and physical illnesses or disorders caused by this affliction. Learning about these disorders, their symptoms and treatment and whether their future outcome or prognosis is good or bad also contributes to increasing your insight and knowledge of persistent stress. The emotional disorders of anxiety and depression have previously been mentioned and gaining more in-depth information on these all-too-common and debilitating conditions is an important aspect of your attainment of greater insight and knowledge of persistent stress. And of course so too is more in-depth information on the devastating stress-related physical illnesses such as strokes and heart attacks which are the leading causes of death and disability across the world. If you are serious about eliminating chronic stress from your life then it is imperative that you know about these illnesses and their consequences.
So that’s it. Once you have gained this greater insight into and knowledge of this highly-destructive phenomenon known as chronic stress you should ready and willing to implement and utilize the scientifically-proven tools, techniques and practices which will help you to completely eradicate persistent stress from your life. Discussing these various cutting edge and highly effective tools, techniques and practices is of course beyond the scope of this article. However, you can find this information, including a discussion on the various perspectives described above, in the stress elimination program “Goodbye Stress – How to Live a Stress-free Life” Get this program and experience what many people have not - a life free of chronic stress!
Listed below are 2 proved methods which help people to lower diabetes risk
Were you aware that unwanted weight has become the primary risk factor for type 2 diabetes?
Yes, additional circumstances, for example genes and aging do are likely involved in diabetes. But a global Obesity Task Force estimated in 2002 that 60 percent of diabetes cases around the globe were due to fat gain, and in Western nations it turned out nearer to 90 %.
In case you are obese or overweight, you might be 90 times as more likely to develop diabetes type 2 symptoms as somebody who is just not, as outlined by a review of medical literature published in 2003 by University of Kentucky and other researchers.
Based on Gerald Bernstein, MD, director of the diabetes management program at the Gerald J. Friedman Diabetes Institute at Beth Israel Hospital in Nyc, fat cells which are near your belly work to block the action of insulin, that is necessary to lower the blood glucose.
Insulin normally triggers the liver to take up extra blood glucose and store the energy for future use. When the liver is submerged in fat tissue, insulin can't get the liver to react.
Consequently, blood sugar can accumulate inside the bloodstream, where it could damage organs all over your body. But even a relatively moderate level of weight reduction and exercise can help you avoid diabetes.
Frequent exercise makes cells more sensitive to insulin, in order that they absorb more blood sugar. Exercise also improves your cholesterol and lowers hypertension.
The 3 factors are essential. People who have either prediabetes or diabetes possess a much greater risk of cardiac problems than other people inside population and controlling all three can lower that risk.
In the 2002 study, people who have prediabetes reduced their risk of diabetes by 58 percent after reducing weight, eating better, and exercising 150 minutes weekly in comparison to those that didn't.
One common goal is by using a pedometer and aim for walking at least 10,000 steps every day.
Exercise helps even though you don't slim down. But if you undertake, you've got added protection against the disease. You don't have to lose a bunch of weight to profit.
According to Nadine Uplinger, RD, a professional diabetes educator and director of the Gutman Diabetes Institute in the Albert Einstein Health-care Network in Philadelphia, Losing approximately 7 percent of the weight may prevent or delay diabetes.
And also you? What you really are waiting for? Start to eat healthy and exercise from today!
Who am i ?: Dolly R. Ohara is writing for the http://www.insulinneedles.net/ website, her personal hobby blog devoted to suggestions to help individuals to stop Diabetes and raise the awareness on healthy eating.
Mainstream health care isn't based on "health" or "caring." It's actually based on an engrained system of medical mythology that's practiced -- and defended -- by those who profit from the continuation of sickness and disease. This system of medical mythology might also simply be called "lies", and today I'm sharing with you the top ten lies that are still followed and promoted under mainstream health care in America today.
Lie #1) Vaccines make you healthy
Vaccines have emerged as the greatest and most insidious mythology yet fabricated by western medicine. The idea that vaccines protect you from infectious disease is blatantly false in the long term because this year's flu shot actually makes you more susceptible to next year's influenza.
On top of that, even the theoretical short-term effectiveness of vaccines is dwarfed by the far more effective protection offered by vitamin D and other immune-modulating nutrients.
Lie #2) Pharmaceuticals prevent disease
The big push by Big Pharma is now focused on treating healthypeople with drugs as if pharmaceuticals were nutrients that could somehow preventdisease. This is the new push with cholesterol drugs: Give 'em to everyone, whether they have high cholesterol or not!
But pharmaceuticals don't prevent disease, and medications are not vitamins. Your body has no biological need for any pharmaceuticals at all. People who believe they need pharmaceuticals have simply been the victims of "fabricated consent" engineered by Big Pharma's clever advertising and P.R. spin.
Lie #3) Doctors are experts in health
Doctors don't study health; they study disease. Modern doctors are taught virtually nothing about nutrition, wellness or disease prevention. Expecting a doctor to guide you on health issues is sort of like expecting your accountant to pilot a jet airliner -- it's simply not something he or she has ever been trained in.
That's not to say doctors aren't intelligent people. Most of them have high IQs. But even a genius can't teach you something they know nothing about.
Lie #4) You have no role in your own healing
Doctors, drug companies and health authorities all want you to believe that yourhealth is determined by theirinterventions. If you believe them, you have virtually no role in your own health or healing -- it's all managed by their drugs, their screening, their surgeries and their interventions.
Lie #5) Disease is a matter of bad luck or bad genes
Western medicine wants you to believe in the mythology of spontaneous disease-- disease that strikes without cause. This is equivalent to saying that disease is some sort of voodoo black magic and that patients have no way to prevent disease through their own diets or lifestyle choices.
It's funny, actually: Western medicine claims to be driven by scientific, rational thinking, and yet the entire industry still fails to acknowledge that chronic disease always has a causeand that most of the time, that cause has everything to do with nutritional deficiencies, exposure to toxic chemicals and a lack of exercise.
Disease is almost never a matter of bad luck or bad genes.
Lie #6) Screening equals prevention
Western medicine doesn't believe in disease prevention. Rather, the industry believes in screeningwhile calling it prevention. But screening isn't prevention by even the wildest stretch of the imagination. In fact, virtually all the popular screening methodologies actually promote diseases.
Mammography, for example, emits so much radiation that it causes breast cancer in tens of thousands of women each year. Imaging dyes used in radiological scans can cause horrific side effects, and psychiatric "disorder" screening is little more than a thinly-disguised patient recruitment scheme disguised as medicine.
Real prevention of disease must involve disease prevention through nutrition, patient education about the causes of disease and lifelong changes in eating habits. Yet western medicine teaches absolutely none of these things. Heck, it doesn't even believein such ideas.
Lie #7) Health insurance will keep you healthy
This is a favorite lie of those who recently pushed for the Big Pharma-sponsored health care reform that has swept across America. The lie supposes that merely having health insurance will provide some sort of magical protection against disease. But in reality, health insurance doesn't make you healthy! It is only YOU and your choices about foods, exposures to toxic chemicals, pursuit of exercise and time in nature that can make you healthy.
Health insurance is, in effect, a wager that you will get sick. How does gambling on your sickness provide any protection whatsoever for your health? It doesn't. Personally, I'd rather bet on health than sickness, and the way to do that is to invest in nutritional supplements, organic produce, superfoods, physical fitness and non-toxic personal care products.
Lie #8) Hospitals are places of health and healing
If you want to stay healthy or get healthy, a hospital is the very lastplace you want to find yourself: They are unhappy, unhealthy places that are infested with antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Hospitals usually serve disease-promoting foods and lack health-enhancing sunlight, and potentially deadly mistakes with pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures now appear to be frighteningly common in U.S. hospitals.
Certainly, emergency rooms in hospitals play an important role in urgent care for injuries and accidents -- and emergency room physicians do an amazing job saving lives -- but for people with chronic, degenerative disease, a hospital is a very dangerous place to be. Unless you really need immediate critical care, try to avoid hospitals.
Lie #9) Conventional medicine is "advanced" state-of-the-art medicine
Even though doctors and health authorities try to pass off western medicine as being "advanced" or "modern," the whole system is actually very outdated and stuck in the germ theoryof disease. Western medicine has yet to even acknowledge the role of nutrition in preventing disease -- something that has been scientifically documented for at least the last several decades. Western medicine fails to acknowledge mind-body medicine and hilariously believes the mind plays virtually no role in healing.
Neither does western medicine acknowledge the bio energy field of living systems, nor that organ transplants carry memories, nor that living food is qualitatively different from dead food. Seriously: Conventional doctors still believe that dead food is exactly the same as living food! (And the USDA food pyramid still makes no distinction between the two...)
Lie #10) More research is needed to find "cures"
This lie is especially hilarious because western medicine does not believe in any "cure" for any disease. They aren't even looking for cures! This lie has been repeated since the 1960's, when cancer scientists claimed they were only a few years away from curing cancer. Today, four decades later, can you think of a single major disease that western medicine has cured? There aren't any.
That's because drug companies make money from sick people, not cured people. A patient cured is a patient lost. It is far more profitable to keep patients sick and pretend to "manage" their disease through a lifetime of pharmaceuticals. So when drug companies and disease non-profits claim to be searching for a "cure," what they're really doing is taking your money to fund more drug research to patent more medications that don't actually cure anything.
The cures already exist in nutrition, herbal remedies and naturopathic medicine, but Big Pharma and the conventional medicine cartel isn't interested in real cures -- they only want to promote the ideaof a cure while pumping patients full of drugs that don't cure anything.
True fact: It is illegal in every U.S. state for a doctor to recommend any vitamin, nutrient or food for the prevention or treatment of any disease. Doing so can cause a doctor to have his medical license permanently revoked.
This article is from NaturalNews.com
Does any of this bother you?
You do not need to place your well being in the hands of any entities that are only interested in making money off of your discomfort!
It is time for the people to take control of their well being!
I would like you to picture this scenario if you will…
Everyday, across the world, millions and millions of people visiting - no, inundating – doctor’s surgeries, clinics and hospital emergency rooms.
Now my question to you is: What drives these millions and millions of people to these places all of the time when I’m sure they would prefer doing something more useful with their time?
Of course your answer will be: Because they are sick!
And you are right.
Yes, it is sickness which compels millions and millions of people to visit these places.
Now my second question to you is? What is the commonest cause of their sickness? In other words what is the commonest reason why people visit a doctor’s surgery, clinic or hospital emergency room?
The answer to that question is the subject of my talk today.
And the answer is………..STRESS!
Yes stress is the cause of up to 90% of the illnesses that are treated in a primary healthcare setting such as a doctor’s surgery, clinic or hospital emergency room.
So today I will talk about stress: What it is and What it does to you.
But a more important question you would like to have answered I’m sure is: Can one eliminate stress completely from one’s life?
I will answer this question briefly below.
Alright, I will start off by describing what stress is.
However, before describing what stress is, it is important that I explain to you what a stressor is.
A stressor is anything that brings on or activates a specific response – called the stress response - within our brains and our bodies. This response is characterized by physiological changes such as a change in our heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, pupil size and chemical balance amongst others.
So what then is stress?
Stress is the experience we have in response to exposure to one or more stressors.
And the reason that the body and brain respond the way they do to the stressor is due to the perceived threat that the stressor poses to the survival or well-being of the person exposed to it.
Now there are 3 types of stressors - physical, chemical and psychological or emotional.
Physical stressors include things such as cold, heat or injuries.
Chemical stressors are things such as pollutants, toxins and poisons etc
And
Psychological stressors include worry or concern about various things, relationship difficulties, conflict at work etc. In fact a closer look will reveal that these stressors are actually the thoughts associated with the situations just mentioned i.e. they are your thoughts you generate about, or your perceptions of, these situations.
It is important then to realize that…
Your very thoughts alone can induce the stress response and cause you to experience stress!
So what does stress do to us?
Well, as we have said, stress is responsible for up to 90% of the illnesses that are treated in a primary healthcare setting. And they include both physical and emotional illnesses such as high blood pressure, spastic colon, depression and anxiety and panic disorders amongst the many others.
Now at this point it is important to mention that the stress response is in fact a normal response. It is an attempt by the brain and body to correct the physiological imbalances which are brought on by exposure to one or more stressors.
The stress response is thus a survival response and the body and brain are well-equipped and designed to withstand short episodes of the stress response i.e. episodes which last from a few minutes to an hour or two at most. For example if we are threatened by an aggressive dog our stress response kicks in and we run to a safe location. The stress response then dissipates and we return to our normal physiological state.
This normal and short-lived stress response is known as acute stress.
The problem arises though when we are continually exposed to stressors such as continual negative thoughts for example, then the stress response is turned on all, or most, of the time. And since we humans have not been designed to withstand such a persistent onslaught , a continually turned-on stress response causes severe damage to our brains, our minds and our bodies. In other words we become emotionally and physically ill.
This is the unfortunate result of chronic or persistent stress which occurs due to a stress response which remains activated over a period of days, weeks, months or years. And so by reducing - or preferably eliminating - chronic stress from our lives we will become happier, healthier, and even more intelligent.
Now let me get back to the question I asked earlier viz. Can you eliminate stress completely from your life? And of course I am referring to chronic stress.
The answer? Yes! Chronic stress can be completely eliminated from your life.
There are many powerful techniques, technologies and practices which you can use to help you eliminate stress from your life. However discussion of these is beyond the scope of this article.
Wishing you a life of Health, Wellness and Great Performance!
