The article “Visualize your way to a more relaxed holiday season” by Dr. Dwight Chapin in the Globe and Mail today offers some interesting information about stress.
- An estimated 80 to 90 per cent of all disease is strongly influenced by stress.
- 70 to 90 per cent of family doctor visits are due to stress-related issues.
Stress drives somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,500 biochemical reactions within fractions of seconds of you facing the stress. Neurotransmitters are activated, hormones are released and nutrients are metabolized.- …when confronted with a stressor, physical or emotional, in the wild or in the toy store, our internal chemistry changes fast. And your body will attempt to maintain an elevated level of performance until your mind tells you that the stressful situation has passed. The whole process takes roughly 30 to 60 minutes – a return to your normal baseline isn’t instantaneous.
- To compound things, if you encounter a second stressor before the first one is fully resolved, you have a pile-on effect. Stress is cumulative.
- As you head into the holidays, pay attention to these common signs and symptoms of stress: headache; fatigue and trouble sleeping; back, shoulder and neck pain; anxiety and depression; digestive trouble; irritability and mood swings; dizziness and/or light-headedness.
- The good news is that the body is brilliant at letting us know when we are struggling to keep pace. Listen and react. (My bolding — this is excellent advice!) Proactively take control of the holiday calendar and schedule recovery time.
Don’t forget that you have tools at your disposal, such as the Line of Calm and the Open Your Heart techniques, that can help you anytime, anywhere, in the moment. Practice them now so that you will be able to use them automatically when you start feeling that stress coming on.
What stress….zzzzz…..zzzz…
Best of all, if you use these techniques every evening in bed before falling asleep, you can release the stress you accumulated that day. It’s kind of like paying the bills before the interest accumulates — except it doesn’t cost you anything but one minute of your time!
Learn quick and easy self healing to reduce your stress. It’s the best gift you can give yourself during the holidays or anytime!
Touchy Subjects 