The Latest Epidemic: Stress
Mascari, Brooke. August 11th, 2024
As a growing body of research is finding, chronic stress is the underlying cause of many illnesses, including heart disease, depression, anxiety, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and even some forms of cancer.
Our epidemic is silent and hidden, in the form of low-level chronic stress.
“The natural purpose of the body's stress response is to trigger heightened alertness and energy for a short period, a matter of minutes or at most an hour, when fighting or fleeing is a matter of survival. When stress becomes chronic, a "normal" way of life that people believe they have adapted to, stress hormones become a drip-drip in the background of the physiology, and over time, three stages of damage begin to appear; psychological and neural damage, behavioral damage, and physical damage.” (Tanzi)
The good news is that stress isn’t a force beyond our control. It doesn’t exist outside of us in the environment or external situations.
Stress is our perception of physical or psychological threats.
THE PERCEPTION OF STRESS
It’s not the traffic jam, looming deadline, driver who cut you off, or argument with our spouse that causes stress; it’s our thoughts and the story we tell ourselves about these situations that create the fear, emotional upset, racing heart rate, shallow breathing, surging adrenalin, and other symptoms of the stress response.
Consider how two people perceive the same event differently, such as riding a roller coaster:
One person may perceive roller coasters as an exciting adventure, plunging down the tracks in a tiny car suspended hundreds of feet in the air. It’s an exhilarating, fun, and euphoric experience!
But another person may dislike heights or the feeling of being out of control, riding a roller coaster can be a terrifying event to be avoided at all costs.
Stress does not lie in an external event but in our perception of the event.
With our infinitely creative minds, we have the power to shift our interpretation of a situation. We have the power to:
Find new value and enjoyment in something that previously frightened us.
Choose to let go of situations, habits, relationships, and anything else that is draining us and preventing us from enjoying our natural state of happiness and health.
MEDITATE DAILY
A daily practice of meditation is one of the best ways to release accumulated stress and shift our perceptions of our experiences.
In meditation, we experience a state of restful alertness that expands our creativity, intuition, and joy. We cultivate a witnessing awareness that allows us to stand back from a potentially stressful situation and respond with awareness rather than reacting with stress and anxiety.
Meditation along with some deep breaths is an excellent and often immediate way to bring ourselves out of a stress reaction. Often, even in the middle of a stress reaction, a few deep breaths or some mindful awareness is enough to bring us out of a stress reaction and into an empowering response.
Being able to come into a state of peaceful awareness state is the goal, where we can respond from this state instead of having a stressful unaware reaction.
A perception of stress that causes us to react and lose control can be a very un-empowering state. But this is not a state that we have to endure and live with. We can allow ourselves to become aware of others and ourselves in a way that brings us into a state of peace and calm. This state is caused by being aware!
Fear and stress do not have to be our future nor our current reality.
Love and blessings on your journey to perfect health and happiness,
Havah Holistic Health
