Ever open an e-mail and suddenly your heart starts beating faster?
Up to a point stress serves an important purpose. One reason we need a stress response is to help us identify threats to our survival. The nervous system is designed to analyze all of the events from the past and compare them to our current situation. It then uses that information to keep us safe. If some incidents were too disturbing or lasted too long the nervous system may over-react to keep us protected. This extreme physical, emotional reaction is called “fight or flight”. Here are some examples that may be familiar to you.
- An upsetting e-mail makes the body react like your life is threatened
- Your nervous system never relaxes, it becomes hyper-vigilant
- You become so cautious you isolate to avoid any possible risk
- You don’t sleep well because you never feel safe
- Your nervous system is always on high alert so you become moody, angry, or sad
- You learn ways to reduce stress that are not healthy, such as drugs, alcohol, excess eating
- Over time your adrenal glands become exhausted and you start getting sick
The first step is to realize if the stress you are feeling is appropriate for what is actually occurring in your life. Second, you need a plan to reduce what stress you can. Third, you need to learn specific techniques to neutralize the stress you are holding from earlier experiences. Consider prior relationships, accidents, health history, and current circumstances. Learn to reduce the negative impact they may have had on your nervous system and how they are hurting your quality of life.
If you feel that stress is interfering with your life unnecessarily, then I invite you to set up an appointment so that I can assist you with proven holistic treatments and relief.
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