stressed out

Effects Of Stress – Stress Can Be Good For You?!

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Yes you read that right! Stress can be good for you!  As a Naturopathic Doctor, I spend a lot of time talking with patients about stress.  Usually, we’re talking about how to best manage and reduce stress as it tends to be an aggravating or even causal factor in so many ailments.  But what if the solution to managing stress is actually stress itself?  I know, it sounds counterintuitive right?  How can you reduce stress with more stress?

Acute vs Chronic Stress

Well first, I want to make an important distinction between acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress is the body’s short-term response to something stressful.  For example, if you were going to an important interview or giving a big presentation, acute stress would be that heart-racing, sweaty palms, nervous feeling you might have before or during the presentation.  This happens because your sympathetic nervous system is activated and your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.  However, once the presentation is over, things calm down and your parasympathetic nervous system is activated allowing your body to rest and recover.  This is your body’s normal response to stress and usually doesn’t cause any long term issues.

However, issues arise when your body is not given time to rest and recover.  This is where we get into chronic stress.  Chronic stress happens when you are repeatedly exposed to stressful situations.  For example, an overburdening work schedule or a stressful home environment.  This is the stress that lends itself toward many of the health issues that have been associated with stress.  Click here for more information on Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes.

Acute Stress Can Make You Cope Better

It turns out stress is not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s more about how we cope with stress that affects our health.  Research has shown that experiencing tolerable levels of that acute stress we talked about can actually lead to an improved resilience to stress overall.  What does this mean?  It means experiencing small stresses that don’t harm us can actually make us better able to cope with the inevitable stress that life may throw our way.

For example, choosing to do more things that force us out of our comfort zone.  Like giving that presentation or going to that interview that makes us nervous, can make us better able to cope with bigger life stresses.   The stress of a loved one falling ill or the stress of losing a job.  The key is to make sure we’re giving our bodies time to rest and recover in between stressful events.

What Can You Do With This Information?

Build your resilience to stress!  Try stepping outside of your comfort zone once in a while. Maybe make it a goal to try one new thing that makes you a little nervous every day. Challenge yourself while remembering to take time to rest and recover.  Click here for 5 Tips You Must Know to Destroy Stress Today!

Check out this month-long “Step outside your comfort zone!” calendar for ideas.

Sources

1. Oken, B. S., Chamine, I., & Wakeland, W. (2014). A systems approach to stress, stressors and resilience in humans. Behavioural brain research, 282, 144-54.

Do You Want to Kill Your Stress Once and For All? Do This.

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Kill Stress Once and For All

Stress has become an epidemic in our society. When someone asks “How are you?” the majority of people now answer “stressed”.

This is now a normal, accepted answer to which the reply is a nod in understanding, “Yes, me too.” It’s like we’re keeping up with the Jones’ to see who can be busier and more stressed out.

This has got to stop!!!!

There are obviously major reasons why we would feel stress, and this is our body’s way to kick on our adrenaline processes and potentially our fight or flight so that we can get through a trauma, injury, major life change or passing of a loved one.

But the daily stresses that are climbing and adding up need to be seriously revised.

The first problem is not having enough time to get everything done that life demands. The answer is that you need to ask for help.

Your children can be a great source of your home stress, so ask them to help you. Depending on their ages, give them special tasks to complete to help out around the house.

There is no reason your teenagers should hit the couch when they get home from school. They can help to start dinner, get their lunches ready for the next day and help to care for their siblings.

This is not taking away their freedom and childhood, it is giving them life skills and responsibilities that I promise, they will thank you for in the future. (What student wants to get to college or university, away from home for the first time and have absolutely no idea how to feed themselves? Let’s give them a chance!)

The most important thing you can do is to live in the present moment.

Right here in this moment (the only moment we actually have) there is no stress. We are consciously present. We are just working on this one task. There is no worrying about getting it done in time, ohh I only have 2 more hours, etc. because that is not living in the present moment. The stress arrives when we think about the future and think about how something will affect us when it arrives. But if we try to stay just in the moment we have, your stress will diminish drastically.

The other important thing you need to do is to detach from outcomes.

Put no weight or importance on the outcome of any event. This is again, living in the present moment. For many things, we literally have no control over many situations and worrying about them can make us crazy. The outcome will unfold over time and we will deal with whatever happens at the time. Because we will be practicing being present in each moment and taking things minute by minute.

We must begin to consciously decide how our lives want to look and feel.

I’m sure that you are in agreement with me, we’ve all experienced enough stress for the rest of our lives just in the past few years. It’s time to let go of the panic of worrying about the future and fretting about the past and choose, decide today, to make every moment one of joy and contentment.

It’s so much nicer to live in a mindset that you actively choose, rather than to be sucked into the societal pressure of being stressed all the time. Your health will be so much better, and your personal and family life will be much happier. Share this new mindset with your family and friends to help them reduce their stress. Obviously it takes some time to train your mind to stay present but over time it will get easier and you will have a much more serene life.