#StressManagement #MentalHealthMatters #WellnessJourney #Mindfulness #ChronicStress #Breathwork #RelaxationTechniques
Stress. We all know the feeling. It’s the racing heart as you prepare to speak during your work meeting. It’s the hot surge felt in your chest and arms during that disagreement with your partner and the breathlessness you feel when you try to navigate your financial responsibilities.
We all encounter stress throughout our lives. Sometimes stress can propel us into positive action - like that motivating push to study for the exam or summing up the courage to talk to the new love interest. However, when stress is a recurring, daily force in your life it can quickly become negative, sapping your body’s energy, creating mental fatigue, triggering health issues and damaging your mental health.
The Body’s Natural Response to Stress
Have you ever noticed how when facing a stressful situation, your body grows uneasy. The sweaty palms that break out just before that job interview. You may feel lightheaded, shallow breath, a tense pulled in posture and a racing mind making it difficult to think clearly.
This instinctual reaction, known as the “fight or flight” response, has roots going back to our earliest ancestors. Developed as a survival mechanism, the stress response helped them escape predators and increased the chance of survival. When faced with danger, the body reacts by releasing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones elevate your heart rate, increase blood pressure, boost energy levels, and prime your body to confront the challenge at hand.
In modern times, you’re unlikely to encounter life-threatening situations on a daily basis, but everyday pressures can trigger the same physiological responses. For some people, these responses fire up regularly and the body is in a stressed state most of the time.
The Dangers of Chronic Stress
In every human life, a little stress is inevitable, but extended chronic stress states become increasingly hazardous to our general health. The recurring activation of the body’s sympathetic stress response, pumps excessive amounts of stress hormones into our system, affecting all body processes. Our body, believing it needs to focus on survival, shuts down key regulatory systems leading to irregular sleep cycles, poor digestion, weakened immune response and reduced mental focus and stifled creativity as the body seeks to preserve energy to fight the threat.
The Impact of Chronic Stress on Mental Health
It is commonly understood that prolonged stress is linked with heightened amygdala activity and increased anxiety responses, however stress is also closely linked to depression as well. Prolonged stress disrupts our neurotransmitter systems, leading to reduced serotonin and dopamine and can lead to feelings of exhaustion, low mood, and sluggish brain.
All this simply does not feel good. It might be confusing why we feel so run down and struggling to cope. As our body and brain goes more out of sync, we may increase unhealthy coping mechanisms such as overeating, excessively drinking, smoking and drug use as our weary hearts and minds grasp for any relief we can get.
Finding Peace: Simple Steps to Reduce Stress
What if you could access a metaphorical inner body dial that can turn down the stress response immediately? We often think that all our problems must be solved first before we can relax, but the truth is you have much greater access to peace and calm right here in this moment. Long term stress management begins with waking up the relaxation response. It involves activating the parasympathetic reset, which your body inherently knows how to do.
Here are some simple steps to give your mind a body a much needed relief:
1) Parasympathetic breathing:
Breathing exercises effectively manage stress by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation. They lower heart rate and blood pressure, enhance mental clarity, and encourage mindfulness. Convenient and quick, these techniques provide immediate relief and improve overall well-being anywhere, anytime:
Begin by finding a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose for a count of four, allowing your abdomen to rise. Hold your breath for a count of four. Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of six, feeling your body relax. Pause for a moment before inhaling again. Continue this cycle for 5 to 10 minutes, focusing on the rhythm of your breath. With each exhale, imagine releasing tension and stress.
2) Activate Mindfulness Using Your 5 Senses
Mindfulness helps with stress management by promoting present-moment awareness. By placing your focus on the present moment, you activate the mindful brain which when lit up, sends the message to your stress brain that it can calm down. Shifting you focus to the present moment, in particular your five senses, can lower stress hormones, enhance emotional regulation, and improve overall well-being.
Here is a handy infographic outlining a 5 sense mindfulness exercise:
3) Stress Relief Through Hypnosis: Finding Your Inner Calm
Hypnosis is an effective tool for stress management as it induces deep relaxation, calming both the mind and body. In a hypnotic state, individuals can focus on positive imagery and relaxation enhancing suggestions that help calm the body and reduce anxiety.
Hypnosis allows greater access to the subconscious, enabling exploration of underlying stressors to help you shift the stress triggers, such as negative thought patterns and unhealthy coping mechanisms, at their source.
Lastly, hypnosis accesses mindfulness and the innate wise mind that we all have. By tapping into your inner compass you can discover the motivation to increase self care and the wisdom to make the changes in your life that bring you greater peace.
A calm future ahead
Acknowledging the impact of chronic stress is the first step toward improved mental health. If you're facing these challenges, remember that support is available to guide you on your path to well-being. You're not alone—many resources are here to help you through this journey with hope and care.
If hypnosis interests you, have created The Calm Package - a customized hypnosis journey for rapid stress relief that teaches you the tools to turn down the noise and calm the body so you can live a stress free life.
I’m here to answer any questions you may have about hypnotherapy or any other of my healing modalities. I offer a free 20min meet and greet that you can schedule here at any time.
Feel free to comment, like or reach out. I would love to hear from you.
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