Dear Reader – November 2009

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As a professional in this ever-changing world, sometimes it can feel as though everything depends on you and it is never easy. We’ve all heard it: Slow down! Take a deep breath! Simplify! Don’t overdo it! All too often, we are urged by loved ones and the medical community to reduce the stress in our lives for the sake of our physical and mental well-being; but we rarely listen! We usually push, urge on, and continue with our habits. As much as we acknowledge the benefits of stress reduction, we find it difficult to make the necessary changes. With the demands of today’s society – career, kids’ schools, property upkeep, family health, and so on, who has the luxury to live a stress-free life?
Think you have a handle on your stress? Think again. You are most likely associating stress with the “negative” experiences in your life; some examples include the pressure of project deadlines, business travels, financial burdens, illnesses, and living a hectic lifestyle in general. But don’t underestimate the toll that other “hidden” forms of stress have on us. What is considered stressful for the body and mind includes all forms of stressors, positive and negative.
Imagine this scenario: You leave work for the long sought after vacation, taking the red-eye flight so you can get a full day in at the beach the next day. You settle into your airplane seat and indulge in a beverage, reading a gripping novel to make the time go by faster. After a nerve-wracking taxi ride, you make it into the hotel. The next morning you get in a quick workout, take a shower, and treat yourself to the large breakfast buffet. With no time to waste, you race to the beach, thriller in hand. Sound familiar? All of these above mentioned activities – as positive as they are – still constitute stress for the body and mind. We are in such a routine with our patterns; it is sometimes hard to escape them to begin relaxing.
According to London-based nutrition expert Patrick Holford, “those who struggle with stress in their lives have most likely become addicted to it… the net result is tiredness, exhaustion, lethargy, apathy, poor concentration.”
The answer: evaluate your “downtime” activities and determine whether they are truly stress-free (remember: yelling at the TV during Monday Night Football is not what your body calls “relaxing”). Listen to your body and give it the break it deserves. And remember to breathe.
During our everyday lives, we tend to overwork and ignore our breathing habits. And every so often we let out a big sigh. Why? It’s a sign that the body needs more oxygen. When you inhale oxygen in your body, it delivers it to your muscles and other organs, giving your body a chance to relax. When you are stressed or overworked, you unconsciously take shorter breaths. Your brain is trying to operate with less and less oxygen, and it can impact your thought process and during drastic instances, cause you to think impractically. When we are acting out with our emotions, we are told to breathe. “Take three deep breaths,” my dad always told me when I was upset. It calms your body and clears your head. When I am stressed from a long day at work, it seems those three deep breaths make all the difference. It helps relax your mind and clears your thoughts.
The “fight or flight response” also deals with our stress response. This shows stress in the sense of being valuable and potentially vital. When our bodies reach a point of excessive stress, a bodily reaction is triggered. This “fight or flight response” is built into our brains to prepare the body for either fighting or running. During this instance, we tend to perceive everything in our environment as a possible threat to our survival. We overreact on sensitive comments; we think distortedly; we keep our heart closed; we make our fears seem exaggerated. When this happens to us, the most important thing is to realize what is going on in the body. This is a sign our body gives us to let us know that we need to calm down. Take a few deep breaths. Relax. And most importantly, when you do relax, resist the urge to get up and do something!