With the change of seasons, back-to-school and shorter days - we're fighting the fall blues over here.
Have you ever questioned the effects of stress on your day-to-day life? If ignored, the chronic thoughts, situation and/or behavior patterns may lead to the following sequence of events, resulting in “running on empty”. (And I’m not referring to that great Jackson Brown song!)
1. You think about something stressful: work, money, relationships, family, whatever’s occupying a lot
2. Your amygdala (in your mid-brain) senses danger.
3. Your amygdala helps to initiate your body’s “fight-or-flight” response to stress.
4. In “fight-or-flight”, your body releases adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone), diverts blood away from your digestive system, leaving youless able to digest food and absorb nutrients AND
5. In this physiological “crisis mode”, you’re more vulnerable to pain from headaches, chronic illness, arthritis, fibromyalgia, migranes, stomach upset, and more.
6. Because of this heightened physiological alert, your brain’s creative center is deemed “non-essential” and shuts down. Down go your problem solving and creative skills, as well as your intuition.
7. You feel increasingly irritable, isolated and impatient. Your relationships suffer.
8. Stress affects your sleep, and your metabolism slows down.
9. Your body secretes even more cortisol, wrecking havoc on your digestion (waist line), increasing your blood pressure and lowering your immune response.
10. After releasing too much cortisol for too long, your body goes into “adrenal fatigue”. You feel depleted, exhausted, and depressed. More headaches.
11. You no longer have the energy to adhere to your exercise routine, your healthy eating, or meditation. Migranes, insomnia, stress-related hair loss, chronic pain, headaches and any number of other issues appear.
12. Now battling low energy, you can hardly focus at work or elsewhere, for that matter. Your relationships suffer, your safety diminishes in areas requiring focus (driving).
13. Your depression deepens. You (and your body) are STRESSED OUT! You are now “RUNNING ON EMPTY"!
HEADACHES are a prime symptom of stress. The headache and all other body aches are not to beignored. It’s one of your body’s primary ways of shouting to you: of shouting out that something is very wrong. PAY ATTENTION.
Relief is simple - enjoy a relaxing or invigorating massage and/or foot reflexology session to help relieve your stress and bring your health back.
Sara A Golden
