Stress Reduction? How?In modern life, stress reduction techniques need to be part of your wellness lifestyle plan. Stress is inescapable in modern life. Where does stress come from? Stress comes from many different areas of your life, including diet, your mind, tv, and from other outside sources. The first step in reducing stress in your life, is through diet. Yes, diet. What you put into your body has an effect. I am not saying you need to become a vegetarian, but red meats are known to release PG-E2, which is known to be inflammatory. Other pro-inflammatory that are common in the modern diet are: Omega 6 fatty acids Sugar Red meats Eggs (especially commercially produced eggs) Coffee (yes, even decaf ) Alcohol Bleached white flour products High Glycemic Index foods Of course mental and physical stress can also increase inflammation in the body. Biological imbalances, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.. also add stress to your body. To make matters worse, oxidation, adrenal fatigue, and improper rest all may inhibit your efforts to reduce stress in your body and in your life. Even though the link between stress reduction and diet my not be obvious, reducing biological stress should be your first step. Your diet should nourish your body, aid in biological function, and make you stronger. Reducing stress needs to start here.
The second step in your stress reduction program is to allow quiet time for yourself. What do you currently do to relax? Most people answer with: Watch TV Read Play video games Exercise While these are good methods for escapism, they do not allow your mind to rest. There are numerous studies that indicate, your mind responds to what you see and hear as if it were real. You can see this for yourself. Watch people watching sports, or an action movie. Notice how they are tense, they move their bodies in response to what they see. This is the same with reading books, you respond to the characters in the story. It may be fun, but is not serve as a stress reduction tool. This is not to say that you should not participate in such activities, but your body and your mind needs a "break" from daily activity. Take just 10-15 minutes per day to focus on a single thought. We are so used to multi-tasking we have lost the ability to focus. Combine this technique with the next one, for best results. The third step in your stress reduction program, is to regulate your breathing. When you were a child, you used your diaphragm to breath. As you get older, you start to breath more with your "assist" muscles, and use the diaphragm very little. Not only does this reduce your body's ability to take in air, but reduces your body's ability to remove toxic debris from cellular respiration. Put one hand on your chest, and one hand on your belly button. Now, take a deep breath, observe your hands. Did they both move? Which one moved first? When you breath in, your stomach should move outward as the diaphragm moves downward. Diaphragmatic breathing may seem simple, but can yield great benefits in aiding you in stress reduction. The benefits include: Relaxation. When you practice deep breathing your body switches from sympathetic nervous system, to parasympathetic nervous system. Switching your body from stress, to destress mode. This can help relax the blood vessels and decrease blood pressure. Detoxifies your body by increasing efficiency of air exchange with in the lungs. Improves cardiovascular health by delivering more oxygen to our cells. Aids in sleep. A few deep breathes before sleep can have you relaxed and off to dreamland in no time at all. Increased blood flow to the organs in your abdomen. The movement of the diaphragm massages your organs and increases blood flow to them. Increased stress can put your body in a "fight or flight" mode, reducing blood flow to your digestion and your organs, and increasing blood to your muscles. Stress reduction, via diaphragmatic breathing can help restore the balance and increase circulation to your organs. This can all be done, from simply re-learning to breath as we did as children. If you combine the stress reducing technique of focus, with the stress reducing technique of proper breathing, it becomes even more powerful. This sounds simple, but does take time to perfect. Concentrate on your breathing, use the movement of your diaphragm as your focus. Doing this for 10-15 min per day can greatly reduce your stress.
You may not be able to control the amount of stress the world throws at you, but with these stress reducing techniques, you may be able to control how your body reacts to the stress. The first step, however, is to find out if your body is suffering from any internal stress. Start practicing the techniques discussed above, and order a metabolic test to determine the balance of various biological markers. This stress reducing plan can reduce the burden on your body, both biologically and mentally. While stress reduction is essential to your wellbeing, more often than not, there is a multi-faceted approach that is needed. |
