Stress is a word we hear a lot. There are different levels and types which can be different for everyone. For example:
- Stressing out about a presentation, performance, event or exam
- Stressing out about your job
- Stressing out about your family, friends, or loved ones
- Stressing out about finances, your future, your safety
- and some of us, unfortunately, have stress about having access to basic needs like clean water, shelter and a place to sleep
We can feel it in our bodies, we can feel it in our minds and we are told all the time, “You need to find ways to reduce your stress”. How can one reduce it if we are constantly surrounded by events, people, conditions that stress us out? It seems like it would be a huge feat to change everything around us… because it is.
You don’t “get” stress, it is accumulated over time, and with this accumulation, the body tries to balance itself by releasing the hormonal response which, if prolonged, can have a negative trickle-down effect on organs and other body systems. So how does stress accumulate?
What stresses one person, will not necessarily stress you. For example, not everyone is affected by the idea of standing up in front of a crowd, or if they get a bad grade on a test. Not everyone reacts the same to a natural disaster or a major life event. People from North America have very different worries than someone in a less economically developed country, for example, where one’s physical safety can be at risk, a simple infection could mean death and putting food on the table is the primary concern. Our perception of things is a huge contributor to the physiological stress response.
The stress response and development of allostatic load are illustrated. Perception of stress is influenced by one’s experiences, genetics, and behavior. When the brain perceives an experience as stressful, physiologic and behavioral responses are initiated leading to allostasis and adaptation. Over time, allostatic load can accumulate, and the overexposure to neural, endocrine, and immune stress mediators can have adverse effects on various organ systems, leading to disease. Full article on Nature.com.
As a holistic health practitioner, I look at your unique perception of your experiences and which ones you find stressful and those you don’t. I facilitate the exploration of what is going on in you from an emotional, mental, physical and even existential, perspective – we then observe a “picture” come together of what needs to be addressed as a whole (not in parts). Your perceptions of your experiences can change, your behaviours and reactions can change, and even your genes get turned on and off. I use homeopathy to help quell the core stress response.
Book a FREE 15-min session to see how we can work together to get you un-stressed!
Recent Comments