We know we are alive because we have a body and it interacts with the world. These interactions can cause us stress. Stress is natural and we all have it, although we can deal with it in different ways. The stressor could be something vitally dangerous, like being attacked, or it could be something insidious and small, like getting in the slow lane of traffic. All day, big and small stressors impact our bodies, often in ways we don’t even notice.

The stress response is an an unconscious and automatic reaction to anything we find threatening. Our body prepares for either fight or flight through messages carried by the sympathetic branch of the nervous system. We are at full readiness as our body tenses and our breathing gets shallow and rapid. There is an increase in pulse rate, blood pressure and adrenaline production; a decrease in blood flow to the extremities, digestive function, and immune system activity.

Ideally, this defensive reaction would subside once the situation resolved and our body would return to its normal state. Often it does - when we eat right, rest, have relaxation tricks up our sleeves, or even an accepting mental attitude. Sometimes, however a person wo is frequently “stressed out” will tend to remain locked in a pattern of stress response, unable to relax or let go. This chronic stress response is damaging to the body – over time it can lead to discomfort or pain from tight muscles, stiff joints headaches, stomach aches, etc.. And sadly, it is often the first step down the long road to a disease..

The longer you are chronically stressed out, the more you become accustomed to it, it becomes your normal state, a state of dis – ease. The longer you have pain and stiffness, the more you try to block it out or power through it. If you don’t start to learn to care for yourself better, in natural and holistic ways, then you may begin to use drugs to deaden the nervous sytem, anything from pain killers to recreational drugs and alcohol. And although they will temporarily deaden the pain, stiffness or dis –ease, they only make matters worse in the long run because you lose touch with yourself – forgetting how to check in and do maintenance and damage control on your own mental and physical health.

Imagine driving a car with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake – this is how our bodies experience stress. Whenever we initiate an action and hold it back at the same time, or act while our mind is worried, or do things we really don’t want to do - our muscles obey both messages and work against each other. We use our muscles to block, control and restrain strong feelings and reactions. Even though we may be unaware of the amount of tension we are storing - this misuse of our body and mind only serves to wears us and tear us down.

See next page for Relaxation Response

2007 © Lisa Henderson, NC-LMBT #4665. This article not to be copied for commercial use.