Stress is a really interesting topic. As a practitioner I always ask clients about their stress levels and over the years I had to break it down into various categories i.e.: work, home, relationships, environmental. What I noticed is if you asked the question broadly some people see stress as a failure….or a weakness….and would therefore say “I’m not stressed”!
In actual fact stress is something that given the right tools we can learn to work with, therefore reducing the impact it has on our wellbeing.
How can stress play out in our life?
- Physical symptoms
- Emotional responses
- Sleeplessness or disturbed sleep
- Mood changes
- Anxiety
- Depression
Lets have a look at a couple of physical symptoms :
Appetite can be affected, for some people when they are stressed they loose their appetite and they may experience nausea and weight loss. For others stress makes them eat – usually all the wrong things, sugar, fat and salty foods, often resulting in weight gain. Then how do we feel? Well for some of us that might be depressed! So right here with this example we may have been stressed, anxious and left in this example, depressed!
Other physical symptoms may include physical body ache’s and pains, anything from headaches to joint pain and particularly muscular aches. Having been a massage therapist for over 25 years the shoulders and neck are two area’s that often seem to be affected when it comes to stress, triggered by emotional stress, or postural stress (environmental, such as sitting at computer). Very much a condition of the 21st century.
When I think of physical pain, I often wonder what came first Pain or Stress? It’s a bit like chicken or egg, as Pain can absolutely cause a lots of physical and emotional stress and vice-a-versa, stress can often cause a lot of physical pain (think about – where do you feel stress in your body?)
Neurotransmitters are our brain’s chemical messengers and they have a profound influence on our overall wellbeing. If these neurotransmitter levels are low, these motivating and energising signals have diminished causing more stress and a sluggish feeling.
These Neurotransmitters effect:
Appetite
Stimulate adrenal and cortisol hormone release
Regulate male & female sex hormones
Regulate mood and thought processes
Regulate our concentration & focus, assist us to remember things
What are some things we can do to address stress and it’s effects ?
We can work with various approaches including- Mindfulness and meditation, Gentle exercise such as yoga, tai chi and Qi Gong as these all help us to balance Mind, Body and Spirit. These regular practices are very effective once you really commit to then! Take the time for you, you are the most precious person there is, and you give to so many other’s, you need to keep re-investing the time in you!
Dietary considerations are also very helpful and supportive, as when our gut is healthy it helps our overall well being, so having a program that can be great support, that works for you and your system is important. Along with balancing our nutritional intake via our food, we often need to boost that with some good quality nutritional support, minerals are often lacking in our modern diet mostly due to soil deficiencies. (If you’d like more information on this please contact me and I’ll forward you more info)
Finally, One of my specialty area’s – Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, this can lead to shifts within the body, particularly area’s of restriction, which when we are stressed what do we do? We usually tighten up, holding onto our stress and this in turn causes muscular tension, which in turn can lead to restrictions to our blood flow, lymphatic flow & impinge nerves etc.
BCST gives your body the opportunity to express itself in such away that it can connect with it’s own natural wisdom and original blueprint of health. The gentle craniosacral touch may bring about re-organisation that effects the physical, emotional and energetic, helping to reduce stress and anxiety and leaving the client to experience a deeper sense of relaxation.
A deep sense of relaxation gives our Autonomic Nervous System the opportunity to slow down, allowing all the systems of the body to settle. This gives our body an experience that maybe it’s not used to as we are often functioning on overdrive, rushing from one thing to the next.
If you are interested in booking a session, with the changing world we are living in Amanda is pleased to be able to offer personal online sessions. Working online with clients is amazingly effective and powerful, and it is a huge advantage for clients to be able to access support without having to travel anywhere. Soon to return to working from Ferntree Gully & Mitcham.
Many thanks
Amanda Dickie