STRESS AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH

Everyone is affected by stress. Whether it’s tight deadlines or juggling a baby with work or whether it’s working on your new start up while you look after your ageing parents: we all face stress of some kind daily. What we may not know is: that daily stress adds up. It puts your body in a state of chronic stress creating a state where many diseases can take root.

The sympathetic nervous system, simply put, is the part responsible for action/ exciting you. The parasympathetic nervous system calms you.

Here are some ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to help reduce stress and calm you down. If one can become aware of each situation which creates anxiety, one can use these techniques to front-load and sail through those situations relatively easily.

1. Breathe deeply intentionally (with a long slow exhale) inhale exhale

2. Laugh (watch comedy, see those golden retriever videos, pet videos, anything that makes you laugh easily. There are Laughter clubs which you can join)

3. Stretch, jump, dance, move (the flow of prana regulates your mind and any movement disrupts stressful thoughts) notice how stressed people keep sitting in one spot, so if you want to reduce stress: moooove!

4. Do only one task at a time. Don’t multitask.

5. Listen to your biorhythms.
This means Be in tune with your body.
Sleep when tired.
Eat when hungry.
Wake up when rested.

6. Take a walk in nature. Play with kids or puppies.

REDUCE STRESS

Many of us are overachievers or we just plain take on stress from almost every situation!! One of the things we should have been taught at school: a class on how to handle the stresses of “daily life”!!! Many of us get stressed out with tight deadlines or balancing home and business, some of us have older parents to look after, some have newborns; some of us juggle many jobs…some travel a lot… so stress is everywhere!

Often we forget that the more stress we take on, the higher the chances of having excess weight around the abdomen. A 2019 research study on body types showed that the apple shaped body (with a bigger belly) is the place where such people hold stress. Something to think about!

So let’s do ourselves a favour, let’s meditate more, exercise daily and have that lovely cup of herbal basil tea or peppermint tea or lavender tea and soothe our nerves! Allow everything to just BE for a bit! Let’s put our health FIRST!