OneMind OneBody

How To De-Stress In Under 5 Mins

One of the simplest things that we take for granted that can help us to de-stress is to BREATH!

When we are anxious or stressed our breathing becomes shallow and short and rather than breathing from our diaphragm we tend to breath from our shoulders(the next time you feel stressed or anxious take notice of how you are breathing).

Shallow over-breathing, or hyperventilation, can prolong feelings of anxiety by making the physical symptoms of stress worse. Controlling your breathing can help to improve some of these symptoms.

When a person is relaxed, they breathe through their nose in a slow, even and gentle way. Deliberately copying a relaxed breathing pattern seems to calm the nervous system that controls the body’s involuntary functions.

Controlled breathing can cause physiological changes that include:

lowered blood pressure and heart rate

reduced levels of stress hormones in the blood

reduced lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue

balanced levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood

improved immune system functioning

increased physical energy

increased feelings of calm and wellbeing.

So when you start feeling stressed, overwhelmed or anxious about something, concentrate on your breath. Slow it down, breathe through your nose and down into your abdomen.

For more information on this go to our website....www.onemindonebody.com.au

onemindonebody.com.au - Registered at Namecheap.com

FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE

The fight-or-flight response, first described by Walter Bradford Cannon, (also called the fight, flight, freeze or fawn, hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster and fight harder. They increase heart rate and blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to important muscles. They increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the skin to the core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves our ability to survive life threatening events.

However not only life threatening events trigger this reaction: We experience it almost any time we come across something unexpected or something that frustrates our goals. When the threat is small, our response is small and we often do not notice it among the many other distractions of a stressful situation.

Unfortunately, this mobilisation of the body for survival also has negative consequences. In this state, we are excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. Our Cortisol levels increase and if produced on a regular basis can have a real affect on our weight due to the fact that as a by product of cortisol, insulin is released which is our fat storing hormone. This then reduces our ability to work effectively with other people. With trembling and a pounding heart, we can find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills. The intensity of our focus on survival interferes with our ability to make fine judgments by drawing information from many sources. We find ourselves more accident prone and less able to make good decisions.

Our health suffers and so consequently we are then on this vicious merry go round.

In the short term, we need to keep this fight or flight response under control to be effective in our lives. In the long term we need to keep it under control to avoid problems of poor health and burnout.

Warning: Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, can cause death. In the following days I will show you some of my stress management techniques which can have a positive effect on reducing stress, however they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.

WHAT IS STRESS

A lot of research has been conducted into stress over the last century. Some of the theories behind it are now taken as gospel whilst others are still being researched and heavily debated.

So it doesn't come as a surprise to know that with competing theories and definitions it has become open warfare with views on the matter being aggressively defended with much passion and conviction.

The reason the discussion around stress has become so complicated is because intuitively we all know what it feels like as most of us have experienced it so we would expect that a definition of it would therefore be quite obvious...but it is not.

DEFINITIONS

"A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances".

So let's look at this definition....

Hans Selye, an Endocrinologist was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that "stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental." Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative.

Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations.

Due to this thinking Selye coined the term Eustress meaning beneficial stress - either psychological, physical (e.g. exercise) or biochemical/radiological (hormesis). The term consisted of the Greek prefix eu- meaning "good", and stress, literally meaning "good stress".

The most commonly accepted definition of stress however (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilise." In short, it's what we feel when we think we've lost control of events.

This is the main definition that I like to use, although I also recognise that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to unexpected events. The stress response inside us is therefore part instinct and part to do with the way we think.

NOTE:

The ideas of "eustress" (good stress) and "distress" (bad stress) were developed by Hans Selye, one of the early researchers on stress. Selye believed that a mild level of stress encouraged animals and people to behave in a more active way, while an excessive level of stress would hamper their performance.

Since then, other people have drawn similar conclusions, substituting the idea of "stress" with the idea of "pressure". Framed in this way, this is an important and valuable idea. With all of its associations of unhappiness and loss of control, real stress is now seen as a bad thing in all circumstances.

Tomorrow, I will talk about our Fight Vs Flight Response and how it is affecting the way we deal with stress

Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.

Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research su...

Starting from this week, I want to focus on stress and how you deal with it. As we all know stress is caused by many factors from family life to finances, relationships to work. There is no real common thread that ties stressful situations but there are common ways that we can deal with it. I found this really interesting report from the Australian Psychology Society.

http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/2014-APS-NPW-Survey-WEB-reduced.pdf

www.psychology.org.au

OneMind OneBody is the creation of Robyn Vernon, a qualified life coach, Hypnotherapist, Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, certified fitness professional and massage therapist.

Robyn's ultimate vision is to work with people who want to live the most authentic, amazing life that they were put on this planet to live.

Robyn will help you find your ultimate purpose in life and then map out exactly how to follow that purpose with passion, conviction and commitment.

Gone are the days of procrastination and perfectionism. We are at the doorstep of a new awakening.

More now than ever people need to connect through what they were put on this earth for, to make stronger connections with the people they love and to feel fulfilled and happy like never before.

Robyn wants to create a movement of people that hold health, wellness, family and contribution as their highest goals.

Don't wish your life was good. Don't hope it will get better. Get up and make it Amazing!