Stress can be a leading cause of illness among many individuals today. Most people may not realize they are stressed. Nor do they know how much it truly is affecting them. More times than not people are never in a true state of relaxation.
In today’s society, we have this feeling of pressure. The pressure to be readily available for whoever and whatever. The feeling that we need to always be busy. Our phones are basically glued to our hands and if we don’t have our phone there are watches, iPads, tablets, tv’s, and computers to occupy our time. We feel as though if we don’t answer a phone call or a text message right away that the other person may be upset or need something urgent. Or what if they see our activity on social media and they find out we just didn’t answer the phone! OH MY shame on us! Beyond technology stress we are also dealing with financial stress, relationship stress, work stress, and the list can go on.
There are many types of stress and the reasons why stress happens in our lives. Let’s talk about a few.
Stress that causes fear.
Financial stress usually causes a feeling of fear. Fear of not getting bills paid, fear of not meeting that next deadline for work, fear of what others are thinking, over and over again the feeling of fear. Every time we enter the workplace. Relationship troubles often are another cause for fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of losing your partner. Fear of commitment.
Did you know that fear can greatly affect the kidneys?
We have these little glands above the kidneys called the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands produce adrenaline during times of fear (stress). When we are experiencing fear our body goes into what is called a fight-or-flight state. So while in this state adrenaline is produced and then released into the bloodstream. If we are constantly feeling fear and expressing this emotion, even just in our thoughts, then our body is constantly in a state of fight-or-flight. You know that saying, ” too much of anything is never a good thing”. Well staying in a fight-or-flight constantly is never a good thing. Don’t get me wrong we need to experience fight-or-flight and it is a good thing. However, it is only a good thing when it is truly needed.
Too much adrenaline can actually cause problems for you. Not only can it cause adrenal fatigue and kidney problems but other problems as well. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, increases blood pressure, expands the air passages of the lungs, enlarges the pupils of the eyes, redistributes the blood to the muscles and alters the body’s metabolism. Now imagine if this was constantly happening to the body. Can you understand why people may start to have problems?
So when do we need that fight-or-flight response?
- When there is a bear chasing us through the woods
- When we get in a car accident and need to know what to do next.
- When a dog starts chasing us while running.
I think you get the hint. We do not need to be fearing the bear that isn’t chasing us while we are sitting at our desk working or simply sitting down on the couch trying to rest. What state our body needs to be in while we sit on the couch is the rest-and-digest state.
What is the rest and digest state?
When we are in this state our body starts the balance and maintenance process. The digestive process begins, the heart rate calms down, your muscles RELAX, your urine output increases (calming the pressure on the kidneys), and your pupils and lungs relax. This process is meant to maintain long-term health, improve digestion, conserve energy, and maintain a healthy balance in the body’s systems.
Too much of any emotion can ultimately cause stress to an area of the body.
For example to much anger from stress over a situation, job or person, if not dealt with and “released”, can store in the liver.
The grief that you are holding onto daily and stressing yourself over can store in the lungs if not worked through.
The energy of these emotions needs a place to settle if we don’t properly address and process these emotions. That place is usually organs in the body. This causes the energy of those organs to decrease and in turn, causes an imbalance of energy and flow in the entire body.
Working on your emotional health should be just as big of a priority in life as what you eat, who you surround yourself with, and what lifestyle choices you make.
If you are struggling with how to manage stress, dealing with emotional trauma, or just have unexplained pain that happened after an emotional event let’s talk about how I can help.
Connect with me on my homepage. I would love to hear from you.
If you want to read some additional information on stress and examples of how I help my clients click here. It is a great article that helps explain more.