What is it about stress and stress management that everybody has their
panties up in a bunch about now-a-days? I mean do we really think that
our society today is more stressed out than back in the days when people
were dying right and left, eaten by large animals, starving, being shot
with arrows, etc.? I mean you've got to be kidding me right? Well yes
and no. The fact is that people who are stressed out by today's
standards have more life limiting diseases such as cancer and heart
disease and these are also the same people who aren't living as long.
This is in comparison to the average person who doesn't face any of the
stresses like those mentioned above and the present day people that do.
So
what the heck is going on? Well there has been a lot of research done
on the nature of stress and the mechanisms that were designed by God in
our bodies to deal with it. Most people have heard of the
fight-or-flight response and this turns out to be a major mechanism that
affects our health negatively. So what has changed? This mechanism is
certainly been helpful to our ancestors as they dealt with stress--a
life preserving rather than life limiting process. Well it turns out
that the kind of stress that we face today turns this system on almost
as well as the other more immediate life threats but our bodies don't
absorb it in the same way and so it goes unnaturally unchecked and takes
its toll. We therefore need a different type of stress management than
we were naturally getting by running away from the large beast that was
trying to eat us.
Exercise is one obvious type of stress management that helps to use up
or absorb some of the sympathetic tone that is the "fight-or-flight"
response to job and life stress. It does things like check the increased
heart rate and the high amounts of insulin and other hormones in our
system, and it gives us natural mood enhancing substances (endorphins)
which counter the stress response as well. Another aspect is the
cognitive response to stress that needs to be addressed.
Partly
or emotional and mental health is addressed by exercise but it also
needs to be addressed in terms of some of the behaviors that we choose
to dull rather than correct our unhealthy stress response. We need to
find correct ways of thinking rather than use substances like alcohol,
nicotine, and illicit drugs to mask our low moods. We need to train our
minds to think positively. We need to find alternative activities and
vents for our feelings like art and social release. We need to eat
better and be out side more to get the natural anti-depressants that are
found there and are much healthier. Only then will we be approaching
stress management in a healthy and life extending way.
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