Stress

The basic instinct to any living creature is to survive. With that basic instinct is a drive to flee dangers that threaten survival, and if needed to fight those dangers. Any animal typically perfers to run away, unless backed into a corner thus forcing it to fight for life. In modern times, people don't generally have to use fight or flight in cases of actually surviving, however these natural systems still kick in on a regular day to day basis. The catalyst of these reactions are caused by stress. Stress is caused by many things, family and friends, traffic, boss, angry customer. Many many things cause stress every day in our lives. When your body goes into a mode of stress mentally, it also responds with physical reactions to the stress. These physical changes in your body are equal to reving up the engine to your car needlessly all the time. This will create more wear and tear on the motor and parts, and will eventually start to create problems if it is not worked on.

Other things that can cause stress on your life unknowingly are pollution, noise, crowds, lack of fresh air and sun, work, school, allergies, lack of sleep, anger and negative thinking.

Your mind is one aspect of your physical health and well being. With an unhealthy mind, this also creates an unhealthy state of physical being. Your bodies physical changes to stress are as follows: acceleration of heart, flushness, dialation of blood vessels, dialated pupil, shaking, loss of hearing, tunnel vision, adrenaline release. All of these are extreme cases of stress, but even minor stresses cause small physical stresses in your body. These physical changes are all your bodies way of allowing you to flee or fight. If you can picture yourself at work, your boss comes in, very angry. He wrongingly accuses you for making a mistake, but you are not able to defend yourself. Your heart rate goes up, your adrenaline is released, you maybe get a little jittery. This is a reaction of your body preparing itself to basically remove the stress or fight it off. Unfortunately, in the modern world, this is no longer a way to approach your natural instincts. So instead of fighting or fleeing, removing the threat, and allowing your body to return to a natural state of equilibrium, you have to sit there and take it. Holding it in, keeping your body in a perpetual state of physical stress, and just like the running your engine up needlessly. This puts unneeded wear and tear on your bodies organs. Your blood pressure stays high, your muscles are clenched up, you are in an unnatural state of being alive.

Stress can cause all sorts of temporary damages to your life, and eventually begin to increase in severity leading to more permanent states of physical decline. Things like high blood pressure, lowered immunity, sexual disfuntion, decreased metabolism.

Stress is unavoidable in todays world. It is unrealistic to believe you can avoid these things. However there are ways to help your body heal itself from these factors. The world is so high paced that people get into these routines. Small amount of sleep (potentially from stress itself), put a bandaid on the tiredness with coffee, rush around the house to get to work on time, sit in traffic, deal with public, coworkers, and bosses (who are all dealing with their own stress), run to a fast food place grab a bite to eat, once they are home, relax and put on some tv, and repeat. Then typically for the weekend head to the bar for a night out, and start your week off with a hangover and bad case of the Mondays.

Doing things like taking 5 minutes a day to breathe properly, clear your mind and just focus on nothing but relaxing can do wonders for your body. Eating plenty of veggies and some fruits will give your body tons of nutrients and vitamins it needs. Drink lots of water to flush out your system. Streching and excercise to release the tensions built up in the shoulder and neck. Get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Believe in yourself and not what the media tells you to believe in or be. Make sure you get plenty of sleep, and potentially just try to do a relaxation excercise to calm your mind and prepare you for a good nights sleep. Smile.