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UNDERSTANDING
STRESS
Its not
news that we all have stress in our lives. All the things that you balance
in a day, going to school, homework, after school activities, friends,
family, chores, conflict...they can all wreak havoc on us!
Stress affects our moods and our health. Too much stress can cause us to be
out of balance emotionally and physically. According to studies, 80 - 90%
of all visits to the doctor are due to conditions caused by, or made worse
by, stress. Therefore, one the best ways to be healthier is to decrease and
better manage stress in our lives.
First off, what is stress?
Webster's defines stress as a physical, chemical, or emotional
factor that causes bodily or mental tension that may be a factor in disease
causation. Physical and chemical factors that can cause stress include
trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses, and injuries of any sort. Emotional
causes of stress and tension are numerous and varied. While many people
associate the term "stress" with psychological stress, scientists and
physicians use this term to denote any force that impairs the stability and
balance of bodily functions.
Is stress good or bad?
It is both! It is good because it helps us to survive, but unfortunately we
can stay in the stressed state long after we have survived, this is the bad
side of stress. This is where we get the term “stressed” or “stressed out.”
Why do we experience stress?
To survive, the body doesn’t think or reason, it only reacts. Its only
purpose is to survive. When our body perceives that there is a
threat that is going to get in the way of our survival, it goes into what is
called the “sympathetic state.” Your body speeds up everything so that you
can react quickly, to fight, get away from, or to hide from the threat.
Your heart beats faster, your breath gets shallow and goes quicker and
adrenaline starts pumping through your body. Your shoulders raise up
towards your ears certain other organ systems slow down. Your body requires
more blood and oxygen to get to the muscles and the organs so you can
respond quickly and accurately.
How
does the body know that something is a threat?
Only because our
mind tells it that it is so. We have learned not to touch a hot stove
because we did it once, we experienced pain, our body remembered this
reaction and stored it. Whenever we see a hot stove, we proceed with
caution because our mind tells us to.
Parasympathetic and Sympathetic States
We learn that things and situations are threats so our body listens and
responds with this sympathetic state or “survival mode.” For instance if
you were out camping and you saw a bear coming toward you, your body would
go into sympathetic state. This is so you wouldn’t get eaten by the bear.
You have most likely learned that bears can be harmful to you, therefore
your body will respond in a way to allow you to survive the situation. The
same thing would be true if you were crossing the street. Your body goes
into the sympathetic state to be fully alert in case something should
unexpectedly happen that could harm you. That way you can be ready to react
to it so you can survive.
Our body is meant to react in this stressful state so it can deal with stressful situations. But here’s the thing, about thirty minutes after you “survive” the threat, the body is designed to go back into it’s natural state, the parasympathetic state. This is where we get into trouble.
The parasympathetic state is the relaxation state, the way in which we were meant to live. This is the state that is necessary for our body to heal from the stress that was placed upon it during the threat or crisis that it just survived. This is when we rebuild muscles, organs and tissue. We get more strength for the rest of the day’s events, where we have healthy digestion to get the nutrition we need to run properly, and how we strengthen our immune system.
Our body is designed to have a balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic states. It was made to react to a threat in order to survive, and then relax and heal the body and the mind after the threat is over. We have occasional real threats, but more so our minds have created a lot of “perceived” threats that we are reacting to constantly. When we decide what are real threats we can greatly decrease the amount of stress that we react to all day long.
Without the parasympathetic state, our body would still
continue to react to the threat that was already survived.
The mission of StressLessGirls is to educate and empower girls of all ages
to be the healthiest they can be and to live to their highest potential!!