Ironically this is a very very high stress week for me. So I am going to post a little on stress. According to Dr. Scott Isaacs, stress can cause;
- leptin resistance
- insulin resistance
- lower estrogen (estradiol) in women
- lower testosterone in men
- lower levels of growth hormones
- higher cortisol levels
- and impaired conversion of thyroid hormone
So now that we know what stress can cause we will stress about that right? Joking..... What we will do is learn how to manage our stress before it gives us something to manage. Its just like when you were a toddler throwing a fit over something silly and your mom or dad said to you "You better stop crying or I will give you something to cry about" This was usually followed by you behaving, or some kind of punishment or a toy removed from your little world.
Its the same thing but in grown up world. We stress about deadlines and traffic, politics, and the economy. But when it all boils down the world will keep doing its thing. Unless you are making a change you don't really have the right or reason to stress and worry about things. Gandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world." So my philosophy on it is unless you care enough to try to change it. You shouldn't care enough to let it affect your health in the form of stress.
What you strive for is to accept the things you can not change, and the courage to change the things you can. Anything else is just fuzz :)
Ok so you still stressed? Ya telling you to not worry about the decreasing value of you home is not going to work. Lets be real, we are faced with stress in our life that we cannot wave a wand and have it go away or us magically not care anymore. So we need to find ways to reduce the unavoidable stress in life.
First and foremost is make sure you are breathing, when you are stressed you tend to hold things in. Holding your breath and shallow breathing lead to tension. Tension headaches, back pain, high blood pressure, stiff joints, and inflexibility can all be linked to you not breathing deeply and methodically. I recommend yoga to everyone who will listen to me. Yoga teaches breathing and meditation at the same time of giving you a strength training and flexibility.
Another strategy is massage, self massage, one from a friend, or if you can afford it a professional massage. In my experience a quality massage will melt away stress. The longer you can get one, the better you feel after. Try taking your index finer and middle finger together and rub your temple
This, as silly as it may look in public. IS AMAZING. Try it, I was taking an exam a couple weeks ago and I realized I was holding my breath and clenching my jaw. Not good, so I took to the count of 100 to close my eyes and massage my temples. Totally worked, not only was I confident the rest of the exam. But I felt pretty good for several hours after.
Now if just a little rubbing your head can make you feel so good, it makes you wonder how much you abuse your body by not treating it like that all the time. My last stress reliever is exercise, DUH. Before you get mad at me for telling you what every magazine and fitness professional out there already has told you. Get this, exercise will release fat burning growth hormones, reduces cortisol, makes your cells more sensitive to insulin, increases your metabolism boosting thyroid hormone, boosts testosterone, boosts DHEA, strengthens libido (oh lala), relieves depression by releasing endorphins, enhances mood, increases pituitary release of growth hormone, and can I mention that looking and feeling your best just builds confidence?!?!
Of course you should also eat right to balance stress.. Don't eat your feelings please. But for me to balance my stress, I am going to sign off right here so I can get to bed at a good time. Please stay tuned for Stress, Part Two... how to avoid eating your emotions, improve your mood, and tone up all in the kitchen!
