Embracing the Essence of your body!
Taking stock in you!
How Stress Affects your Body
Your emotional and physical reactions to stress are partly determined by the sensitivity of your nervous system. This system produces the flight reaction in response to stress and excitement, speeding up and heightening the pulse rate, respiration, muscle tension, and circulation of the blood. If you have recurrent anxiety symptoms, either major or minor lifestyle and emotional upsets may cause an overreaction of your nerves and putting you in a state of constant tension. In this mode, you tend to react to small stresses the same way you would react to real emergencies. The energy that accumulates in the body to meet this "emergency" must be discharged in order to bring your body back into balance. And, if they continue, it can cause a downward spiral that can lead to emotional burnout and eventually complete exhaustion. You can break this spiral only by learning to manage stress in a way that protects and even increases your energy level.
RELAXATION is an important part of taking good care of yourself. It's a common enough word, yet very few of us have had much experience with real relaxation. By "real relaxation" we mean something different from exercising or just zoning out, different from socializing or pursuing some distraction like TV or a computer game or a book. We need those kinds of things, but they're not what we're talking about here. Real relaxation is a focused, intentional period of time during which one is mindful and alert, and yet one's muscles are relaxed. It's not necessarily as easy as it might sound, however it can help restore energy and boost mood and performance levels with your dedication to fighting stress.