Even though I have never had a full-time desk job (& hope to never have one!) and lead a pretty carefree life, I still find life to be stressful at times (see photo)
In both my lines of work as a yoga teacher and massage therapist, It's my job to help people de-stress. I have been pondering this a lot lately and wanted to share my feelings about people with too much stress in their lives:
Stress is a normal physiological mechanism the body needs in order to survive. It comes from our hunter gatherer past to alert our bodies of danger and give us the signals or adrenaline and cortisol to power our muscles to run fast and escape danger. The problem is that nowadays people are in environments where they cannot run to release stress so the chemical messengers (adrenaline and cortisol) stay inside of us and become toxic to the body.
When there is too much stressful stimulation, it can literally begin to destroy you- It can clog arteries, increase blood pressure, deplete brain cells, strip the ends of your DNA (a cause of rapid aging) and makes the brain take up less dopamine (that wonderful little brain chemical that makes everything seem pleasurable- without it, there is no response for pleasure (depression).
When the body is saturated with stress hormones, growth stops (hello hair loss, guys!), reproduction shuts down (bye bye sex drive!), and your non-essential life functions cease.
Getting rid of stress is not easy, in fact sometimes it requires some major life changes to stop the stress response.
Picture yourself free from stress. What is different about that person's life than the life you are leading right now? What is the trade off for living with the stress you have now? Is it worth it? If it's not worth it, What steps can you take today to change it? If it is worth it, how can you better cope with that stress? Do you have outlets? If not: work out, journal, talk about it, throw paint, get massages, get a punching bag, or go to yoga. Do what you have to do to feel like you are in control. Your body, mind, loved ones, and everyone around you will thank you for it.
So what's the trade off? Be stressed your whole life and end up looking like this:
Or make some drastic changes that will help you have a happier, healthier quality of life. Take control, don't let anybody step on you and do what you need to do to feel whole, fulfilled, and less stressed.
Namaste.
For more sciencey research on stress, check out this video!
I am working with a team of dedicated yogis at the Adaptive Yoga Project to bring yoga to our Santa Cruz County schools to students with special needs. You can help get us started! Your generous donations can help get us off the ground and into the classrooms where we are needed.
Click Here To read more about the Adaptive Yoga Project!
