Can fear, frustration and chronic stress, over long periods of time, affect your immune system? Let’s take a quick look at the physiological (or cellular response) to stressors like these.
When we are engaged in stress, especially ongoing stress, our nervous system shifts to a fight or flight mode of operation. This is a nervous system function that takes our bodies in a direction of survival. To run from the virtual tiger, our bodies shift blood flow away from our organ system/digestive system and toward the larger muscles so we can run. Sugar that is stored in our tissues is converted out of storage and into our blood streams so we can have the energy to fight or run. Our hearts beat faster to deliver nutrients and oxygen to our muscles for running and this shift can raise our blood sugar and blood pressure. The regulatory systems like digestion, immune response, hormonal regulation, cognitive processing, and digestion are suppressed into the background while we work out the business of surviving the chase of the tiger.
When you have been enduring long term stressors such as frustration, fear and chronic stress and your systems are a bit offline you may experience:
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- Brain Fog
- Forgetfulness
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Poor Digestion
- Poor Sleep
- Joint Pain/Muscle Aches
- Anxiety / Depression
- Waking from sleep feeling unrested
Common causes of chronic frustration, fear and stress:
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- Too much screen time – phone, computer, television
- Listening to stressful news stories, facebook posts or negative/struggling people too often
- Lack of connection to those who are upbeat, solution oriented and positive
- Lack of relaxation, meditation, or spiritual techniques that ground you
- Lack of time being outside, resting or doing nothing
- Lack of exercise, movement and body care
- Lack of singing, laughing and talking to people who get you
If you are finding yourself in this situation, here are a few suggestions to get you moving back on track:
Breathing Exercises
You may have some breathing exercises you already know. The tip would be… start doing them regularly! 2-3 x per day or when you notice yourself getting tight in the jaw, neck and shoulders. If you are not so familiar with breathing exercises, here is a simple one to try. It is sometimes called Box Breathing.
– Inhale slowly as you count to 4
– Hold your breath as you count to 4
– Exhale slowly as you count to 4
– Hold your breath out as you count to 4
– Repeat this cycle at least 4 times and, if you feel you have the time, do it for at least 3 minutes.
Try this outside with your bare feet on the ground and see if you notice your angst and irritation reduced with an increased sense of relaxation.
Reduce Your Screen Time
Looking at screens for long periods of time can decrease your body’s ability to produce melatonin, Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate your sleep. The content that you are taking in while you are on screens can drag you into a place of powerlessness and low mood if it is negative or is a stream of reporting information that causes you fear or confusion. The irritation that comes from going to read or write an email, getting sucked down the rabbit hole of surfing the net or reading facebook posts and then losing an hour or two that you could have spent taking better care of yourself can start the self-judgment chatter and feeling like there is not enough time in a day to take care of things. Set a timer for yourself that has you stop the screen time after 20-30 minutes and move on to the rest of your day so you can stay grounded in the real world of weeding a garden, sitting outside with a cold beverage or taking a walk and noticing what is beautiful around you. Seek out activities and friends, cook a new recipe, lay in a hammock, close your eyes, and listen to music that makes you smile. For some tips on how to bring yourself out of the virtual world to notice the gorgeous world around you….Check out the book How to Break Up With Your Phone.
Watch Your Diet
I don’t typically like the word “diet” because it implies deprivation and self-criticism if you are not constantly monitoring your calorie intake, etc. Keep it simple and eat clean healthy foods. Make sure to eat healthy fats like the fat you find in chicken, fish, eggs, beef, butter, olive oil, sesame seed oil, nuts and seeds, avocados and coconut oil. These foods (from clean farms please!) when combined with organic vegetables, fruits and filtered water, can help stabilize your blood sugar, decrease inflammation, elevate fat burning and support your hormone system as well as brain, joints and cardiovascular system.
Try this 10 day blood sugar reset – find some friends or family members to do it with you!
Bring Some Kind of Movement/ Exercise into Your Day
Exercise can seem like a time suck that you just don’t have time for (bizarre conditioning of beliefs that our culture creates). I’m just as prone to thinking, I will exercise as soon as I get this very important, life sustaining to do list done! It can seem real because we are so crushed with deadlines, unrealistic to do lists, pressures of jobs where our companies are understaffed etc. If you had to deal with a friend who needed you, a child who needed you, a parent who needed you… we typically drop what we are doing to handle it. The “disruption” to your flow of knocking things off your list feels like it will derail your train that must get everything done or you’ll have more stress tomorrow because there are new things coming on the list… What a condition we have worked ourselves into! If you carve 15 to 20 minutes out of your day to do one thing that gets you moving… I promise you will come back to your list better equipped to think clearly, approach things more relaxed and get more done in less time. Check out this link for an explanation of the Nitric Oxide Dump exercise and try the 4 minute work out in the videos attached! It will change your brain and leave you ready to move on to the next thing feeling energized!
Okay! That’s it for now, I hope this finds you doing well and that you try a few of the suggestions to help you ground yourself! Remember how amazing you are! How many people love you! How awesome your body is IN THIS MOMENT. Your heart is beating, your nervous system is regulating, your digestion is moving, and your energy field is humming – just to point out a few positives to pull you away from zeroing in on what you struggle to accept about yourself now. Stay strong out there and remember to notice what is good!
