Dan's Papers - May 9, 2008 - Inspirations by Emily J. Weitz

What common cause do health problems such as asthma, diabetes, weight gain, heart problems, fertility issues, high blood pressure and irritable bowel syndrome all share? Here's a hint: everyone feels it and few have mastered dealing with it. It's called stress, and if you live on this planet, you have experienced it.

Stress sometimes feels like a vague concept rather than a precise problem. One reason that we can't quite put our fingers on what stress is, is that its cause is subjective. For example, flying in an airplane may cause one person to have a panic attack, while another is lounging in her seat, gazing excitedly at the earth below. But regardless of what triggers your stress, there are some absolutes to know about it.

Human beings developed their stress reaction as part of evolution. Flip back through the history book to prehistory, and you'll find that our ancestors had to deal with some situations that would make that infuriating broken fax machine look like, well, a harmless heap of junk. When prehistoric man encountered a saber-toothed tiger in the jungle, he was happy to have his "fight or flight" stress reaction, which caused everything else in the body to stop so he could focus on the task at hand - survival.

When stress is triggered in the body, certain things happen to help with that survival instinct. Stress hormones are released, which cause your heart to speed up, the blood flow to increase significantly, muscles to tense, and the breath to quicken. Interestingly, your digestion process even freezes, so that your energy is on hand for the life or death situation you are facing.

But in today's world, our stress reactions are often disproportionate to our needs. Generally, we are not fending off wild beasts, but paying our taxes or trying to find a parking space. For these mundane activities, we don't need the physical freak-out. In fact, it can be harmful. If you get extremely stressed, the sudden and intense increase in heart rate could cause heart problems. Because of the increase in blood flow, blood pressure may rise and cause an increased likelihood of a stroke. The fact that your digestive system is making sudden stops and starts disrupts the digestive process and can cause constipation, diarrhea or other digestive problems. And the tensing of the muscles creates a domino effect. You tense in the shoulders and then you find your jaw is clenched. You clench in the jaw and suddenly there's tightness in your head. And all of these muscles become sore, achy or fatigued as a result.

But our body doesn't know these consequences. Its still just thinking "survival." And in case you are in a critical situation, you don't want your body to stop this reaction. It could save your life.

So the task at hand is not suppressing your body's natural response to stress, but rather learning how to deal with it. There are two aspects of this: learning what really warrants stress, and learning how to deal with stress.

The first aspect is not easy to learn. Even if you tell yourself a thousand times that it's okay if the fax doesn't go through right away, you will be hard-pressed to let it go when the occasion arises. Try to let it go. Try to take a deep breath, put it in perspective, and realize that it's no saber-toothed tiger.

But if you can't let it go, if you feel the stomach muscles tightening and the breath shortening, then employ one of these stress management techniques. They can really help you curb the physical effects of stress and protect your body from the chaos in your mind.

Prepare yourself. Notice the situations that tend to get you stressed out, and try to minimize the effects. If the morning rush starts your day off in a frenzy, get up a few minutes earlier so you have the time and space to ease into your day. Get a planner that will help you organize your day. Just make sure to leave space for transitions between activities. This way your body won't go into stress mode in the first place.

When you do get stressed out, take a few deep, full breaths. Breathing creates more physical space in your body, and that means those tense muscles can relax again. The short, choppy inhales may help you when you're sprinting from a predator, but they won't help you steadily work on an assignment that needs to be finished by deadline.

Give your body a break by letting your rational mind control and deal with stress.