Hi Reader,

I’m someone who really values my peace. I work at it - meditation, breathwork, energy clearing, time in nature and I love me a good book. My peace has been shaky the last couple of weeks so much divisiveness and a stress-filled election have been challenging. We’re also entering the holiday season, and with the turkey, family gatherings, and gift-giving, there is inevitably some stress.

When I started exploring holistic health, Jon Kabat Zinn was pioneering his Stress Reduction program at UMass. It went on to become the foundation for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction(MBSR), the gold standard for stress reduction. This spurred research on the connection between stress and health, something we now accept as fact.

His process embraces nine states of mind to decrease stress: nonjudgment, gratitude, patience, a beginner’s mind, trust, non-striving, acceptance, letting go, and generosity. By practicing these states of mind, stress is turned down.

This framework felt like coming home to me and led me further down the path of holistic health and conscious wellness.

The Unstressed Life: Is It An Illusion?

Stress is defined as: the body's nonspecific response to any demand for change. There is an energetic component, which acts like static on a phone call, making it more difficult for the information to be passed on.

Stress is different for each of us. What may be good stress for one person can be bad stress for another.

There are different types of stress.

Acute – The most common, it’s stress generated from everyday life. It can be positive, the thrill of a rollercoaster ride, winning a game, or negative, loss of a contract, or an accident.

Episodic Acute – This is a continued high level of acute stress. Most often associated with chaotic, constantly ‘on the go’ lifestyles or high levels of worry/anxiety.

Chronic – The most debilitating type of stress. It originates from the grind of everyday life where the person can’t see a way out. Situations like poverty, unhappy relationships, dysfunctional families, or hating a job often trigger chronic stress. It’s insidious because people get used to it, often saying things like “It is what it is” or “That’s just life nothing I can do about it.”

The Effects of Stress

Brain – Stress can trigger insomnia, headaches, personality changes, irritability, anxiety, and depression. The nervous system can also be in hyper-alert states, with the vagus nerve in particular being overstimulated.

Digestive Tract—Stress can cause or aggravate gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Hair – High-stress levels can cause hair loss and some types of baldness.

Cardiovascular – Chronic stress has been linked to hypertension, heart disease, and chest pain.

Respiratory – It can aggravate asthma and often leads to shallow breathing, our breath is one of the pathways we can access to reduce the effects of stress.

Musculoskeletal – The contraction associated with stress can trigger muscle spasm especially in the neck and shoulders lower back pain, and nervous tics.

Skin - Exacerbation of eczema and psoriasis, as well as acne and rashes, can occur.

Reproductive - Stress can affect libido, menstruation, and fertility.

Practical Stress Relief

Breathing – WAVE breathing, Balance breathing, Relaxing breathe Box breathing can all help move stress out of the body.
Laughter - helps relax and let go of tension.
Gratitude -shifts your energy and attracts more of the positive flow.
Fun - helps to foster a beginner’s mind.
Exercise - endorphins 🙂
Meditation - quieting the mind helps to foster nonjudgment, patience, and trust.
Aromatherapy - relaxing scents like lavender as well as rejuvenation citrus scents
Journaling - helps process your thoughts and cultivate acceptance and non-striving.
EFT- tapping - helps move stuck energy and let go of trauma.
Meridian work- acupressure or acupuncture moves energy blocks and keeps the energy flowing.
Kindness - being kind to others and yourself helps foster a sense of generosity of spirit.

I deeply believe in the highest potential for all beings… not in a commercial, societal standards type of way but in a deep connection with self and conscious creation of a life well lived—whatever that looks like for the individual.

How we manage stress affects so many aspects of our lives. It is worth taking the time, even pockets of 5 minutes, to manage stress. Our world has stress baked in; it will never be completely stress-free, and that’s good because we would get bored, but not managing stress levels can have significant health repercussions, so take the deep breaths, offer a minute of gratitude, practice energetic hygiene, do a little dance or open the door for a stranger.

The little things add up and contribute to a life well lived.

Be Well,

Cathy