USING OUR 5 SENSES TO CALM DOWN, RELIEVE STRESS AND KEEP IT TOGETHER
Every day we are bombarded with things that can cause us stress. Sometimes we feel it building up throughout the day and other times it hits us fast and unexpectedly. Little things that get on your nerves or big things that are emotional and draining. Sometimes it’s the people you’re around or you have some compounded personal problems that need be dealt with. Maybe there’s just too little time in your day to get everything done that you need to get done. To put it simply, stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.
According to the Mayo Clinic, stress heightens your risk of strokes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. It also affects us in other, more noticeable ways. It can interfere with our logical thinking and problem-solving abilities, our short-term memory, cognitive ability, sleep, digestion, sexual drive and it can weaken the immune system.
Every living thing is designed to handle outside stressors in different way. Like the fainting goat, the salamander that loses it’s tail, or the tree that drops it’s leaves in order to save the trunk, the human body is designed to handle stress and react to it in order to survive the stressor and grow stronger from it. When our bodies experience stressors, we produce physical and mental responses to it.
A report on stress from the Cleveland Clinic says “Stress responses help your body adjust to new situations. Stress can be positive, keeping us alert, motivated and ready to avoid danger… But stress becomes a problem when stressors continue without relief or periods of relaxation.”
These negative effects happen because of our physiological response to stress. Our physiological response to stress comes in two parts. A fast response and a slow response. The fast response is activated by the secretion of Epinephrine and Norepinephrine, two hormones from the adrenal gland. This secretion triggers a series of linked reactions from our brain on down to our nerves, muscles and cells. The abundance of secreted Epinephrine and Norepinephrine bind to certain protein receptors and initiate cellular responses, resulting in the contraction of muscles, including our heart. The increased heart contractions affect everything from increased blood flow, increased sodium retention and glucose levels among other things.
The slow response is caused by a physiological chain reaction resulting the release of Cortisol into circulation. Cortisol, a steroid hormone, gets expressed in the muscles, gastrointestinal tract, heart and parts of the brain. Cortisol binding proteins then get expressed in the liver, pituitary gland and brain. This reaction generally affects all systems of the body including cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, muscular and reproductive systems.
The stress response, both immediate and slow, can be very helpful as it triggers our bodies “fight or flight” responses and can get us out of immediate danger. However, with prolonged and chronic stress, “too much of a good thing” becomes the reality and without proper coping and destressing, can greatly damage every system in our body.
Stress is like a small spark that eventually consumes an entire forest. One little thing can start it, and if not properly put out, it can grow out of control. We need healthy and productive ways to calm our stress before it consumes us, so that we can limit the negative affects on our body and mind.
We’ve all heard of different stress and anxiety relievers, from weighted blankets to squishy balls. There are millions of ways and things to do to relieve stress. In this series of five future blogs, we will explore the physical and emotional relationship during perceived stress and how we can use our five senses to get into a good mental space, therefore reducing the physiological reaction to chronic stress. We will discuss the subconscious way our senses kick in to calm us and offer suggestions of ways we can actively use our senses to help calm down, relieve stress and keep it together.