The side effects of stress!

Prolonged stress impacts your emotional, nutritional, and spiritual state. Our environments influence the degree of stress and contribute to this impact of stress on the body. Stress interferes with the digestive system. Our gut health is essential to building and sustaining a solid defense against inflammation and disease. Chronic stress contributes to the malabsorption of essential nutrients, leading to malnutrition and negatively altering other body functions. Emotional stress contributes to impaired adrenal function and insulin resistance, contributing to diabetes, heart disease, inflammation, and pain. Managing stress levels by reviewing our emotional, nutritional, environmental, spiritual, and physical health is crucial to effectively manage inflammation, pain, and other conditions. Spirituality is also vital and often not addressed, but our perspective on health influences our health and decision-making process. Our belief is central to how we manage and deal with stress. Relaxation and mediation techniques are effective non-pharmacological ways to control stress levels.

Stress increases nutrient demands, and nutrient deficiency impairs our energy, performance levels, and ability. Nutrient deficiency leads to the development of inflammation which fuels inflammation. Therefore, supplying the body with the essential nutrients is crucial. It includes protein, vitamin A, C, E, B complex, essential fatty acids, and minerals. This is offered by having whole foods in our diets and supplement as needed, especially if there are malabsorption issues. Addressing food allergies is crucial and can be performed by eliminating foods that contribute to inflammation and known allergens. Fasting is also another way to control the rate of inflammation and improve gut health. Finally, fasting is connected to spirituality and a person’s connection to life and others; what they feel sends hope, purpose, and meaning in life.

Stress management techniques:

The relaxation response is a state of profound rest that can be elicited in any way, including meditation, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation. Relaxation techniques have proven effective in minimizing stress and how individuals respond to stress. For example, writing down thoughts, emotions or just writing to release emotions is practical instead of internalizing these emotions.

1. Breathing - is a natural and automatic body function, which suggests that we have control over it, an involuntary, intuitive process that reflects our general state of stress arousal. Practicing breathing techniques facilitates relaxation and plays a vital role in the prevention of respiratory ailments. You must exhale deeply to get the stale, used air out, or there is less room for fresh air to enter.

2. Meditation- Teaches to let go of the past and future and just be in the present. Some benefits of meditation include increasing one’s resistance to negativity, which reduces one’s reactivity to former stressors.

3. Repetitive Prayer - Prayer or meditation accompanied by regular breathing and the silent repetition of a Bible verse or other short phrase.

4. Guided Imagery- used to help you imagine yourself being in a particular state. This exercise can help you reduce anxiety, improve self-confidence, or cope more effectively with challenging situations.

5. Yoga - Yoga is a method of physical, mental, and spiritual development. Uses positions and exercises (stretch) to promote physical and mental harmony. Yoga is known to heal the body, strengthen immunity and breath, improve body alignment, open up blocked energy, and aid meditation.

6. Mindfulness meditation begins meditation produces a state of calmness and stability. Keep note of any thoughts as they occur and observe them intentionally without judgment, as events in the field of your awareness. The key to mindfulness is the quality of the attention that the individual brings to each moment. Don’t try to escape the unpleasantness; instead, you attempt to see it clearly as it is and accept it because it’s already present in the moment.