Beating Stress Module

Book into this course all about stress for nearly all of us it’s an unavoidable part of life. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore it completely or try to live with it. We want to make you aware of the potentially serious physical and mental health problems of unchecked stress and some of the most common symptoms when you have a more grounded lifestyle and outlook and less external stressful forces in your life. You will feel a difference in your physical health and emotional state. So we are going to help you with in this course how to limit stress how the more mindful and stress free life stress can manifest in many medical problems. A lot of health problems can be directly linked back to stress including things like back pain eczema insomnia and weight gain. But it’s not just the physical stress it’s as much the perception of stress that can lead to severe health problems. Chronic stress can kill. And this is not an over exaggeration. This is a serious affliction that many have in our modern world because of the pressures of society and people from school age right up to work. And even beyond work into retirement the stress gets too much to a chronic stage and anxiety and depression and a constant feeling of tiredness can really just overpower you. And there was a worse long term ill effect of stress as well that many people are unaware of. Did you know it can lead to a regression of the brain’s cognitive capacity by up to four years. The study in America conducted over 3000 participants found that the study calls this cognitive impairment. It was a 20:15 study in the journal Alzheimer’s disease and associated disorders and it found that adults who are more stressed or felt more stressed 30% more likely to develop this cognitive impairment. It’s because stress can impact hormone levels in your body and reduces the growth and density of nerve cells in the brain. And this may result in the development of protein plaque in the brain which has been linked to Alzheimer’s development. When they study the perception as well as the actual stressful incidents. They found this stuff equal or higher impact on future brain health. And the actual events themselves so clearly from the research by finding ways to reduce stress in our lives we can have a protective effect. So we will go through some really top tips of the elite including breaking these stress patterns meditation and relaxation exercises and even biofeedback or even just getting enough sleep. Stress is a fairly modern phenomenon. It was only in the late 1950s that the scientists hands sailor first formally identified and documented this disease. First we need to make the distinction between what’s good stress and bad stress. It can be a positive and help with brain function child development and even immune systems. So it’s not all bad but these other basic natural occurrences and effects of stress that improve your alertness. This is of course linked to the fight or flight reflex. You learned back in school. Some people think of any stress is bad but this isn’t the case. In truth all stress is not all the same. A little stress is actually required to get you moving and acting and can in moderation lead to better performance. A lab test at the University of Berkeley on rats sorb Frohman’s cane in a neuro capacity by up to two weeks by giving them brief stressful events. They found it cause the stem cells in their brains to proliferate into new nerve cells which gave them better brain power. Now if you are to test this for yourself. Do a self evaluation of your performance. On days when you’re under a little bit of stress at work you may discover that you are actually more focused and productive than on low stress days certainly more productive than when you have noted lines and no pressure to get any work done. Moderate stress can also help fight colds and illnesses because it stimulates the production of a chemical protein in your body. Cold and solutions that help build your immune system and fight infections. OK here are some great tips to relieve stress. Instantly them all listen to music that you enjoy as an escape from the stressful situation but not heavy rock or Frasch a bit of Mozart or Tchaikovsky but if classical really isn’t your thing try listening to ocean on nature sounds natural sounds work well. The sound of the room is particularly good as it takes you back to being in the comfort and safety of your mother’s womb as a fetus. By doing something pleasurable it helps you tune in to the moment which will snap you out of stress. Be diplomatic. Phone a friend. Use a moment call or message a friend there reassuring voice or bands that can help you relieve stress instantly. A reassuring voice even for a minute can put everything in perspective. Our top tip on this is if the friend doesn’t pick up or doesn’t see your message actually talk yourself through it. Imagine you as the friend or relative. What would they say to you to calm you down. It works. And don’t be self-conscious about looking crazy. Pain looks a lot less crazy than blowing your top. I’m ranting and raving. Tip number free anything to release endorphins. Please improve your mood and degrees the levels of stress causing hormones cortisol. Good when you can do some light exercise walking up and down some stairs to get yourself out of breath or induce some laughter as that can release endorphins or improve your mood in an instant. Number four is about drinking and eating stress reducing things like sun light green tea. It is healthier antioxidants as well as Feehan an amino acid has a calming effect on the nervous system. Fish can be a good snack but also fish with high levels of omega free like tuna have fatty acids that are being shown to reduce the symptoms of stress. Now all of these floor tips can pretty much give you instant relief. It’s about breaking the stress pattern and stopping the learned response that you have conditioned yourself to feel when stress starts and start building up by reframing the stress or completely distracting yourself from it. You can actually mitigate the stress impact. Now we get on to avoiding stress altogether or protecting your body and brain from potential stressful incidents. We get onto the concept of mindfulness as this by far is your best shield against stress. Meditation yoga and platies these systems of mindfulness incorporate physical and mental exercises that prevent stress from becoming a problem. Try joining a class. The advice. Take a deep breath. May seem like a cliche but it’s so very effective when it comes to stress. Our meditation course is reasonable. Teach the out of breathing and being mindful about your current state taking away stress anxiety from your day so you can regain your balance. It’s especially important to start your day with some exercises. This sets you up for the day. If you start off your day badly it can snowball. Meditation is based on guided mindfulness because to try and do it yourself and stop other forms creeping into your head is very very difficult but to follow somebodies voice and instructions helps to focus the attention and improve the results. The we’re now going to show you an easy three to five minute exercise that you can do at home or work find yourself a seed or line position that’s comfortable and close your eyes if appropriate place your hands in front of yourself around chest height and breathe in and out slowly and deeply concentrating on your lungs filling up as you breathe in and then as you breathe out a relaxing collapsing. Now take your left in next thing and your right hand. I want you to trace the fingers starting with a thumb on the right hand. So like this one each breath go up to the top of the finger. And then on the breast out go back down to the bottom of the finger. So driven to the top of the from bereave out to the bottom of the valley of the fingers and the webbing in between your fingers. Put it in the top of the finger. Breathe out to the bottom of the finger. On the final finger on a small finger. Breathe into the double vinegar. Breathe out to the bottom of her hand and this is one cycle. Now I want you to repeat this three five six times and say you’ve done this for free to five minutes. So. Wow. Shallow breathing causes stress deep breathing oxygenated blood. It helps you send to your body and clears your mind so you can focus your attention on the breathing and the sensation on your skin the finger lightly touching this hand. Use an app called Breathe if you want to. This helps with the timing and it actually shows you the breathing patterns to guide you through such exercises. Finally Sleep is super important to recharge your batteries and keep the body balanced. Unfortunately the lack of sleep is also a key cause of stress and the vicious cycle causes the brain and body to get out of kilter and it gets worse with time. Make sure to sleep with your sleep patterns and get the minimum amount that you are used to. For most of us this is four hour cycles so don’t try to sleep five hours or seven hours because the body won’t get into a state of deep sleep and so you won’t be as refreshed as if you slept for hours or eight hours. But each person is unique. So we recommend a fitness band that you wear out rather than a photo op because it’s more accurate. A good one is the Fitbit band and is good in tracking your patterns of deep and light sleep so that you measure and know your individual cycles. The environment feels the is critical. Make sure it’s deadly quiet. You have artificial sources of light switched off like your phone. Turn off the TV early and no lights so that concludes our top tips for a stress free life and how to stop stress before it onsets. If you want to know more about meditation go to our courses on guided meditation and relaxation. Hope to see you on some of those courses.