What do you call that feeling that can sometimes be helpful but is more often frustrating, annoying, overwhelming, and unhealthy?

You guessed it - stress.

While we humans rely on the swiftness of our physiological stress response to escape a dangerous situation or to pull an all-nighter when needed, that same stress response can throw our nervous system out of alignment when chronically stimulated.

In other words, occasional stress can be useful, but chronic stress most definitely is not. Chronic stress also carries health implications like higher blood pressure, cognitive fatigue, general fatigue, constipation and/or diarrhea, cortisol dysregulation, and more.

Your body’s stress response is there to help you maneuver through life and kick in when needed.

Think of your stress response like stepping on the gas pedal to accelerate away from a bad driver - once you’re clear of them, you ease up. But if you continue accelerating or do so erratically, you’ll burn your engine out, and the rest of your car can suffer.

A healthy stress response commonly happens when you’re exercising, in the moments before a big presentation or a first date, when you’re running late and need an extra boost, and so on.

It’s when you’re in a chronically stressed state that it can start to adversely impact your health and well-being.

If you experience any of the following - which is by no means a comprehensive list - you may be dealing with chronic stress:

A pit-in-your-stomach feeling
Constant worrying
Racing thoughts, especially at night
Difficulty winding down for sleep
Feeling on-edge or hyper-alert more often than not
Difficulty being present in the moment
Perseverating on events/situations

Simply put, chronic stress doesn’t feel good.

Shifting to a healthier stress response is simple, but takes commitment to doing the work consistently.

Improving your stress response is essentially tonifying your nervous system. The more regularly you work on improving your stress response, the better your results - like lifting weights at the gym. It’s not a quick fix, but over time, you can experience significant improvement in your physiological stress response.

If you’re experiencing chronic stress, you can support your body using a wide variety of tools like breath work, journaling, yoga, walking meditation, coloring, dancing, exercise, etc.

There are also fantastic stress-relieving treatments, which can include therapies like acupuncture, massage, craniosacral, somatoemtional release, HeartMath, and more.

We are ecstatic to be able to offer many of these therapies to our patients at Wellness Insights.

In particular, our new integrative stress relief treatment combines acupuncture, acupressure, HeartMath, guided meditation, infrared, and more to soothe your body and mind.

If you’re feeling stressed, reach out. We’re here to support you.

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