Over the course of the coming month,
you’ll be seeing a lot of content about relaxing and reducing stress here on the Bija Coaching / A Girl Design blog. It’s an important topic and something I’ve given a lot of thought lately as I have tried to limit my social networking activity this summer. We
live in such a busy world where we’re always reachable, constantly bombarded
with news updates, email alerts, and of course advertisements. Social media
puts us under a lot of pressure to document the perfect life, and in between
all that we’re juggling family and career, while paying off student debt and a
large mortgage. No wonder we’re more stressed than ever and stress related
illnesses are on the rise.
It’s high time to relax more and take a
more active approach to stress reduction. I invite you to do just that right
along with me over the course of the next 30 days. Each day I’ll have a new tip
or idea to share with you on the topic. To make sure you don’t miss a thing, look to the right and "follow by email" or head over to the Facebook page and "like and follow".
Today, let’s look at how making an
effort to relax more can help us reduce stress. Feeling stressed is an ancient
biochemical process that has served us well over the millennia. It’s a way of
quickly putting our body on high alert. It is designed to get us ready for
physical activity like running away, or fighting. This has worked well in the
distant past, but outside of a sporting event, it doesn’t do us much good these
days. We have to find other coping mechanisms and different ways to calm back
down and that’s where making an effort to relax more comes in.
Have you ever gone through a period in
your life where you drank way too much coffee (or other caffeinated beverage)?
At first, a cup of coffee in the morning will wake you up and keep you alert
for a couple of hours. Then, as you start to drink more and more throughout the
day, it takes larger quantities of coffee to get the same effect. Your body
builds up a caffeine tolerance. It works the same with stress. The more often
we are stressed, the more adrenaline and other stimulating substances and
hormones the body has to dump into our system to get the same reaction. The
problem is that being too stressed too often takes its toll on the body. We
need to get down to a safer level of stress.
With the coffee addiction, we may choose
to drink a more calming herbal tea for a while and greatly cut back on the
coffee, or even just slowly work our way down to 3 cups a day. After a while
our caffeine tolerance goes back to normal. I have been happy to add a little strawberry infused green tea into my life after a long break from caffeine. Stress works the same way. We can
down-cycle the hormone release by making an effort to relax more and stress
less. Not only will it greatly benefit your overall health, you’ll also feel
better without all those extra stimulants coursing through your system 24/7. Join me and give reducing stress a try by relaxing this weekend, and then give it a try over the
coming months and beyond. Because what I have found is that when we relax, we find that zen to ask ourselves what we want, and ask the universe for what we need and desire. You are magic!
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