Step into that time machine and zoom back, back, back, to the time when prehistoric man walked the earth. They knew how to throw a party! If dinner didn't catch them and they were lucky enough to catch it, they'd drag it home to the roaring campfire, where it was roasted and served up with some greens (maybe). Oh, what a party that was! Eating! Dancing! Singing! Sleeping!
You inherited your autonomic nervous system (ANS) from those people. When you are stressed, it obliges by dousing your system with fourteen-hundred chemicals that prepare you for flight or fight.
The ANS is a terrific survival mechanism - if used appropriately.
If you're constantly soaking in negative emotions, the ANS will respond by opening the "taps" and flooding your system with chemicals that aren't meant to be regularly flowing - they're meant for those times when you are truly under threat.
During stress, a number of physiological changes occur, which include:
- increased heart rate
- respiration speeds up
- increased blood pressure
- dilated pupils
- slowed digestion
- muscles tense
- blood sugar and fats are increased for extra energy
- hearing becomes more acute
- thoughts race
- blood clots more readily
Do you see how those physiological changes would benefit our beast-stalking, fire-dancing fore-bears? Rush-hour traffic, long line-ups at the bank or something you read in the newspaper? Logically we know that it doesn't compare to any true life and death situations that we may encounter. Regardless, the flight or fight response kicks in, unless you know how to turn off the taps and transform that stress response.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress will become one of the greatest burdens of ill-health in developing nations in the 21st century. I think it already is, don't you?
Part of why stress has become such an epidemic is because, as many of my clients have stated, "I didn't know what to do."
In a coaching program you learn not just what stress is, but more importantly how to transform it with techniques that treat the cause of your stress. Techniques that use the power of your heart, which sends signals to the brain telling it whether the flight or fight response is needed or not.
You'll learn how to recognize when you are soaking in negative thoughts and emotions. You'll celebrate the positive changes you see.
"Without your passion and dedication I would not of been able to handle the stressful events as well as I did...the ER nurses commented, 'you sure seem calm in the midst of all the chaos you've been through this week.' I gave them your business card!" - M. Thomson, Burnaby, BC
Enroll in one of my five-hour telephone stress undressing programs to step off the less-than-merry-go-round of stress. Please contact me to get started now. Why suffer?
Prehistoric man was intent on surviving. Transform your stress and you'll not only survive, but thrive, as you drive and dance through life.