Biggest Health Lie of Our Time- Stress Is Bad For You
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As a young child, I remember reading a sign on the walls of my pediatrician’s office- “fever is a friend; it helps fight diseases”. I did not understand exactly how fever did this, but it opened my mind up to the fascinating world of the human body and how it functioned and responded in even the harshest of conditions and environments. I did not know what stress meant or felt like at the point, but thanks to that simple sign on the wall, I wasn’t all that surprised when years later I first heard that stress wasn’t all that bad for you! Yes, you read that correct; stress isn’t all that bad for you. Why? Because stress is simply your body’s natural mechanism of coping with a demanding or overwhelming situation; how could your own body respond in a manner that is detrimental to you yourself? I am not saying that this isn’t medically possible ever, but it is not what happens when you are under stress. In times such as these, your body is trying to preserve both you and your ability to perform and function within the given environment. It is how you respond really that determines how you experience and weather stress. Let me explain this a little. Stress occurs when you and your body is exposed to unnaturally demanding or challenging situation or stimulus. This activates the sympathetic nervous system to trigger your ‘fight or flight’ response. Essentially when under stress, your body is preparing for a battle, or getting ready to shoot off into the distance; either way your body is preparing for quite a workout- mentally, emotionally and physically. The critical factor here is that your body cannot sustain this enhanced state for very long; therefore if the source of stress i.e. your job, relationship or personal situation, does not ease out, the body ends up with a stress overload.
By itself stress is a protective mechanism that seeks to protect you (much like fever does even when it burns you up); however since we willingly expose our self to stressful situations and relationships over and over again, our body is unable to cope. And here is where the miracle lies- if you can alter your ability to cope with a stressor, you can alter your experience of the situation and just how stressed you get because of it. Infact just changing the way you think about stress can change the whole experience of a challenge for you. Recent studies have found that when we view stress as something we are capable of coping with, our body responds differently when exposed to it. A Harvard study illustrates that our blood vessels do not constrict when we view the challenge in a positive light, with participants exhibiting a physiological state akin to experiencing joy! So the next time you encounter a stressful environment or situation, try two things- change the way you view the challenges before you, and keep reminding yourself that you are more than capable of coping with them. You never know how a small change in perspective might change the way you encounter and experience the challenges before you.