06/05/2020
The Effects Stress Can Have On Your Body & Mind
It’s a well-known fact that a certain amount of stress is a good thing. It can keep you on your toes and make sure you don’t get complacent.
Too much stress, however, and suddenly things start to go haywire.
So what does stress do to your body and mind?
According to the American Psychological Society (APA), stress is your body’s way of protecting you against pain and injury. When you’re stressed, your muscles tense up. It’s a sort of reflex action.
They add that stress falls into two categories: acute stress and chronic stress.
Acute stress is short-term, such as you’d experience if you had to suddenly slam on the brakes in your car to avoid an accident.
This triggers your sympathetic nervous system to initiate the fight or flight response.
Your heart rate increases and your body sends out more of the stress hormones like Adrenalin and cortisol. More blood gets pumped around your body, which raises your blood pressure.
Once the danger has passed, however, your body settles down and things go back to normal.
Chronic stress refers to the same kinds of stressors, but over an extended period of time. That means your body doesn’t have enough time to settle down, and that puts a lot of strain on it.
More stress hormones are triggered more often, coupled with raised blood pressure levels, all of which depletes your energy reserves and leads to a certain amount of wear and tear on your body.
The damage that stress can cause shouldn’t be underestimated. And that relates to your mental health as much as your physical health.
Stress affects every aspect of your life, including your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Some of the symptoms you may experience if you’re feeling stressed include the following, according to an article on WebMD:
Feeling frustrated or moody
Feeling overwhelmed
Being unable to relax
Feeling worthless and lonely
Wanting to avoid other people
The article adds that physical symptoms can include:
A lack of energy
Headaches
Nervousness
Chest pain
Frequent colds and infections
Difficulty sleeping
Your mental reasoning can also be affected, with symptoms such as:
Constant worry and anxiety
An inability to focus
Forgetfulness
Always seeing the negative side of things
Too much anxiety messes with your mind, making it impossible for you to make good decisions. You can’t be creative or innovative either if you think you’re on the verge of a panic attack.
And living in a constant stressful state means that you have neither the energy nor the peace of mind to gain insights, make revelations, or solve problems.
Being able to relax mentally and physically is crucial, especially when you’re going through tough times or making important decisions.
That’s when hypnosis can be such a powerful and useful tool.
The secret is this: you can’t be stressed when you’re relaxed.
Hypnosis/NLP is totally geared towards inducing relaxation.
And when you’re relaxed, you’re able to let the conscious world go and just focus inward on the things you want to change.
It’s easy to say, of course, but where’s the proof? Is hypnosis really that good at inducing relaxation and helping to relieve stress?
How The Science Backs Up Hypnosis
In their article The Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy in Reducing Stress Levels, authors Alizamar et al tested 6 counselees who were known to be in a stressed condition before being given hypnotherapy.
After hypnotherapy, their stress levels declined. The authors concluded that hypnotherapy was effective at reducing stress levels.
If you would like to work with me to reduce and alleviate your stress and anxiety levels ,learning new techniques which will empower you to control anxiety and stress both now and in the future.
Invest in yourself ... Call Stuart on 07825 599340 for a free confidential consultation .
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
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I work from several locations Edgbaston, Birmingham, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, Harley Street, London, Lanzarote, The Canary Islands and Spain.
