06/08/2019
First aid for stress:
'When you are stressed, positive emotions help you recover rapidly. Stress creates immediate and negative changes in your body. It raises your blood pressure, and prolonged cardiovascular reactivity is a precursor to heart disease. However, if you experience even a mildly positive emotion immediately after a stressful situation, it will undo these effects.
It will bring your blood pressure back to normal and calm your heart rate. It will also damp down the inflammatory response, reduce the levels of stress hormones and increase the levels of hormones that promote bonding and strengthen immune functioning.
This is a crucial point - and a useful summary of why we need the right ratio of positive to negative. Positive emotions seem to work by breaking the powerful hold negative emotions have on us - on our bodies, our thinking and our behaviour - by interrupting the normal cascade of changes that are triggered by negative emotions.
That is why the merest touch from somebody who loves you can calm you instantly and why giving yourself a little treat - something nice to eat, a 5 minute break in the fresh air, a glance at a photograph of your children, a quick phone call to a friend - can literally undo the most complex and hidden stress reactions happening in your body.'
Taken from: Flourishing - How to achieve a deeper sense of wellbeing, meaning and purpose even when facing adversity.
By: Maureen Gaffney
