Don’t stress yourself, its dangerous

To fight with the enemy you need to understand your enemy. First of all please don’t be worried if you become stressful at times…! It’s a very natural phenomenon to become stressful. It’s result of our natural evolutionary process and body’s FLIGHT AND FIGHT response to challenging circumstances. However, it becomes dangerous if we are not able to come out of stressful mind and stay in that zone for longer.  Its chronic if we live in that zone habitually.

Lets understand body’s mechanism which makes us stressful. Like any other feeling, stress is also driven by particular hormone secretion in our brain which in case of stress is triggered by any perceived threat. You can compare stress to the body as in defense mechanism of a country. As soon as mind perceives any threat say, in work responsibility or family to serious life events such as a new diagnosis, war, or the death of a loved one, stress response get triggered to save you from this situations. Body goes into FIGHT or FLIGHT mode. Your heart beat fastens and lungs start breathing faster, more oxygen and blood is pumped into muscles. Your liver sends higher glucose to blood. Your immune system gets hyper active. All this you can compare with a  countries’ army going into alert mode perceiving a threat. Imagine what happens if Pakistan starts military exercise in Kashmir border..!  Your body communicates through hormones. As soon as brain perceives threat it orders adrenal gland to release stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) which in turn communicates with each organ and put them on alert.

Just for an example, say you are holding a glass of water. If you hold it for few seconds, its ok. If you continue for longer, it pains. And if you continuously hold it for a day or so, its dangerous. You can relate stress to glass of water for understanding purpose…! Now you must realise what happens to a country if its military is on high alert all the time. The country’s budget will go haywire, it can not put its resource for growth purpose, defense system gets tired and many loopholes starts crippling into the country. Same with body..!

As a result, frequent or chronic stress will make your heart work too hard for too long. When your blood pressure rises, so do your risks for having a stroke or heart attack  Cortisol causes higher blood sugar and raises the risk of Type 2 diabetese and obesity.  The rush of hormones, rapid breathing, and increased heart beats can also upset your digestive system. You’re more likely to have heartburn or acid reflux due to an increase in stomach acid. Stress can also lead to diarrhea or constipation. You might also experience nausea, vomiting, or a stomach ache.

Huff huff…. Simple stress can do so much of damage..! So how to get rid of it faster? Well, its not that difficult to live stress free. First of all we can live stress free only if we consciously decide to live stress free. It’s a matter of choice to live stress free to a great extent. Lets first make a decision that ‘I WILL LIVE STRESS FREE BY CHOICE’. Lets live consciously and not bother about things which are not in our control. And if its in our control lets respond responsibly. Being worried is not at all going to help. Some tools and practices are very helpful in dealing with stress in a much way. A grateful heart is seldom stressed..! So gratitude prayer every morning, deep breathing, everyday meditation practice, learning something new, exercise, reading helps a lot in countering stress. Lets start with exercise and being grateful from today…!