Stressed out? When stress becomes a health hazard.

We all know what stress is, and for the most part, we know what causes it. From daily tasks like sitting in traffic, trying to get your kids to eat their vegetables, or meeting work deadlines. To more serious events, like a significant medical diagnosis or the death of a loved one.

We all experience stress and it’s not always a bad thing. Stress is a natural physical response to negative stimuli and was designed to protect us.    

When we encounter a stressful situation, hormones are released, and your heart starts racing.  

Your breath quickens and your muscles tense, getting the body ready to fight or flee!

So, what’s so bad about that?

Well, nothing, as long as the stress is necessary and acute (meaning it comes and goes again relatively quickly) or we have the resources to process it.

In fact, stress that is appropriate and short lived, can be beneficial to your health by helping you to cope with a serious or demanding situation. When stress starts to cause problems is when the stress we are experiencing (be it an external pressure or internal emotional state) is happening with unrelenting frequency, and we struggle to let it go, or process it. This is known as chronic stress.

So how does chronic stress affect us physically?

According to Gabor Mate, Hungarian-Canadian Physician and world-renowned expert in stress, addiction and trauma, chronic stress can:

• “make us anxious or depressed;

• suppress immunity;

• promote inflammation;

• narrow blood vessels, promoting vascular disease throughout the body;

• encourage cancer growth;

• thin the bones;

• make us resistant to our own insulin, inducing diabetes;

• contribute to abdominal obesity, elevating the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic problems;

• impair essential cognitive and emotional circuits in the brain; and

• elevate blood pressure and increase blood clotting, raising the risk of heart attacks or strokes.”

Given that laundry list of physical ramifications, it stands to reason that we would want to reduce our daily stress.

So, how do we do that?  

Luckily, there are many great antidotes to stress:  

• Exercising,

• Sleeping well,

• Eating nutritious food,

• Breath work, yoga and meditation,

• Connecting and having fun with family and friends.

And then there is EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques).

EFT has been shown to reduce:

**Cortisol levels by 37%

**Pain by 57%

**Anxiety by 40%

**Depression by 35%

**Blood pressure by 8%

And

**Increase immune system markers by 113%

EFT is a simple self-help tool and clinical intervention that can be used to reduce the stress response. This can be done in the moment, like when you are frustrated in traffic, or if you have a negative interaction with someone. And it can also be used to process bigger emotions and stressful or even traumatic events. Just be careful to make sure you get support from a Certified & Accredited Practitioner before working on any big traumas.

EFT often works in just a few minutes, and can be done anywhere, any time.  

To take your stress reduction to the next level, and really change your health and how you feel, try Clinical, Evidence-Based EFT.

For more information, please connect with me here.