How the body responds to stress.
I truly liked what he had to say and rather than paraphrase I wanted to share the text straight from his email. Since I have worked with my own stress response and many others what he says is valid!
The Urban Monk said this:
The health industry in the Western world is one of the strongest profit machines ever invented. Thanks to Nixon’s 1973 Health Maintenance Organization act, doctors, health insurance companies, clinics, and hospitals could begin to function for profit…
And the diagnosis game was never the same.
Privatizing pharmaceuticals meant that emphasis was placed on treatment through more medication and less homeopathy. After all, you can’t charge incredible mark-ups on emotional self-care.
It doesn’t come in a bottle, and there isn’t one size that fits all.
It stands to reason, then, that some physical ailments actually stem from emotional distress and should be taken as signs that you’re emotionally drained or frustrated.
Now, emotional care shouldn’t be used in the case of a physical malady like, say, strep throat.
But physical pain is often a manifestation of stress or other imbalance in our emotional equilibrium.
Let’s get closer to the cause of some common physical indicators…
Chronic Fatigue and Lethargy
Feeling physically exhausted doesn’t always mean that you’re not getting enough sleep, or eating the wrong food, or you’re dehydrated.
Oftentimes, chronic physical exhaustion and tiredness is an emotional issue rather than an error in energy conversion.
Chronic fatigue can actually be the result of emotional grief, depression, anxiety, or burn-out from high stress – issues that medication can help with, but not solve. If you’re experiencing chronic fatigue, it may be worth looking inward to determine where you aren’t feeling at peace, rather than caffeinating or trying to stay awake with external stimuli.
This very process takes time to truly just sit in our own bodies, deeply asking myself “what I am feeling right now”? We are in a hurried society to get to the next place or thing to be done. I have learned and continue to learn to STOP and be here and now, feeling what is alive in me at this moment.
Stomach Aches and Bowel Issues
The more we learn about the connection between gut health and mental activity, the more clear it becomes that each is constantly influencing the other.
Stress can actually cause a whole host of digestive issues simply by changing the composition of the gut microbiota, or the collection of bacteria that live and thrive in your gut, controlling everything from immune function to our physiological response to microbiota.
Stress activates the nervous system’s fight-or-flight response, which can involve the prolonged constriction of stomach muscles, and the blood fleeing the digestive tract to power up the lungs and muscles.
When that happens, you may experience diarrhea, stomach cramps, constipation, and other digestive issues.
Do you notice any of this happening to you?
Aches and Pains
Experiencing regular stress means that the stress hormone, cortisol, is more present in your body than in someone who isn’t stressed would have.
Increased cortisol is often found in the cells of chronic pain sufferers, indicating that stress and aches are connected.
This can be a telltale sign that your physicality has been influenced by your mental state. You see, when you’re chronically stressed, your body tenses your muscles in preparation for danger. If there’s no danger present in the real world, then there’s no outward indication that your muscles can relax, and they’re just waiting for the signal from your brain that everything is okay.
When that signal doesn’t come, your muscles stay tense. And start to ache. And throb. And there, chronic pain.
How many times when sitting with a co-worker, boss, relative, neighbor, spouse or children am I truly aware in that moment what I am thinking or feeling?
High Blood Pressure
This is a huge money-maker for Big Pharma. Currently, the blood pressure monitor market is worth $1.25 billion.
The medical community isn’t exactly motivated to suggest that blood pressure can be brought down by paying attention to your emotional state.
Many studies have been conducted to illustrate the connection between negative emotions and high blood pressure, and the results are pretty conclusive. Stress and rage raise blood pressure.
Periods of peace and calm lower blood pressure.
If your blood pressure is higher than it should be, consider that you may be in the midst of a turbulent emotional period, and look into ways that you can relax yourself naturally. Calming music and soothing scents have actually made great strides in lowering blood pressure and calming test subjects.
A lot of physical ailments can’t be cured with a better mood – things like cancer, or genetic diseases, or broken bones.
But chronic fatigue, blood pressure, libido, digestive issues, insomnia, and frequent sickness (due to lowered immune function), and even acne can actually be emotion-activated issues.
Stress takes energy away from areas of the body that need constant attention, and sends the energy to our muscles and lungs to prepare the body to fight an oncoming enemy.,
But if the enemy we’re fighting is our own emotional well-being…
We might want to consider tackling the cause of our emotional poisoning before we treat the symptoms.
So once again, the invitation is to just sit in your heart, breath in and out, a little deeper than normal, slower than normal. Do this for a minute or two. Activate a renewing, regenerative feeling for another minute. Then asking your heart “what I am truly experiencing here in this moment”?
Doing this without judgment is the key.
When under stress/real or imagined, go to your own Source/Heart and breathe. Listen. Ask. Act on what you hear.
Example: let’s say I have high blood pressure. I can go to my heart. Breathe as mentioned above to sync up my nervous system. When I activate/choose a renewing feeling, I shift the hormones being produced. Then perhaps ask “what is emotion is connected to my high blood pressure”?
What if you did pay more attention to all of this?
