Balance Your Physiology for Stress Prevention and Stress Management

Balancing your physiology and building a solid and strong foundation is paramount for preventing stress (cortisol) from building up in the in first place. And what's great is, it helps reduce the stress response in the other following stages as well (perception/response and acute stress management). It will also help elevate your metabolism and burn fat. Understanding the basic cortisol cycle will help you gain control over this best (stress).

For more background information, you may want to read another article entitled Stress Reduction and Stress Relief: Prevention- Get back into control

If I told you the best thing you can do to prevent and reduce your stress is to eat breakfast would you laugh at me and think I'm crazy? Well, that's exactly what I would strongly recommend. Here's why this is so vital to you and your stress reduction. Your cortisol levels are highest first thing in the morning peaking at about 7-8am. They fall by noon time with another peak after work and then falling to a very low point at bed time. You don't want to be in the fight or flight response at bed time. This natural circadian rhythm makes sense and it matches our lifestyles. Did Mother Nature know best?

But why you ask. Why are cortisol levels highest in the morning? For at least two major reasons. One. Too get you up out of bed and ready to take on the day. Two. Working together with the hormone glucagon cortisol raises blood sugar levels to power up your muscles and your brain! Remember you have been fasting overnight and blood sugar levels will be low. The brain demands the body do this and keep blood sugar levels stabilized.

Cortisol and fat accumulation

A little piece of data you need to know to lose fat. Cortisol breaks down muscle to release amino acids (the building blocks of muscle) which are then used to make glucose, which is energy for the brain! Think about this, where do you burn fat? In your muscles right. If you catabolise the very tissue that burns fat you will lose your ability to burn fat and you metabolism will drop making it more difficult to burn fat. Oh yes, you will be more tired with low energy. Cortisol also promotes belly fat accumulation!

Further, cortisol contributes to elevated insulin with is the blood sugar balancing hormone. Elevated insulin has two effects on fat. One it promotes fat storage. Two it inhibits fat mobilization and utilization by muscles. Elevated insulin makes you store fat which you can't burn! YUCK!

So why is breakfast so important? It provides the food that will be broken down into glucose to fuel and feed the brain and your working muscles. Ah you say! That makes sense. Now using your good reasoning skills can you deduct why it would be great to have protein with your breakfast? To prevent the breakdown of my muscle tissue which is where I burn fat you say! Exactly! Having breakfast with protein is incredibly important to fire up your metabolism and assist in fat burning. You whole metabolism works better and you feel better with less stress!

But what happens if you're too busy and you choose not to make time or plan for breakfast? How does your body maintain blood sugar levels and feed your working muscles? Ready for this? It releases more cortisol! Yes that's right. Your body will release even more of the stress hormone! Let's take this a step further. What happens if you throw some "gas" on this fire and have a caffeine beverage (caffeine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant)? You would be setting yourself up for a perfect physiological disaster. Irritability, the shakes, anxiety, hyper excitability, muscle loss and fat accumulation! OUCH! This does not optimize your physiology and in fact increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol contributing to a "stressed and wired" state. Ever wonder why there is so much road rage in the morning? This may be a significant contributor.

Try eating like this and see what happens. I've dealt with over a thousand clinics and the feedback is consistent. It is almost a miracle what happens. It makes sense once you understand the physiology. This changes your life! And this is one simple thing you can do.

Breakfast and long term weight loss

And how important is eating breakfast to your health? The American Heart Association reported that "... if you skip breakfast, you increase your risk to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. If you have breakfast you may reduce you risk by 37-55%." HUGE gains in health by a simple lifestyle change that you have total control over. Two things which are consistently associated with a longer, healthier life include eating breakfast and exercise. Set yourself up to win and do this one simple thing!

One more point on fat accumulation, weight loss and breakfast. Breakfast sets the physiological tone of the body and directs other food choices for the next two meals by altering hormones and brain chemicals that influence your food choices. What this means to you is, if you skip breakfast or have a poor one, you will make poor food choices and eat poorly for your next two meals! The following study solidifies this point.

    One large study of 3000 people who lost on average 70 lbs (32KG) and most importantly, who kept it off for 6 years. Of the almost 3000 people, 78% ate breakfast regularly! Only 4% reported never eating breakfast. Both groups consumed the same number of calories and the same type of foods. A conclusion deduced was that it's not just the type of calories consumed but also the time of day you eat that influences weight loss and maintenance of weight loss. It bears repeating, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Mastering this one core strategy helps prevent and buffer stress and sets you up to win.

Build you breakfast. If you have breakfast and provide amino acids in the form of proteins combined with low glycemic index carbohydrates, you can greatly reduce cortisol levels and stabilize blood sugar levels. This is a key empowering step. In addition if you add some good fats (olive oil, fish oils) they will help to keep the glycemic index low, make the meal taste better, stabilize your blood sugar and help keep you fuller longer. You now have a winning combination and an incredibly important first step to make every day great. Drive this point home with some excitement and energy!

Meditation or Medication?

Answering a question depends on the point of view we would like to choose. For a long time the society has been rewarded for living unreflectively - for living an unexamined, inauthentic and superficial life. The ideal of a person as promoted in the media was self-centered, materialistic, anti-intellectual and often driven by sensuality or greed. Today we witness how beneath the distorted value system, the eternal human qualities are being remembered, strengthened, and given the freedom to evolve. We are regaining the power of human relationships, discovering the harmony with our physical environment, colleagues, friends, family, our inner-self and our spirituality.

The knowledge of the realms of mind and body has been wrongly separated for centuries. We were created with a capacity to experience pain, with a certain level of discomfort or "healthy" anxiety. This is our continuing fear of moving through life towards death. Our symptoms have important meaning. The pain is a response to a situation or person that unsettles us. The feeling of being depressed or anxious provides us with a chance to reflect upon ourselves and to change the behavior that brought these emotions to us. If we choose to mask these feelings with medications, we evade the search for the reason behind our unsettledness. We avoid taking responsibility for our relationship with our selves and life.

However, the designer of the Universe felt that our pain is instructive. It is our gift if we accept it as a loving part of who we are. It is the most invaluable lesson that lies deep inside of each of us. Everyone discovers the message in his own time, the message of how fragile life is and how brief is our time.

Meditation is a system of practices, that helps people take responsibility for the quality of their thoughts. Meditation practices can help you enter the center of your stillness and serenity, to reach a "zero point". From this point, you can observe apart the flow of your changing emotions, thoughts and intentions and gradually understand their origin and meaning.

In the past, meditation was viewed as spiritual or religious practice. Today more and more people turn to meditation to receive the benefits of deep relaxation, and to handle successfully the psychological and psychosomatic challenges, releasing the accumulated stress in the body.

Some psychotherapists believe that meditation and hypnosis are similar states of mind and that the first one is just a part of the second. Electroencephalography or EEG shows that meditation is a more structured state of the consciousness. Hypnosis has different indicators. If it is a quite hypnotic sleep, we will see decreasing or complete disappearance of alpha rhythmic brain activity, reducing the frequency and amplitude of beta rhythm and appearance of delta like slow waves. The recording of the brain's electrical activity during hypnosis can be like the normal activity when you are awake. The person who is meditating is in a state of a focused concentration and the electrical activity in his brain is as he is ready to fall asleep. These facts are leading us with great curiosity and increasing attention to study the teachings of Yogis. During meditation, they report that their whole body is in a state of deep sleep, and their mind is in a state of a special type of wake.

The word "meditation" is from the Latin - meditatio," is moving to the center". There is also a version that meditatio comes from meditor- "to think, to contemplate, device, ponder". Exactly this is what happens during meditation. Without strain, without applying any kind of effort, you are appearing in the center of yourself. You are experiencing the feeling of being on a high elevation and observing from it everything that is happening. You can see clearly and distinctly what is important to you and undoubtedly realize it. From this higher point, you can find out a lot about the person you thought you are or were. You will begin to understand this person's life scenario, the plot of his destiny. Did his parents reject him? If this happened, did he allow this situation to influence his life? On the other hand, maybe the mother loved more his older sibling. If that was so, does the youngest continue to compete to be the first in the eyes of his mother? Does this person live in fear that life is passing him by?... All this begins to seem to you like a script written for someone else. You notice how old emotional "wounds" start t to heal.

How to De-Stress on Your Way to Work

To be able to de-stress on your way to work you need to be able to control the 'fight / flight / freeze' response. This in-built mechanism goes back to when we were out in the wild hunting for food. Being able to fight and run away from wild animals is essential in that environment. It is still useful of course in some contexts in the modern world too, but as you well know, all to often the 'fight or flight' stress response kicks in at varying levels throughout a normal day! But, because you're not fighting or running that stressful chemical mix just saps your energies and can induce stress related illness. Clearly stress is bad for our health and peace of mind. So wouldn't it be great if we could discover the secrets of how to de-stress fast...

Energy Medicine

The following 'de-stressing' technique comes from the world of Energy Medicine. It's so easy you will quickly be able to verify for yourself how effective it is. As with quite a few of the Energy Medicine techniques, people actually partially do them already. In other words part of our being knows a lot about natural healing innately. For instance when people 'lose it' they often hold their hands on their head, in the 'O my God!' pose.

Unfortunately they only keep their hands there for a few moments. If they kept their hands there for a few minutes they would be able to return to a calm balance. These locations or points on the head are known, in Energy Medicine, as the Neurovascular Points. These locations impact blood circulation throughout the entire body.

The ones we are going to use to help reduce the stress response are located an inch above the eyebrows; the bumps on the forehead. By placing the thumbs on the temples at the side of the eyes and then placing our finger tips on our forehead we keep the blood from leaving our forebrain.

The forebrain is the part of the brain that is responsible for our cognitive skills. Even when you've 'lost it' holding these points brings blood back to the forebrain! Which means you will be able to think straight again. There's also an added benefit in that it can also provide a cranial adjustment which may relieve: Chronic headaches, neck pain and jaw tension.

You can re-balance your brain using this 'Energy Medicine' with any stressful emotion / state of mind such as:

    Loneliness
    Despair
    Anger
    Jealousy
    Panic
    Fear
    Anxiety
    Self Pity
    Hatred
    Confusion / Lack of Concentration

Re-Programming The Autonomic Nervous System

Do you ever think about things from the past that stress you out? All you need to do to re-program that stress response is hold the Neurovascular points while you think of those memories. There's no need to try to be positive, simply hold the points and the stress will melt within minutes. Go through a few memories while holding the points, you could do it in the bath, and the de-stress-ing effect will begin to generalise to other memories automatically!

You can, of course, go ahead and think of upcoming events that cause you some stress. Simply think about them while holding the points. Go through a few like that to help generalise the 'stress melt.' World renowned healer Donna Eden once stated at a seminar at Lake Lucern, Switzerland, "holding the neurovasculars ALWAYS works!" In Energy Medicine she says this will be one of the simplest yet most valuable tools you can learn to help yourself de-stress fast.

Handle Your Stress Better With These Simple Tips

You should not allow stress to control what you do in life. Battling stress can change your outlook on the future. The tips provided below can make a difference in how much stress you feel each day.

To minimize excessive stress, be sure to drink plenty of water. This will help you stave off hunger that contributes to negative feelings. Furthermore, plenty of water will flush toxins from your body, allowing your immune system to focus on healing. Everyone should try to consume 8 glasses of water daily for best results.

Write out a schedule, and stick to it. Lack of organization probably causes many of your stressful mix-ups. You will be better prepared for what you have to deal with and what responsibilities you must fulfill when you have your schedule well-organized ahead of time.

Smiling more is an easy way to get rid of your stress. Smiling involves your limbic system, which helps to regulate your emotions. Smiling often makes you feel calmer, which in turn reduces stress.

Take the time to do something for someone else. Consider picking flowers for your spouse, or fixing a treat for your child. This puts the focus on others and is a positive way to remove xourself from your own stressful situation. An added bonus is the recipient's reaction to your gesture.

Stay on top of needed repairs that can be stressful if allowed to pile up. If you have three things that need to be repaired, that is triple the effort you will have to do. It is better to stay on top of things.

An affirmation is a quick, positive statement you can use to keep your mind focused on beating stress. As you repeat your affirmation to yourself, you will be able to stifle that wheedling, pessimistic voice from within. Inform yourself that you're capable of dealing with it, that you are calm, or whatever affirmations can help you feel better.

Many people turn to drugs and alcohol to help them when they are feeling stressed. This serves as an escape from all the problems in their lives. Drugs and alcohol are definitely not a good solution. Drugs and alcohol will instead make your life even harder and add to the stress you are already dealing with.

Gardening is fun, and works great against stress. The advantage of being a home owner is your backyard or front yard may be turned into a garden at will.

It is a fine line mentally when you are seeking help for your problems. You don't want to talk about your problems all the time, but you feel that you might burst if you don't get it off your chest. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to talk about these things. If they are really your friends, then they will be open to you talking to them about whatever it is you need to talk about.

The key to dealing with stress, is having a safe outlet to release anger. When you are upset, you should not over-react and bump up your blood pressure. Discover and use safer outlets to vent your anger. This will keep your stress levels lower.

The advice above will help you find ways to deal with stress. If you maintain your stress levels throughout your day, you can stay happy and in better physical health for a long time. Use this advice within your life, so you can feel better.

Practical Tips for Relieving Stress

Stress is inescapable everybody's life. There are different kinds of stress and each will certainly have to be attended to. Our body has its own stress coping mechanisms which's why all of us do not crash when put under tremendous pressure. The stress definition varies in every individual's life, given that every individual's body responds in a different way to stress. Take a look at a couple of practical actions for soothing stress.

Exercise: Stress induces the secretion of a chemical into the bloodstream and the body is provided an energy boost. When the stress is associated with physical needs, this energy is depleted. On the additional hand, when the stress is not associated with anything physical, this excess energy can easily affect the body adversely. Exercise not just helps consume this energy, however additionally helps relax both mind and body. This is best way to deal with any type of stress. It need not be a trip to the gym or trying to lift hefty weights, rather more easy exercises like walking, jogging, or also washing up your house!

Meditation & Breathing Exercises: Meditation is one method to soothe down your mind and refresh the body. When this is combined with breathing exercises, it can easily be a great combo and soothes stress. Besides, it enhances your overall physical and mental wellness and provides you with better control over stress.

Songs: Popular music is long known to have healing perks. When playing calm or melodious popular music, or just your more beloved tracks, it can help loosen up both mind and body.

Having an Outburst: More often than not, your stress is composed of built-up feelings. It can be anything from negativeness with a person due to their actions or additional issues that usually tend to stress out more. The very best way for soothing such stress is an outburst! Yes, crying, laughing, or dancing about or any sort of associated outburst could possibly deliver a welcome relief.

Diversion: An additional method to just get rid of stress is by diverting your mind and thoughts. Things to do: gardening, cooking, hanging out with your buddies or even sports; it can be any type of activity that you absolutely love. This is an excellent method to soothe stress and refresh your mind and body.

Stress Log: Having a stress log works for many. While some think it is more of an escapism course for soothing stress, this does help. All you got to do is list the things that really trouble you. It might be debts, or a work related tension, a relationship issues, or nearly anything else. When you list, your mind thinks that you are working out a solution for the problem. Depending on the problem, you could exercise just what's feasible and for the rest-- just write it down and let it rest. Some even have a specific "worry" time where they consider the problem then, and forget about it every time else! It is a good mind trick, because stress is frequently a result of emotional chaos.