What does stress have to do with fitness, fat loss, or health in general?
Why would you want to zap stress? Could it really zap you?
If you don't already know the answers to all of these questions, you will in a minute.
Let me start by making it clear that the kind of stress we're talking about here is psychological in nature. We're not talking about the body/physical stress that comes from picking up something that's way too heavy, being slammed with the flu, or getting your foot run over by a truck.
We're talking about the kind of stress that you "feel" in your life -- the kind that most of us are living with every day of our lives. We're talking about the kind of stress that people talk about when they say, "Man, I am totally stressed out!" or "Wow, what a stressful job interview / presentation / performance review that was!"
But what can you do about stress? Isn't life just going to be stressful sometimes -- and really, really stressful other times -- no matter what we do?
The answer to that question may surprise you…in a good way!
1. First, Understand That Stress Is A Self-Inflicted Condition. Yes, believe it or not, any and all stress of the psychological kind is self-created (and thus, self-inflicted).How can this possibly be true? What person in their right mind would create / inflict stress upon themselves?
Ah, there's the catch. Nobody in his "right" mind would inflict stress upon themselves.
But you see, it's a largely (or entirely) unconscious process. It's something we learned to do. Creating stress is, in fact, something we have been programmed to do in certain situations and under certain conditions.
While the specific details of our individual "OK, this is stressful" recipe varies from person to person, the mechanism is always the same. At some point in your life, you developed your own, unique, stress-creation equation, and whenever all the "right" ingredients are present, voila!, you create stress -- automatically, unconsciously, and predictably.
2. Be Aware That There's Good Stress And Bad Stress. As pioneering stress researcher Hans Selye pointed out decades ago, not all stress is negative. He used the term "eu-stress" (as in "euphonia." or "The Eurhythmics.") to describe the healthy stuff.
How can stress be healthy? It's healthy when it inspires you and motivates you to accomplish good things, to reach your goals, or just to get out of bed in the morning. Eu-stress is created when you understanding the difference between where you are and where you want to be, and then have a healthy (not frenetic) desire to get there.
Eu-stress is created when you understand that you don't have to make yourself crazy, beat yourself to death, slay the dragon, keep up with the Joneses, be the first one on your block, or "knock 'em dead" to get what you want in life.
A life with zero stress would be boring and unhealthy. But a life high in negative stress is even more unhealthy. So you need to understand how, when, and why YOU create stress, and become the conscious source of the stress in your life -- and not the unconscious victim of it.
3. Understand That Negative Stress Impairs All Healthy Body Functions. In fact, negative stress can literally kill you. Psychological stress can lead to so much physical stress that some essential body function can shut down entirely -- most often, your heart.
Or if excess stress doesn't kill you outright, it can make you wish you were dead, or make you one of the "living" dead. (Maybe you have already met a few of them? Maybe you are becoming one of them.
High levels of negative stress causes hypertension (elevated blood pressure) due to increased pulse rate, constricted blood vessels, or both. It also causes diminished coping ability resulting from low energy and fatigue, due to the constant drain on you resources.
Negative stress also leads to poor digestion and poor nutrient assimilation, again, a negative consequence of reduced circulatory function. This can lead to constipation and, over time, to colitis, diverticulitis, and some really serious colon problems.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
[Please stay tuned to this location for Part Two of… "7 Ways & Reasons To Zap Stress Before Stress Zaps You!"
…by Dr. Frank B. Smoot, MA, DD
GHF's Success Coach
www.CoachFrankSmoot.com
