Creating Balance Rocks

BY LORI BROTHERS

Stress doesn’t have to be a monster that rules your life, nor your health. We can learn the under-used skill of creating balance. Often, the conditions of stress are something we humans adapt to, and accept as our norm. We underestimate the detrimental effects on our health. The mental, emotional or physical tension can create strain on our body’s systems.

Yet, we accept stress as a part of living. This is a survival mind-set -- not a balanced mind-set. A balanced mind-set includes a lifestyle that limits demand and develops restorative activity to protect all levels of the body, mind, and spirit.

Balance becomes the equalizer based on grounded, calm, practical choice making about how you live. The goal is not to eliminate all stressors from living. The circumstances are individual and personal that lead to “distress.” What causes you stress may not create the same effect for me. The body's reaction to distress triggers an alarm, kicking in body defenses. This is known as the fight or flight response. Becoming aware of when these dynamics are prevalent for you will become crucial to striking balance.

Positive stress is referred to as “eustress.”  Events such as moving into a new house, getting married, or receiving a promotion are great moments in life. These life occasions are most often happy. They can also challenge us by disrupting the predictable flow of living, throwing us off balance. Both forms of stress, if not addressed and managed well, can lead to disease in the body. Illness, some chronic or recurring,  are caused by taxing the body's ability to adapt and recover. Pressing the overload button within the body systems compromises equilibrium and efficiency.

It’s amusing that to deal with distress, we need to de-stress. Making space in your life to wind-down and relax requires more than the social norm of drinking a glass of wine or enjoying a cold beer. The myth of “resting” while watching television or surfing the net does not speak deeply enough to the body about recovery. Learning to achieve physiological, psychological, and emotional balance to the depth of clinically restoring your systems takes preparation and practice. More than detoxing, we are talking repairing damage to erase the errors that stress create within our systems.

1. Invest your time in finding a good yoga class. Gentle stretching, deep breathing, and meditation are necessary to tone the part of the nervous system that understands the body’s wisdom to heal. (This is the part of the nervous system that is the opposite of the fight or flight response.)
2. Empower yourself with cardio exercise and strength training. This uses the part of the nervous system that registers fight or flight in a positive way.
3. Surround yourself with supportive people. Studies show that connection to others improves the ability to cope, enhances self-esteem, and can help you be more successful with your healthy lifestyle choices.

Creating balance rocks. If your world is shaking you up, you need to shake up your world. Reflection and contemplation may seem difficult if you are caught up in a round of stressful life events.  If you are suffering from headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, or irritability take the signals from your body/mind that you need to slow down long enough to evaluate your lifestyle. Including a focused practice that speaks to your body systems takes a plan, education, and commitment. Your health may hang in the balance.