For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.  – Lily Tomlin

November 4th, 2009 was national stress awareness day in UK, this post is dedicated to the long term damage stress causes!

Wake up!

Wake up people, become aware of what you’re doing to your bodies, relax, breathe, be still.

Long ago when our bodies were still evolving and developing mankind was wandering about hunting. During that long era our brains developed around the notion of the fight-or-flight response. Our brain and body would expect to come across a stressful situation (say a saber-toothed Tiger!) to deal with and that would release large quantities of Adrenaline and Cortisol into our blood streams. These chemicals acted to help do ‘flight’ or fight given the situation. Then the stressful situation would disappear often because either the predator or the human would have perished.

That was then.

Now we handle daily stress in the same way. Which is the problem. Every time we get excited, often without realizing, the body pumps up the same levels of chemicals each time. This we do to ourselves constantly.

How Stress Hurts!

Here’s what the chemicals (Adrenaline & Cortisol) do to us…

Constantly high levels of adrenaline caused by ongoing stress scars our blood vessels which must now be filled in by cholesterol! Guess what happens when too much cholesterol starts clogging our blood vessels? That’s how stress causes heart attacks.

Cortisol on the other hand damages cells in the hippocampus which leads to ‘memory impairment’ and learning disabilities! The more we’re stressed, the less likely are we to remember and learn!!

Forget the doing for a while; just be.

Recommendation: Life Without Stress