You can fool your mind, but you can't fool your body. Stress hormones may have been running around your system for years - causing dramatic changes in your body - without you acknowledging or recognizing you're at risk.
Even if you convince your mind you're feeling fine, all is well, and that stress is not a problem for you - you can't deny it in your body. Your body stores stress. It stores it up in all sorts of ways, such as tight muscles and ligaments, internal organs that don't function well, chronic fatigue, listlessness, ulcers, who knows what else? This all sounds very negative, and it is…but help is on the way!
New research into what makes humans ill in today's society is demonstrating strong links between unresolved stress, holding onto "stuff" and disease. This unresolved stress is buried deep inside you creating havoc within your bodily systems and rapidly increasing the aging process.
One of the worst effects of prolonged unresolved stress is damage to the immune system. Your immune system is the part of you that fights off viruses and other diseases. It's essential to have a healthy and strong immune system if you want to be well and free of colds, flus, and other illnesses.
So what can you do? This article includes some very simple and effective strategies to help burn off stress as it occurs, short-circuiting the damage that could be done.
First, when you stimulate the skin, you release more immune system boosting chemicals into your system than if you stimulate any other structure or organ in your body. In 1976, doctors at the University of Miami ran an experiment in which they took two groups of premature babies. One group was treated in the normal, medical, hygienic way and the other group was treated similarly - except they had "tactile stimulation" three times a day.
The results were dramatic. Although fed on demand with the same formula, the touched babies gained 47% more weight every day than the control group, they were more alert and started to act like normally delivered babies sooner. They also left the hospital a week sooner than the control group. The only difference between the two was the amount of touching given to the babies. What a shame these results aren't publicized more widely! I guess it just proves that love, caring and touching are fundamental for human wellness.
Many other studies indicate the importance of touch for our health. For example, having a pet to stroke can help lower your blood pressure. Sometimes doctors even recommend that people recovering from heart attacks get a pet and make time to pat the pet as part of their treatment!
If you accept that the body stores stress, and that we may not be aware of this happening, one of the easiest and most pleasant things we can do to eliminate that stress is to have a massage every once in awhile! Choose whatever sort of massage you like and make a commitment to yourself to have one at least every few weeks, or as often as you need or would like to have one. "Eeek" I can hear some of you cry! "I can't afford that. I don't have time. I only do that when I want to pamper myself." WRONG!
Massage should no longer be considered a luxury or pampering. It's essential for our wellness if we look at what we understand about the body and mind. Make time and save money so you can have one as often as possible. Or if you live with a significant other, massage each other at home. Build your relationship while boosting your immune system!
Here's another idea. Hug your children a lot, if you don't already. Otherwise they might literally shrivel up and whither away without it! What if you're not a "touchy" person? Maybe your parents didn't touch much or touch you much and so you grew up learning from a model where touching was taboo. If that's the case, do whatever you have to do to build a bridge and get over it! If you don't like to touch or be touched, then you are likely to be sick more often than those who do like it!
When you come in the door at night, do you greet your partner with a peck on the cheek and then spend 5 minutes playing with the dog or cat? Not only does this make the person feel less important than the animal, but it also deprives both of you from a great opportunity to communicate AND boost your immune system at the same time!
I've had people at conferences (almost always women) who have said "do you know, sometimes I lie on the floor next to the dog...just to get the same attention!" TRUE. The men retaliate with "yea, but at least the dog's pleased to see me!" So perhaps men and women need to talk about the touching issue a bit more?
Here's another simple way to boost your immune system, improve communication and the relationship between you and your partner. Give the person a seven second kiss and hug when you walk in the door. Most people gawk when I say this and squeak "how long?!" Seven seconds really isn't that long (and men, you don't need to be watching the clock behind your partner's head!).
Hugs are also great for your physiology. Did you know that a hug actually changes the chemical makeup of your body? As long as you like the hug-er, your body will fill up with endorphins and you'll reduce the amount of nasty stress chemicals spreading their chaos. So go out and give someone a hug today!
I hope you will all try some of these strategies to help lower your stress. I think you'll be surprised at the beneficial results from this new form of wellness prescription…it really works!
