Dance, dance, dance

Your response to potentially stressful day to day experiences has a major impact on your health and well being. Many medical journals report that chronic stress puts us at greater risk for illnesses including cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, and digestive disorders.

Prolonged negative thinking, depression, anger, resentment, and worry are high stress states and are all potentially harmful to the essential mind/body balance. Constantly seeing the glass half empty puts the emotions and body under stress. High stressed individuals produce more of the neurochemicals that impair the immune system: heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, muscles tense, breathing quickens, and stomach acids escalate. If poor sleep is one of your challenges, keep in mind that stress produces more of the hormones that keep you awake and less of the hormones that help you to relax. In addition to poor food choices, stress causes weight gain due to an over production of the adrenal hormone cortisol, resulting in too much belly fat.

Stressors can be minor hassles, major lifestyle changes, or life events that overwhelm us. Being able to identify stressors in your life and releasing the tension they cause are the keys to successfully managing stress. Stressors may include: the death of a friend or loved one; challenges at home with children or your intimate relationship; work overload; ending or starting a new job; being unemployed; money issues and financial concerns; legal problems; uncertainty about the future; and unresolved grief. Loss and grief follow us throughout our life time. When loss is not addressed and worked through, the anticipation of future losses can loom over us distorting our vision for a positive future.

What can we do? Use your creative imagination to play with options and possibilities for changing the stressful situation you find yourself in. Participate in an ongoing meditation group or spiritual group to help move your mind and emotions in more positive and life-enhancing directions. Hike in the red rocks, taking notice of and appreciating the amazing beauty of nature. Learn more about healthy eating from local markets and discover for yourself the relationship between food and stress. Join a grief support group to help heal the anguish of a significant loss. Listen to music at local clubs, watching and feeling the passion of the musicians who play.  Take an art class from a talented local or visiting artist or join an enjoyable singing group. Use self-hypnosis relaxation techniques, including calming breathing processes to help you fall asleep more naturally. Read books that are uplifting and that help you to feel more hopeful. Watch birds soar through the air, seemingly defying time and space.  Work in the garden, planting beautiful flowers and delectable vegetables. Laugh often, smile at others when you make eye contact and dance, dance, dance.