Stress is mainly an emotional as well as physical strain caused by many outside pressures. It occurs due to difficulty in coping with many experiences. Stress causes inability to concentrate, trouble in sleeping, irritability, faster heartbeat, sweaty palms, dry mouth, difficulty in breathing, pounding heart, stomach upset, tightening of muscles resulting in trembling, pain and headache.

Causes Of Insomnia:

Insomnia is caused by a main cause or by interaction of many reasons. The causes can be:

• Psychological: Result of stress, fear, or depression.
• Physical: Mental conditions, hormonal changes in women, sleep disorders like apnea, genetics, decrease of melatonin and pain.
• Temporary factors or events: Medications, overuse of alcohol and caffeine, adjustment sleep disorder, extreme temperatures, environmental noise, change in the surrounding environment, long work shifts or night shift and jet lag.

Stress & Insomnia

Insomnia is usually caused by stress. Stress destroys the homeostatic balance, affecting the peak potential. It can cause several psychological and physical effects like depression, headache, accidents, impaired mental functions, and even heart attack. Stress releases two hormones from adrenal glands : cortisol and epinephrine.  These hormones affect digestion and growth, as the fundamental balance is whacked. Processes not necessary for short-term survival are affected, as the two hormones withdraw energy from them. They channel the extra energy for boosting blood supply and muscles, for precipitating quick actions. The excitatory stress hormones makes people excited, leading to inability of sleep and disruption of sleep. 

Snoozing is a natural process where the metabolic rate and heartbeat lowers, postural muscles relax, blood pressure falls and breathing becomes normal. It is the cyclical fall as well as rise of cortisol levels that monitors the level of sleep. Cortisol level can affect the day-to-day life. While falling into sleep results in a gradual cessation of the action phenomenon, stress induces action. Conditions of sleeping and stress are two antagonistic processes and hence cause havoc. Chronic secretion of cortisol due to stress, leads to excessive activation, not only during waking hours but also while sleeping. Hence sleep becomes restless, fragmented and shallow, causing insomnia.

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But are these things inevitable or can we take our future in our hands and stop this process of decay before it begins. If this process of decay was pre-ordained by the gods it would happen to everyone everywhere. However there are at least three culture around the world in which people regularly live to over 100 and are full of life and vitality. This gives us hope that it is possible.

If we compare the changes normally associated with aging with side effects of stress we find some remarkable similarities. So just how much is due to the passing of time and how much to our stressful life styles.

Conditions we associate with aging include:

• Heart disease
• Arthritis
• Aches and pains
• memory failure
• dementia
• increased risk of cancer
• suppression of the immune system
• Slower healing of cuts and bruises
• Wrinkles and hair loss
• Brittle bones
• Reduce sex drive

Now let’s look at the effects that prolonged stress can have on your body.

When you face a stressful situation your body responds immediately. All your energy goes to preparing to escape from danger. Your nervous system and hormones such as adrenaline, corticosteroids and endorphins prepare your body for danger and suppress any function that is not vital to immediate survival. These hormones and nervous system reaction continue any stress response for several hours until you can relax and release the hormones from your body. If you are facing one stressful situation after the other or your stress is prolonged these hormones can have major impacts upon your body causing the diseases general associated with stress.

Your heart beat increases and arteries constrict and blood pressure raises to increase the rate of oxygen getting to the skeletal muscles heart and brain. Therefore long term stress can lead to hypertension and heart problems.

More oxygen is needed so bronchial tubes expand and breathing becomes more rapid. This can lead to shortness of breath and asthma.

Digestive system is shut down so blood can go to limbs and heart. If your digestive system is suppressed you will not be able to absorb essential nutrients. These nutrients are needed to repair and rebuild cells and organs. Therefore if you are suffering from long term stress your body will be slow to heal from injury. Amino acids are vital for production of hormones. If you are not absorbing your food properly you will have trouble producing hormones which are necessary for you body to function smoothly.

Cholesterol is released from the liver to be used as a fuel. Therefore long term stress can lead to a raise in cholesterol levels which can block arteries

Cortisone released by the adrenal glands suppresses the immune system. It reduces the thymus and lymph glands which are a major part of the immune system. This can lead to a number of illness from the common cold to arthritis and cancer.

Insomnia is a common complaint for those suffering from stress. A hormone that keeps as young is the human growth hormone. This hormone is produced after we have been asleep for about 90 minutes. Therefore if you are not sleeping well you will look and feel older because of a lack of human growth hormone.

Long term stress can also have an effect mentally. It can lead to depression, apathy, mental exhaustion, irritability, anxiety, overwhelm and a poor memory.

Another reaction to stress is the suppression of your reproductive system, which can lead to infertility and a less than satisfactory sex life.

Reducing your stress for a healthy old age

The first step to take is to recognize the effects that stress has on your body and how it can cause major illness and premature death. Thereby making it easier for you to make stress reduction a priority in your life.

There are four main areas to consider when trying to reduce your stress levels

Relaxation

• Exercise
• Diet
• Thoughts

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Vitamins and Minerals to help prevent Stress

There are a number of supplements that will help you manage your stress levels. They include:

•  
  • B complex
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Zinc
  • Iron

Get plenty of exercise to release your adrenaline and drink lots of water.

It is also vital at this time that you get enough sleep. Molehills have a bad habit of turning into mountains when we are sleep deprived.

A Stress Relief Exercise

If you are feeling at the end of your tether, there is a little exercise that I do with clients and for myself, which really helps you feel back in control and able to cope.

Lie on the floor, use pillows to make yourself comfortable. Take a deep breath in and relax as much as possible. Feel your body sinking into the floor.

Imagine that you have a protective cocoon of energy surrounding you coming out about ten inches from your body. Choose a color that feels right and flood your protective cocoon with this color. Do not worry about anything else just concentrate on keeping your color in your cocoon. Keep your attention on your color as long as it takes to feel better.

Then bring your attention back to the room and get up slowly and go on with your day. You can use this technique any time you feel you need to.

When you finish keep your attention on the here and now.

The color can be anything that feels right at the time. Green and Blue are good choices because they both have healing, relaxing and regenerating properties.

If you are having trouble with this exercise do not let it add to your tension. You are unique and the technique does not work for everyone.

Another great thing to do to release your stress is get out and enjoy nature.

Want more information on stress relief?  Check out my stress management book - http://www.exaltedliving.com/stress.htm

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Unfortunately in practice it can be a time of great stress and unhappiness.  There is so much to do and so much to organise.  And sometimes getting together with your extended family can be uncomfortable and even painful.

So here is a plan that will help you to relax a little more this Christmas and hopefully a good time will be had by all.

Christmas Shopping

Don’t leave everything until the last moment. Rushing will just make you tired and more stressed.  Get you Christmas shopping done early, so you don’t have to spend hours fighting other shoppers for the last doll or Christmas turkey.

Don’t over spend.  It is very easy at Christmas time to spend too much and put yourself in a financial hole for a good part of the new year.  Decide before you go shopping how much you can afford to spend and stick to your budget.  Shopping early will help you stick to a budget as you will not be in a last minute panic, picking up anything that may be suitable regardless of the cost. 

If money is a little tight for you or some of your family members there are a couple of ways you can reduce your spending costs.  Together you could decide that all gifts should be handmade or second hand.  Or you could all decide that each of you will only buy for one other person.  This way instead of spending $5 on 10 people and getting them all little cute but junky things you spend $50 on one person and get them something that they will really appreciate.  Decide between the family an amount that everyone is to spend and then draw names out of a hat to see who you will shop for.

Wrap the presents as soon as you can after buying them – that will leave one less thing to do on Christmas eve.

Christmas Cooking

Again planning is very important.  You don’t have to do it all yourself.  Ask members of your family to bring something along.  This way the chore is shared amongst many and everyone can feel like they have contributed.

See what preparations can be made a few days before hand.  The plum pudding and mince tarts can be made weeks before hand.  Do what you can, but make sure everything is stored at a safe temperature.  You can wash the potatoes but they will go black if you peel them.

Dealing with the Unpleasant Relatives

At Christmas time we can be thrown together with people that we would really rather not have anything with.  Do your best to be pleasant to them but if they cross the line and say something that is rude stay calm.  Do not attack them back; let them know that you do not appreciate their comments and that you would rather here positive comments about yourself and other members of your family.

Do your best not to let the comments of one person spoil your day.  Try not to dwell on any negativity.  Instead think about the things you are enjoying about the day and go and find someone you do get along well with and talk to them.

Alcohol can increase your emotional reactions to any situation so only drink in moderation.

One final word

Make sure that you look after yourself with appropriate exercise, relaxation, sleep and a healthy diet on the days leading up to Christmas.  When we are feeling fit and energetic we are able to cope so much more easily with the ups and downs of life.  However if we are already feeling tired and stressed any little thing can overwhelm us and this can make Christmas day more tension and tiresome.

Have a great Christmas

Want more ways to enjoy your life?  Kerry-Ann Cox, author and healer, has just released her new book ‘The Stress Free Mind – new ways of thinking and looking at life to reduce your stress levels’  Find our more at http://www.exaltedliving.com/stress.htm

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The first night of saying my affirmations I also slept well, but they only worked that one night, after that I was back to my old pattern of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep.  I kept trying my affirmations for a few days, but they did not seem to be helping.  I think the problem was I just did not believe myself when I told myself I slept well every night.  My little critic kept saying yeah right! Then why are you feeling so tired today if you sleep so well, and things like that.  An affirmation will only work if it feels good to you and it is not followed with a pile of doubt and negative mind chatter.  Anyway, if you want to find out more about affirmations head over to my “ancient wisdom modern mind” blog where I discuss how to use and not use affirmations. http://www.ancientwisdommodernmind.com/blog

Before I went to bed last night, I wanted to try something else so I could give you and update here and hopefully get a good night sleep.  So I let it be known to my subconscious mind that I wanted some other things to try and let it do the job of bringing me some good ideas.

I never have trouble getting to sleep when I first get into bed.  My problem is that I wake up in the middle of the night, often stressing about something.  During the day I have good control over my mind and what I choose to think about.  But for some reason in the early hours of the morning my mind takes control and I can have the same thought over and over and it makes it impossible to go back to sleep.  Sometimes the thoughts are not even about real things, but at that time of night they seem very real and the most important things in the world.  It is only the next morning that I realise it was total junk. 

So the idea that came to me was to take a pen and paper to bed with me.  Then if I woke up in the night, instead of just letting my mind have control and keep repeating the same thoughts, I could write down what the thoughts were.  That way, if they were junk thoughts, I would be more awake and conscious of the fact and therefore be able to let them go.  And if there were relevant to my life, I could get them down on paper, knowing I could deal with them in the morning and then let them go.

So that is what I did.  When I woke up my mind was racing about a discussion I had had with my husband and a solution to a problem.  So I wrote them down and then went to sleep straight away and did not wake up until after 6am.  And as I said in the beginning I woke up feeling great.

So I’ll keep trying this for a few nights and report back here.  If you have any methods that help you sleep please let us know.  Let’s help each other out here.

 If you haven’t already done so grab your free stress relief ecourse - just fill in your details at the top left of this page.

Ok until next time

Kerry

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Why is it that some people become totally stressed when the smallest thing goes wrong while others can cope with extraordinary amounts of pressure with it batting an eye?

There can be many factors at play here.  We become more easily stressed when we are tired or unwell.  But with all things being equal it is what we think about a situation that will determine whether we are stressed by it or not.

For example, let’s look at two people waiting for a phone call from a potential romantic interest and how differently they respond when they do not receive the phone call.

Person A starts to fret and draws many conclusions about why the person hasn’t called and will most likely start to think about all the times in the past that they have been let down in a similar manner.  They might start to think things like – “men never call when they say they will, there must be something wrong with me because no one wants to go out with me, men are totally unreliable, no one is ever going to want to go out with me again etc.”  With all these negative thoughts and self-talk, person A is likely to become stressed, depressed and/or defensive. 

Person B on the other hand simply thinks that the potential caller forgot, were busy or changed their minds.  They may feel a little disappointed that the phone call did not occur but they do not get involved in a lot of negative thinking and simply let it go and get on with their day.

There are two important differences occurring with our two people.

Person A is taking it personally and is then inventing stories about the situation.

Person B is just sticking to facts.  Person B is not dredging up the past and making things up about what is going on and is not jumping to conclusions about what this one missed phone call will mean to their future.

When you look at it like this, you see how ridiculous we can be, when we feel that someone has let us down.  We search our past for every related incident and this makes us feel even worse and makes us project into the future and all we can then see is that we are going to be unhappy forever more.

But in reality what has really happened is that we have talked ourselves in to becoming stressed and unhappy.

If we want to stop stressing ourselves with our thinking we need to get control of our wandering minds and instead stick to the facts.  With our missed phone call the facts simply are

1.  Someone told us they would phone at a certain time

2.  They did not phone when they said they would.

3.  We probably feel disappointed

So those are the facts – the rest of it we invent.

So next time you are getting stressed, stop a moment and consider what the facts are and what you are inventing about those facts.  You may even be able to stop the stress dead in its tracks and laugh at how our own minds can be our worst enemy.

If you liked this article you will enjoy my ebook - the stress free mind.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.exaltedlliving.com/stress.htm

If you haven’t already done so grab your free stress relief ecourse - just fill in your details at the top left of this page.

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Much of the stress you carry is in your body, so by learning to relax your body you will help your mind to unwind too.

There are many ways to relax your body.  Some of them are sure to work for you.  Try out different ones and find your favourites.

1. A long hot bath with relaxing some essential oils like lavender, bergamot, rose, rosewood, sage, basil, geranium,  pick one of the above oils or a couple of them and put three drops in the bath.  You can take a good book with you, or just lie back and enjoy some time of piece and quiet. Make sure you take the phone off the hook and let everyone know that this is your time and they are only talk to you if it is an emergency.  Take a walk in nature
2. go for a run – this is not a favourite of mine, but hey it works for some
3. a yoga class – a yoga class will help you stress out and relax all those tight muscles, you’ll feel great afterwards
4. Watch your favourite feel good movie
5. Have a cup of relaxing tea like peppermint or chamomile
6.  Use the oils above in an oil burner and let them drift through your home.
7. Have a massage – hot rock massages are my favourite, having someone else pamper you can so relaxing.  A massage with oils and rocks will do you wonders
8. Do some deep breathing exercise.  Breath in for a slow count of 7, hold the breath in for a slow count of 7 and breath out to a slow count of 7, as you breath out feel all your tension drain from you.  Do this seven times
9. Total relaxing body exercise.  Take a few deep breaths, then relax each part of your body systematically.  Start with your toes on your right foot tense the muscles for a few seconds and then relax them, move up to your ankle and repeat, move up to the different parts of your leg, then go to the toes on your left foot and up your left leg.  Move on to your right hand up your right arm, the left hand and the left arm.  Move to the lower abdomen and up to your chest, then your backside and up your back.  Finally to your neck and face and head.
10. Get your all time favourite food, but limit yourself to one mouthful and totally enjoy that mouthful.  Put all your attention on that one mouthful, before you put it in your mouth, look at it, smell it and then finally put it in your mouth and chew it slowly enjoying every sensation.  Try this you might be surprised at how relaxing it can be.  But you have to only have one mouthful, otherwise you will not get the most out of this experience

If you haven’t already done so grab your free stress relief ecourse - just fill in your details at the top left of this page.

For other great ways for stress relief and relaxation check out the ebooks and music on our main site http://www.chilloutspaces.com

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There is way too much stress, tension and unhappiness in the world.  So this blog is about stress relief, relaxation, happiness and joy.

Everyone wants to be happy.  Though what this thing called happiness is can sometimes be a mystery and can feel light years away from our life as it is. 

We often get caught in the trap thinking that having something, doing something or being with someone will make us happy.  Have you ever thought I’ll be happy when……..?  And when that thing happened your happiness was only fleeting and then you started searching for the next “thing” that would make you happy.

Here in the Western world we often think having more money will make us happier, but studies have shown that as long as you are over the poverty line there is no correlation between more money and more happiness.

So what is this thing called happiness and how can you ‘get’ more of it.  Well I’ll let you into a secret about life – life is not about having or doing.  Life is really about how you are feeling.  And your feelings are happening right now.  Happiness is a feeling and so is sadness.  And I here some of you saying, yes but I’ll feel happier when such and such happens. 

But you know from experience when you are feeling tired and stressed, everything around you seems harder than usually, but when you are feeling joyful there seems to be a buffer between you and the little hassles life can through your way.  When you are happy and you find yourself in a traffic jam, you just crank up your favourite music and sing along.  But a traffic jam when you are already stressed will cause you to bash the steering wheel and start yelling at the cars around you.

So you see it is often not what is going on around you that is making you happy but how you are feeling inside when life is happening around you.

The good news is there are things you can do to raise your level of happiness and it starts with learning to relief your stress and relax more. 

Sometimes we have been living in a state of stress for so long that we forget that there is another way to be.  And it is only when something happens to lift the stress that we remember that life can be more fun.

So that is what we are about here, helping us all find more fun and happiness in life.

Thanks for dropping by and see you with the next blog.

If you haven’t already done so grab your free stress relief ecourse - just fill in your details at the top left of this page.

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