When stressed, your body creates extra energy to protect itself
People respond to stress in different ways. One person may find an event joyful and gratifying, but another person may be miserable and frustrated.
Sometimes, people may handle stress in ways that make bad situations worse by reacting with feelings of anger, guilt, fear, hostility, anxiety and moodiness.
Stress is your body’s physical and psychological response to anything you perceive as overwhelming. This may be viewed as a result of life’s demands, pleasant or unpleasant, and your lack of resources to meet them.
When stressed, your body creates extra energy to protect itself. This additional energy cannot be destroyed. If not used, it creates an imbalance within your system. Somehow the energy must be channeled into responses to regain a balance.
A perceived challenge can activate the mind/body system, resulting in increased alertness and ber action, but chronic activation of this response leads to abnormal responses to stress characterized by:
- the inability of the body to return to baseline levels of catecholamines and cortisol, and
- the inability of the body to activate the biochemical changes associated with a perceived challenge.
When either of these response patterns develops due to continual activation of the stress response, then stress becomes debilitating.
Related Research findings:
Effects of Chronic Stress on the Brain
Chronic stress creates excessive levels of cortisol in the brain, impairing the function, short term and contextual memory …
Effects of Stress on the Immune System
Chronic stress affects the immune system by increasing sympathetic activity and decreasing cellular immunity …
Effects of Chronic Stress on the Cardiovascular and Metabolic System
Chronic stress can create significant damage to the cardiovascular system by increasing the risk of coronary artery disease …
The Biochemical Response to Stress
Chronic acute stress leads to an out of balance biochemistry with elevated cortisol and suppressed serotonin, consequently, stress plays a major causative role in both physical and mental health …
Our immune system weakens, we tend to be more reative (rather than responsive), more gaurded, defensive (crying over spilt milk), and most importantly – our quality of life, our life satisfaction is lowered.
Vedic Meditation is one of the most powerful techniques available for reducing stress and anxiety. That means that you no longer store as much stress and tension in your body and start responding to life with a positive attitude – relaxed, resliient and care free. It is also one of the easiest to learn and simplest to practice.
If you are in Auckland (NZ) call me on 09 419 5380, or email to to find our how Vedic Meditation could help you achieve better health.