Download our presentation on Stress
Where is your stress setting set – high or low? What can you do about it? If it is high, we help you turn it down – then you will be able to cope and feel better! Better still you will feel more grounded and capable.
Stress is defined as being when pressure exceeds an individual’s inability to cope. Stress can give you an anxious hypervigilant feeling, or a feeling of something hanging over you or a sense of dread when you know that you have to be or work with a particular person.
WHAT IS STRESS?
First stage of stress.
In a moment of shock, (e.g. diagnosis of an illness, end of a relationship, losing a job, getting bad news, worrying about a disease) the body temporarily freezes. It is in this moment of freeze, when we don’t know what to do, that the body’s emergency programming takes over. We enter the freeze, fight or flight state, and the body responds as if a wild animal is attacking us. This is fine as it is all about survival. The body is very clever as it spreads the load over the body and affects the organ associated with that emotion. There is more about this on the Metakinetics and Matrix Re-imprinting pages.
During this part of the stress response, we will obsess about the problem/action/attack/accident. We will probably feel cold and not sleep well.
We decide whether to freeze, fight or flee… Fighting is rarely acceptable (e.g. at the office!) so we suppress it and our stress level rises.
The amount of ‘charge’ on a particular stress is related to whether this has happened before and also on our own beliefs and thinking as well as on how we are at the present moment..
Second stage – the healing phase
At a certain point, when we become more accepting of the diagnosis, relationship end, bullying etc., the body goes into the next phase – the healing phase. Maybe, we have found a solution to our problem, have realised, that ”yes, we are going to mend the bones we broke in our accident’, decide ‘I can manage without my partner, I will be ok’, and we can get on with the boss who continually triggers us.
The healing phase follows and that is when we have signs and symptoms. Hopefully, if we nurture ourselves through the healing phase, we will have complete resolution. Often, we feel as though we are bombarded with deaths of loved ones, work and family stresses and so on, we keep looping up and down and in and out of stress.
We then return to our healthy state. The difficulty is that we often have more than one stress at a time….. It can be hard to regulate our nervous system and get out of stressful habits. Do have a look at our Relaxation page.
If we understand what is happening, we can do something about it. We want to build our resilience.
Years ago it was not cool to be stressed but now the word is used regularly! Over half a million people in the UK believe they’re suffering from work-related stress at a level that is making them ill. This is 40% of all work related illnesses. This is according to the HSE Executive. It accounted for 15 million days (40%) of days lost in 2018/19.
Now there are added stresses due to the ‘pandemic’.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF STRESS
Include:
- chronic pain
- breathing problems
- heart problems from angina to heart attacks
- panic attacks – see below
- sleep problems
- eczema
- heart disease
- asthma
- thyroid problems
- migraine
- headaches
- heartburn
- menstrual period problems
- agitation
- obsessional behaviour
- irritable bowel syndrome
- bowel disease
- depression
- anxiety
- feelings of being out of control
Many, many more signs and symptoms are attributed to stress and are certainly exacerbated by stress. Indeed, I don’t know of any condition that isn’t worsened with high stress levels.
Raised stress levels are attributed to stressors: worries over finances, relationships, work, family, health, fear of redundancy or dealing with death and grief, anxiety in relationships, Different people react differently to the same stressor so have different signs and symptoms e.g. one person may feel angry if they are shouted at, another may feel fear, another anxiety, another may shrug it off!
Doctors do know that stress causes or contributes to most disease processes but have little to offer apart from drugs.
The more stressed we get, the more we feel we cannot cope! This then makes us more susceptible to more stress. Our ‘stress setting’ is just too high. We need a certain level of stress to get us out of bed in the morning and help us win the race but it is when we have continuous high levels of stress that the ‘weakest part breaks down first’.
Panic attack – severe anxiety
It is thought that panic attacks occur in one in seventy five people. The signs and symptoms come on intensely and suddenly while doing a normal everyday activity, and may include: racing heartbeat, palpitations, difficulty breathing, feeling as though you can’t get enough air, terror that is almost paralysing, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, trembling, sweating, shaking, choking, chest pains, hot flushes, sudden chills, tingling in fingers or toes, feelings of impending doom, fear of going crazy or fear that you are about to die.
Reflexology helps reduce the stress and tension in the whole body and has been found to be of great assistance. Reflexology is excellent at helping hormonal problems. Once your stress setting is set lower, then you can start using some relaxation techniques on your own. Megan will work the nervous and endocrine systems to help calm you so that you feel you can cope better. Sleeping is usually improved with Reflexology.
Shiatsu is a very effective treatment to reduce stress levels using acupressure points to balance energies in meridians. It is a bit like needleless acupuncture. Imbalances occur with stress and pain so vital energy pathways are blocked, preventing the body from functioning effectively. Harald will assess what meridians are out of balance and often it is the kidney or heart meridian that needs work to bring the body-mind into balance.
Relaxation and Relaxation Massage can help by increasing our resilience with relaxation.
WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW:
W/hat triggers our stress response?
Boss, parent, sibling, teacher, bullying?
If we understand what is stressing us, then we can do something about it (e.g. talk to someone at work or school about the bullying). We can note our reactions. Increased awareness helps us regulate our nervous system.
HOW MUCH STRESS DO WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH?
WHAT IS STOPPING US FROM ‘GETTING ON WITH IT’?
HOW CAN WE HELP OURSELVES?
There are unhealthy ways we choose to cope: boozing, overeating, eating junk, smoking. All these lower our ability to deal with what life throws at us and make us susceptible to disease.
There are healthy ways: listening to music, reading, talking to friends or an EFT practitioner, counsellor, being in touch with nature, relaxing, breathing, exercise, being pampered, having fun.
When we feel fit, strong and energetic, it is much harder for folks to press our buttons!
Massage is a healthy habit to adopt!
Imagine a sponge with all the holes in it being the spaces for blood vessels and nerves to pass through. Now stress it, by squeezing it and realise the effects that tension has on your whole body.
After the stress phase comes regeneration and healing. This is what the body needs. If we stay in the stress phase, things are likely to get worse not better. Health is compromised and organs are challenged.
MASSAGE THERAPY:
- helps you slow down and take ‘time out’ so that you can deal with the stresses that are in your life. Often after a massage, you know what to do! It is as if your bodymind is given the space to decide how to proceed.
- helps in body awareness, so you can be more aware of your body, how it feels and how it reacts during your daily life to stressors particularly
- does encourage the body to go into the second phase of healing. Counselling, meta health coaching etc. are also recommended
- helps in reducing stress levels. We store our emotions in our muscles. Massage soothes, releases tension and helps in raising energy. There is less energy stored in tense muscles and this helps restore that zest for life
- a wonderful touch experience and touch is essential for health.
- a tool to help us shut down the busyness that interferes with our lives. The mind is really the place to start.
- helps sleep which helps the body heal.
- blocks the pathway of painful sensations to the brain by replacing them with larger mechanical stimulators which confuse this ‘gateway’ and thus ease or remove pain.
- encourages the body to release its very own medicines particularly the ‘feel good’ ones as well as pain killers. Endorphins and enkepalins are released during a massage.
- a lovely feeling of calmness fills you
- heart rate slows down so your heart doesn’t have to work so hard, blood pressure reduces and breathing rate decreases relieving pressure on your lungs,
- ‘feel good’ hormones increase, stress hormones decrease
- anxiety lessens – you can’t feel relaxed and anxious at the same time
Massage helps the body’s natural equilibrium.
Muscles, tendons, ligaments relax with the touch of massage. Deeper layers are affected by easing the tightness in more superficial ones, easing pain and discomfort.
We respect that the body is a highly intelligent, self healing organism if it is allowed to do its job!
Organs benefit – helping digestion in the case of abdominal massage – or easing period pains.
Regular Relaxation Massage helps your body recover and repair. The effects are cumulative – you really can’t get enough massage!!
Swedish Massage is wonderful to keep your soft tissues pliable and nourished, helps restore balance in the structure, helping the whole body, mind and spirit. As it improves circulation so oxygen and nutrients reach the cells now the ‘rubbish’ has been moved out by manipulating the soft tissues. An improved circulation helps ALL cells so all systems of the body benefit. Health then improves!
What else can we do about unhealthy levels of stress?
Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping on specific meridian points) helps to allow ‘stuck energy’ to move, resulting in more resolution and healing. We can use it in present time e.g. if we are fearful of an interview or a dental appointment. We can tap on that fear and reduce it and hopefully, feel more confident and less anxious.
Intense emotions may well be repressed and buried. In a safe, secure and quiet environment, (skype or in person), these can be released gently using EFT on ourselves and our younger self.
Stress can give you an anxious hypervigilant feeling, or a feeling that there is something hanging over you or a sense of dread when you know that you have to be or work with a particular person.
Stress is exacerbated by negative beliefs. If I believe, ‘I am safe, strong, confident, happy with being me and happy for others to be as they are’, I am not going to be as affected when someone ignores, dismisses, threatens, shames, argues or shouts at me.
The cause of all negative emotion is a disruption in the body’s energy system. We ARE energy – (proved by electroencephalograms for brain (EEG) and electrocardiograms (ECG) for heart.
Poor, or no healing, from a chronic illness is usually based in unresolved core issues.
There is hope, as shown by more and more people discovering this amazing work.
CASE STUDIES
- On-Site Massage – Stress by Amanda Brooks DARM RMT DIR DOSM SMTO
- Massage Therapy – Stress
THERAPY OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR THIS CONDITION AT BROOKS-CARTER CLINIC
- Osteopathy
- Naturopathy
- Advanced Remedial Massage
- Remedial & Sports Massage
- Swedish Massage
- Relaxation and Relaxation Massage
- Working with Children
- On-Site Massage
- Indian Head Massage
- Aroma Facial Massage
- Aromatherapy
- Baby Massage
- Reflexology
- Shiatsu
- Hot Stone Massage
- Pregnancy Massage
- Dry Needling
- Chinese Cupping
- Hopi Ear Candling
- Sports Event Massage
- Meta Kinetics
- Emotional Freedom Technique
- Matrix Reimprinting
- Matrix Birth Reimprinting
- Breathing Techniques
- Qi Gong
- Gift Vouchers
Suite 5 Braehead Way Shopping Centre, Bridge of Don,
Aberdeen AB22 8RR
01224 822960, 01224 822956
info@brookscarterclinic.co.uk