Stress Control Grantham Newark

Stress Control Grantham and Newark

Stress Management Grantham and Newark

Stress, what`s that ?

Stress is the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure and feeling unable to cope with it all.

Everyone reacts to stress differently. People are also biologically ‘wired’ to react differently to stress.
One person may secrete higher levels of cortisol than another in the same situation, so a situation that feels stressful to one person may be stimulating or motivating to someone else.

Many `life events` can cause stress, especially things at work, relationship issues, the world’s economic problems, and one`s own money problems. The list is endless…

Feelings, thoughts and behaviour can get in the way of sorting out these challenges by affecting how you think, feel and behave.

The body often reacts in such circumstances with sleeping problems, sweating, bowel or bladder problems, loss of appetite and difficulty concentrating.
There may be a decrease in testosterone levels in males and irregular menstrual cycles in females.
There is also an increased likelihood of infectious diseases.

You may feel anxious, irritable and have low self esteem, and you may have racing thoughts, worry constantly or go over things in your head – time and time again.
You may notice that you lose your temper more easily, drink more or act unreasonably or `out of character`.

Through its practice, mindfulness calms and steadies the mind allowing a clarity and understanding which allows us to identify what emotions and thoughts are present in our minds at the moment. With this clearer view, we learn to recognise and step away from habitual, often unconscious emotional and physiological reactions to everyday events where we can make the best choice about how to respond to these emotions and thoughts in a calmer manner—choices that will lessen our overall distress.

For example, if we are suffering from pain, we may also be feeling frustration and perhaps hopelessness. We have a choice here, we can let the frustration and hopelessness increase and get stronger which of course will raise our distress and suffering which subsequently increases our physical pain because the muscles surrounding the pain tighten in response to our emotions or, we can respond to our frustration by mindfully acknowledging it and begin to direct our minds toward tenderness and compassion for ourselves.

You may also experience headaches, muscle tension or pain, or dizziness etc. etc.
Stress causes a reaction of the autonomic nervous system and releases hormones into your body. These stress hormones are released to enable you to deal with pressures or threats, what many call the “fight or flight” response and these hormones are responsible for several stress-related changes in the body.
The adrenal steroid hormone, cortisol and norepinephrine are released to boost the body’s ability to fight off the attacker or run away quicker than normal.
Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system causing a breakdown of muscle protein, leading to release of amino acids into the bloodstream and norepinephrine is believed to play a role in ADHD as well as depression and hypertension.

Originally, the human being`s design was intended to take care of physical threats – not everyday worry and problems that we have in the modern day.

Once the pressure or threat has passed, your stress hormone levels will usually return to normal.
However, if you’re constantly under stress, these hormones will remain in your body, leading to the symptoms of stress and often long-term stress.

Stressful Life Events - The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale

In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe decided to study whether or not stress contributes to illness.
They surveyed more than 5,000 medical patients and asked them to say whether they had experience any of a series of 43 life events in the previous two years.

Each event, called a Life Change Unit (LCU), had a different “weight” for stress. The more events the patient added up, the higher the score.
The higher the score, and the larger the weight of each event, the more likely the patient was to become ill.

Life Event		Value
1	Death of spouse	100
2	Divorce	73
3	Marital separation	65
4	Jail term	63
5	Death of close family member	63
6	Personal injury or illness	53
7	Marriage	50
8	Fired at work	47
9	Marital reconciliation	45
10	Retirement	45
11	Change in health of family member	44
12	Pregnancy	40
13	Sex difficulties	39
14	Gain of new family member	39
15	Business readjustment	39
16	Change in financial state	38
17	Death of close friend	37
18	Change to a different line of work	36
19	Change in number of arguments with spouse	35
20	A large mortgage or loan	31
21	Foreclosure of mortgage or loan	30
22	Change in responsibilities at work	29
23	Son or daughter leaving home	29
24	Trouble with in-laws	29
25	Outstanding personal achievement	28
26	Spouse begins or stops work	26
27	Begin or end school/college	26
28	Change in living conditions	25
29	Revision of personal habits	24
30	Trouble with boss	23
31	Change in work hours or conditions	20
32	Change in residence	20
33	Change in school/college	20
34	Change in recreation	19
35	Change in church activities	19
36	Change in social activities	18
37	A moderate loan or mortgage	17
38	Change in sleeping habits	16
39	Change in number of family get-togethers	15
40	Change in eating habits	15
41	Holiday / Vacation	13
42	Christmas	12
43	Minor violations of the law	11

What are the symptoms of stress?

Your Feelings

Your Thoughts

Your Behaviour

Your Body

You may feel:

irritable
anxious
low self-esteem
moody

You may find that you:

have racing thoughts
worry constantly
imagine the worst
impaired cognitive performance
go over and over things

You may notice that you:

lose your temper easily
drink more
smoke more
rushing around
talk more or talk faster
change your eating habits
feel unsociable
are forgetful
incompetent
act unreasonably
find it difficult to concentrate

You may experience:

headaches
muscle tension and pain
suppressed thyroid function
blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
decreased bone density
decrease in muscle tissue
higher blood pressure
stomach problems
sweating
dizziness
bowel or bladder problems
breathlessness
dry mouth
sexual problems and issues
lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences

Four Approaches to Help Stress at Elevated Therapy

Hypnotherapy

EFT

Mindfulness

Counselling

Hypnosis can be used for stress management and control in two ways. First, you can use hypnosis to get into a deeply relaxed state, lifting tension and bringing about your relaxation response. This is very positive and will help to prevent potential health problems due to chronic stress. Secondly, hypnosis can also help you achieve various healthy lifestyle changes that can reduce the amount of stress you come across in your life.

EFT helps you access your body’s energy system and sends calming signals to the part of the brain that controls stress. Stimulating the meridian points through EFT tapping can reduce the stress or negative emotion you feel from your issue, or how you are feeling generally. This ultimately restores balance, raises your logical side and reduces a negative emotional response.

By lowering the stress response, Mindfulness may have downstream effects throughout the body. Psychologists who examine the relationships between brain function and behaviour, and the environment and behaviour, have found that Mindfulness influences two different stress pathways in the brain, changing brain structures and activity in regions associated with attention and emotion regulation.

Helping you change your behavioral responses to stress will help you create new patterns and possibly avoid further stress. Behavioural therapy tends to work best for long-term triggers of stress, including traumatic events, as well as conditions such as anxiety, and phobias.
Teaching you how to live in the moment, coping better with stress, which will regulate your emotions and improve your relationships.

Stress Control from Grantham serving Nottingham, Melton Mowbray, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, Sleaford, Grantham, Newark, Rutland, Oakham, and Peterborough.