Reducing stress is crucial to improving overall health…and this includes weight loss!
Everyone perceives stressful events differently.
Your perception of events will determine your emotional and behavioral reaction to them. We can never know true reality – only our perception.
We respond to the world around us primarily using our sensory representational systems, and we give meaning to events based on our neurolinguistic map, the meaning determines our reactions and behaviors.
There is often a huge difference between the events as they are and the way we experience them – change your perception and your reaction changes.
Questions to ask yourself about stress:
What are some of the things that stress you out? These can seem small or big.
How do you deal with stress?
Being conscious of your perception of an event will help to positively frame your response.
When you easily get stressed out, take a look at why. What are you feeling in that moment that is causing you to be stressed?
Are you overwhelmed in general? Take ownership of your feelings, not in terms of right or wrong, just as they are.
Having a deeper awareness of your own reality will enable you to have power over your behaviors. Understanding why you felt a certain way, without judgment, is a powerful tool to help handle similar difficult situations in the future.
ACTION: List out all of the things that give you stress – itemize them from biggest to smallest – starting with #1 identify the real issue, keep asking “Why?” until you get deeper into the heart of the matter.
Example: Too much responsibility at home – are you someone who takes on everything themselves? Have you asked for help and are not getting it?
Are you effectively communicating your needs or assuming other people in your house should just know? (This is a big one.)
What has to change in order for you to feel less stressed out?
Make a list.
Are you stuck in Fight or Flight with stress?
Some people will be stuck in this stress response cycle and have no idea. With no ‘before and after’ frame of reference this tends to be the result.
Stress raises cortisol levels, which is normal, but when you are stuck in this cycle that starts to affect your body and one visible way is weight gain.
Symptoms develop so gradually that they are not always associated with the stress or trauma that might have precipitated them.
When stress occurs over a long enough period of time (or from an early age), frequently there is no recognition that performance has suffered.
There are wide-ranging physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms of being stuck in ‘fight or flight.
Things to look out for:
- Reduced focus and concentration
- Handling stress, feelings of frustration, anger, anxiety, depression, fear, and being overwhelmed, is particularly difficult.
- Trouble thinking clearly, difficulty with memory or other cognitive functions
- Tend to be reactive, overly sensitive, and defensive
- Performing everyday tasks like driving and reading can become less comfortable or efficient.
- Narrowed perspective, limiting the ability to see the ‘big picture’ (especially about yourself).
Questions to ask yourself:
Do you have trouble…
- Maintaining focus?
- Being overcautious or hyper‐vigilant?
- Hypersensitive to light and/or sound?
- Seeing your options or the big picture?
- With change?
Are you…
- Uncomfortable in heavy traffic?
- Uneasy with lane changes?
- Sometimes surprised by cars around you?
Do you tend to:
- Have trouble judging distances when driving, parking, or passing other vehicles?
- Find driving a task that requires effort and concentration, rather than relaxing?
- Have difficulty starting or completing projects?
- need to concentrate on one task at a time rather than multi-tasking?
- Be bothered by lights or glare?
- Have trouble with night vision or night driving?
Some statistics to consider:
– World Health Organization (W.H.O.)has identified job-related stress as a worldwide epidemic.
– According to Mercer.ca, absenteeism costs employers $16.6 Billion per year, with much of this caused by stress, which is on the rise since 2020.
– Additionally, 34% of Canadians who have health plans in place have felt so overwhelmed by their demands that they became physically ill.
Reasons for stress: financial, workplace, personal, health and irritants.
All of this sounds a little deflating, doesn’t it? But, there is ALWAYS something you can do to change your circumstances or perception, even both.
Remember:
Reducing the amount of stress is a major part of changing your lifestyle.
Make a list of the things that stress you out, rank them and come up with some realistic solutions to decrease the stress.
Know someone that could use a few of these tips? Feel free to share. Join the FREE Savvy Vitality Community over on Facebook.