Stressful Times

STRESSFUL TIMES

Life has become really stressful hasn't it? There are plenty of reasons for it: the COVID-19 pandemic, presidential politics, natural disasters, the economy, health and just getting old all provide plenty of stress for anyone. American society has been stress based for quite some time as the pursuit of money has supplanted other healthier goals. But the confluence of so many major stressors at the same time makes it far harder to deal with.

People who have deep associations with a balanced approach to health like Dr. Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Sanjay Gupta agree that:

Excessive stress causes inflammation.
Inflammation is at the root of all illness.
One of our most potent concerns is controlling how stress affects health. For example, those chronically stressed are likely at a higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness. Control stress and you have a much better handle on overall health.

Photo by Debbie Ducic

Recommendations: As time passes it gets clearer and clearer to me that essential steps for health during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic or anytime include these simple things:

Practice stress reduction every day.
Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
Start a calming habit during times of heightened stress.

Calming habits:
Yoga, Tai Chi, structured meditation,
deep breathing exercise, stretching, prayer.

There is good stress, bad stress and too much stress.

The trick in life is to manage our stresses.

Stresses we choose: There are plenty of stressful elements in anyone's life. Some are stresses that we choose to have: work, raising a family, sports, competition, performing, high stress jobs like working on skyscrapers.

We have some ability to lower our stress level through the choices we make. For instance, during an otherwise stressful period it would be wise to put off other significant changes.

Unanticipated stress: We have additional stresses, events that no one anticipates: illness, accident, caregiving, unemployment, natural disasters.

Unanticipated yet debilitating stresses like loosing your job can be immensely helped by establishing healthy choices such as deciding to exercise 30 minutes a day. The exercise habit will give you a sound foundation for dealing with the additional stress. It will see you through.

Stress we endure: There are stresses we definitely do not choose but can nonetheless unfortunately not avoid: political disfunction, pandemic conditions, aging.

This is where stress reduction really pays off. Those stresses we do not choose like political disfunction can be greatly nullified by practicing a stress reduction exercise program. Breathing exercise in particular is so incredibly effective for the process of accepting the things we cannot change (first half of the Serenity Prayer).

Stresses we are unaware of: Inactivity is stressful for our body and mind. Paradoxically it is not restful. The muscles, joints and organs of the body all experience detrimental effects from inactivity. We are not designed to be still. In fact, lasting neurological damage can be caused by long surgeries because of the weight of an inactive body pressing on the body's nerve tissue.

Be active for a minimum of 5 minutes per hour. Many of the harmful effects of extended inactivity vanish with just a few minutes of moving around.

How does chronic stress affect the body and mind?

Photo by Afif Kusuma

Chronic stress puts us at increased risk of many health problems, including: anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems, weight gain, memory and concentration impairment. Chronic stress increases irritability, lowers our immunity, leaves us more vulnerable to toxins in our environment. Extended inactivity affects the mind, hardening thought process, making recuperation more difficult. Stress greatly increases relationship and family problems.

Which muscles and joints are especially affected?

How stress due to inactivity affects the body: Extended sitting causes the back of the legs to shorten and tighten, often producing nighttime leg cramps. The core weakens, the spine is unsupported and the upper body slumps forward causing neck problems and shallow breathing.
How stress caused by anxiety and fear affects the body: The upper body contracts and tightens. Breathing becomes more difficult. The neck tightens badly and the shoulders hike up to the ears. The contraction of the upper body causes the lower torso to tighten in the wrong places, the lower back instead of the abdominals. Balance is impacted and falls more likely.
How does stress caused by overwork affect the body? To work as hard as many of us do, adrenaline is needed. Chronic tension results, evidenced especially in the upper body with tightness around the shoulder/neck/rib cage. The accompanying goal oriented approach causes a head forward posture which in turn wreaks havoc with the lower back. The fast pace of life plus the worries encompassing so many aspects of our lives puts a lot of pressure on our organs, the heart in particular.

Areas of tension, created by stress, that we are less aware of but that nonetheless affect us greatly:

Tension is held in the face and head, sometimes without our awareness. The jaw and tongue in particular harbor strain from stressful times. Including facial exercise is very beneficial in reducing stress and should be practiced by everyone especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

The jaw and the teeth: A classic tension site, chronic stress can result in poor tooth health with cracked teeth, root canals and other intense procedures. The classic symptom: tooth grinding, sore gums, headaches.
The tongue and throat: The tongue is actually a huge muscle which holds chronic tension without us realizing it. The throat narrows with stress ultimately causing choking sensation.
The face: We hold much tension in our face besides the jaw, especially around the mouth, eyes, temples, scalp.

Learn how to relieve stress and tension that resides in the face, throat and especially the jaw.

Dancing With the Face

From another perspective, modern society sets us up for a stressful life. It affects us at deep levels often without our awareness.

As we live in a stressful world, our body gets used to being under heightened alert. This is in and of itself causes problems as we become overexposed to cortisol and other stress hormones that can disrupt almost all the body's processes.

Modern life is overstimulating. We are constantly on the alert to often dramatic life issues. MTV on steroids. Everything is an emergency. News alerts constantly. And less and less down time between challenges to relax and take stock. What actually happens in these circumstances is that the autonomic nervous system gets out of balance. This is the system where heart beat, respiration and digestion are managed. There are 3 divisions of the autonomic nervous system:

Sympathetic: The fight or flight system.
Parasympathetic: The calming system.
Enteric: Governance of digestive function.

Photo by Fabian Moller

In a well adjusted life, the first two systems would be in balance. When we are under chronic stress the sympathetic system is overactive. This is what produces all the health problems associated with stress.

The solution is to integrate calming techniques into your life that bring the parasympathetic nervous system back into balance. There are a number of wonderful disciplines that do that. Basically be wary of the list on the left and do more of activities on the right.

A comparison of these two important systems:

Sympathetic actions: 

Rushing.
Fight or Flight.
Political dialog.
Greed.
Sports.
Ambition.
Aggression.

Parasympathetic techniques:

Slowing down.
Prayer.
Meditation.
Muscle stretching.
Slow the heart rate.
Deep Breathing Exercise.

Rule of thumb regarding tension:
We want tension where we need it (core), not where we don't
(shoulders, neck, lower back, knees, face, throat & mouth)

Stress Reduction Exercise:

Breathing exercises: There are many excellent breathing exercises. Here are several simple ones: 5/5/7 counted breath (in/hold/out), breathe in white light and exhale toxins, breathe in and as you exhale pull the belly in and stretch the spine long. For more read How to Breathe as well as When Breathing is Difficult.
Vocal exercises: Any exercise that helps to loosen the ribs, allowing the lungs to move easily, is good for reducing stress. Singing and vocal exercise is very beneficial for health. Vocal projection exercises used in the acting craft work well. Sing the scales or clearly and exaggeratedly pronounce the vowels. (No indoor group practice now because of the pandemic but solo exercises outdoors would be wonderful.)
Facial exercises: Practice concentrating while holding the tongue relaxed, facial massage, loosen the jaw, stretch the mouth open, stretch the tongue long, make ugly faces. These are all helpful for relieving chronic tension.
Stretch the front of the chest: The rib cage tightens with stress. That tension forces the breath to be shallow. Direct stretches across the front of the rib cage include this easy seated exercise: Hold onto the back of your chair and tilt forward. You should feel a stretch across your collarbones and sternum. Practice breathing while stretching.
Hip/Spine Release: The tension in the upper body causes alignment problems in the lower body. Releasing stress in the area of the hips and lower back is very helpful. Sit with your feet and knees apart, elbows on your knees, spine straight and head in line with your spine. Practice breathing and while exhaling pull the belly in and stretch the spine long.
Stretch the back of the legs: Extended sitting causes the legs and knees to tighten. To stretch your legs while sitting, straighten your leg and then flex and point your foot four times. The Standing Runner's Stretch is wonderful. See Advice About Walking for instructions.
Circle the knees. Excess tension in the knees comes from chronic automatic habits we are not aware of. Keep your knees relaxed whenever you think of it and circle your knees whenever you feel tightness or pain. Directions are outlined in Knees That Hurt.
Meditate on your favorite beach for 5 minutes. Visualization is one of the most powerful tools available for reducing stress. It is very helpful in many different situations including imagining an upcoming competition.

As a society we suffer from chronic stress. Balance yourself using the calming techniques taught at the heart of yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, deep breathing, stretching, prayer.

Three specific recommendations to change your life:

1) Practice stress reduction techniques daily.
2) Exercise for 30 minutes a day.
3) Incorporate a more relaxed manner in life. For instance, instead of being quick to respond to that political comment, deliberately develop the habit of pausing first to take a deep breath. Absorb parasympathetic reactions into your way of life.

Pandemic stress is real. Among other things, it is affecting our teeth: When the economy started to reopen, it was expected that dentists would be some of the last professionals people would seek out, partly due to the close proximities required. It turns out that dentists are very busy. They are in particular seeing many more cracked teeth than usual (6 times more according to one dentist). The cause: stress induced by the pandemic.

How Inactivity Sabotages Us