This last week was International Stress Awareness Week, created in 2018 to raise awareness about stress prevention. The Mental Health Foundation in the UK has reported that at some point in the last year, 74% of us have felt so stressed that we have felt unable to cope.
There was a time in my life back in 2013 when I didn't realise I was so stressed out until I went to have my hair cut at the hairdresser and got a rather nasty surprise - I discovered that I had alopecia - two bald circles at the back of my head. I was so shocked and distraught by the news as I'd had no idea that I had been losing hair. In addition, it sent me into a complete panic as I didn't know if it was going to be the beginning of the rest of my hair falling out or if it was just a temporary thing and my hair would grow back.
At the end of the day, I feel very lucky as my hair did grow back but it was enough of a warning to make me aware that the pressure and the stress that I had been living under was not ok. There is a Native American Cherokee proverb:
"Pay attention to the whispers, so we won't have to listen to the screams."
I realised that I had not been listening to the whispers, that my body had been carrying way too much stress than it could bear, and that the stress was physically manifesting itself in my body through the alopecia, and possibly in other ways as well. It was the wake-up call I needed - I had to find a way to decrease my level of stress and manage it much better.
In today's world, we are facing a never-ending barrage of challenges globally - the Covid pandemic, inflation, an energy and food crisis, and climate change - all of which are putting pressure on our everyday lives in a huge way. In addition, we have all the usual stresses that come from working in a busy job and try to juggle the challenges of our professional life with those that arise in our personal lives. We can end up experiencing depression, anxiety, anger, restlessness, overwhelm and lack of motivation as well as have difficulty concentrating, sleeping and making good decisions. And if we remain in a prolonged and constant feeling of stress for a long time, it can lead to life-threatening problems.
So what is the solution? We can't get rid of the challenges that face us but we can help ourselves by reducing our 'fight or flight' responses - the automatic physiological reaction which occurs when we perceive something to be a threat to us. And we can also support ourselves by finding ways to relax our nervous system.
For me personally, I have found that taking walks in nature is a wonderful way to do this - throughout Covid lockdowns, I would walk along the river everyday - and for many years I have been doing the The Dynamic Mind Practice™ (DMP) daily. During these years, the DMP has been a constant in my life and enabled me to decrease my stress levels and manage challenges in a creative way, rather than going into 'fight or flight' mode.
I have not had any further nasty surprises when visiting the hairdresser and on looking back am actually really grateful that the incident 9 years ago gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate and become aware of the importance of managing and reducing stress in both my professional and personal life.
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