Improve your relationship with STRESS! | 6 ways to cope better!
Chronic stress creeps into our lives slowly, and we are seemingly unaware we’re operating in a stressed “survival mode”. My biggest wake up call EVER was when I fell asleep at the wheel and drove my minivan off the highway with my small children in the back, strapped into their car seats. “Drove” is an understatement, we flew off the highway, becoming airborne, landed hard, crashed through a massive fence and then many trees. I totaled the car.
I was a working mom with young kids and decide to take them on a work trip with me. I thought it would be fun. I was in control and capable of managing it all. In retrospect, I was running on empty long before the work trip, it was just the enough to put me over
the edge. Funny thing is, I thought I was fine and coping well. Was I ever in denial!
.
What I didn’t realize at the time were the effects of chronic stress on our bodies and mind. Cortisol floods our brains when we are in a chronic stress state and the impacts range from forgetfulness, to increased emotional responses, to brain cells aging prematurely, increased production of free radicals, to out right killing brain cells and these are just the highlights.
Of course, we can’t live without stress, but we can certainly become more aware of our stress and its impacts. Awareness helps us implement coping mechanisms, before we get into serious trouble.(Like I did)
Here are 6 tips to help you have a better relationship with stress.
The ultimate goal is your health.
Healthy mind. Healthy body. Healthy attitude.
(BTW we walked away from that accident with only a couple of scratches, but my life was forever altered.)