How do you respond when someone asks you how your day has been? Have you noticed how often people respond with busy?

We live in a fast paced culture where we work hard to achieve and fill our lives with meaning and purpose. Being busy is our response to this challenge. The problem with being busy all of the time is that sometimes all of these things we are achieving come at the cost of keeping ourselves in good health and we fall into the cycle of being stressed.

Stress, is a common feeling we all experience at times. Some stress is good for us and helps us to perform our best. But when we are under too much stress for too long, our performance decreases and our overall health and wellbeing is affected.

Stress is a normal response that our body goes through when it is faced with perceived danger or threat to survival. This consists of the body activating something called the sympathetic nervous system where body responds with a number of physiological changes that prepare the body, making it stronger and faster in anticipation of either facing or fleeing from the perceived threat. Some of these changes include increased blood flow to the muscles activated by diverting blood flow from other parts of the body. Increased blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugars and fats in order to supply the body with extra energy. Increased muscle tension in order to provide the body with extra speed and strength.

Although this ‘fight or flight’ response is both normal and highly effective at allowing our body to survive real life stresses such as out running tiger or lifting a car off a child, more often than not our modern day stress is caused by deadlines and assignments. Instead of needing a short burst of strength and speed our bodies are fighting a more sedentary and passive threat. Often leaving our body stressed for extended periods of time. Think of how busy your days, weeks or months are.

Our bodies have an amazing ability to adapt to the environment they are in. When the body remains in this stress response for extended periods of time it prevents our body from its natural cycle of remaining healthy. Our healing, digestion, and breathing are all placed in low priority as our body stays focussed on whatever perceived threat remains.

There are some tell tale physical signs of remaining stuck in this stressed cycle such as aches and pains, stiffness, tiredness, headaches or digestive issues. There are also a number of ways that this affects our ability to think and process clearly.

Luckily there are a number of ways that we can battle this stress response and return our bodies to homeostasis. Physical exercise and breathing are two easy ways to get started. Our physiotherapists are all well trained in understanding the physical signs of stress and can direct you in creating easy and effective daily habits which break the cycle of stress in your life.