Let me start by asking you two questions (remember what you answered for further along in the article):
- How stressed are you? (not very, moderate or very)
- Do you think stress is harmful? (Yes or No)
One of the biggest things I hear in practice all the time is…’I have this problem here but I think it’s just stress….’ and I will ask ‘well what stress are you under?’ followed by ‘you know, just normal stress’. Unsure what normal stress is for every individual who ever comes into the practice(!) We normally have to use metaphorical pliers to prize out what factors in their life have them under stress.
The thing you may not realise is that stress is GOOD. You cannot have improvement, growth or development without stress, think about it in terms of exercises. If someone is running on a treadmill or lifting weights for the first time what tends to happen a day or two after? The inevitable ‘I can’t move my legs’ type of soreness, this is damage to muscle fibres from the stress of doing the exercise, as the fibres heal then it is easier to do the exercise the next time! The first few times our children fall when they are learning to walk (interestingly they do not fully develop pain receptors until they are older to enable this process) their brain takes the experience of falling and stores it to ler better for the next time. We need stress to grow and improve and as one of the most famous personal development coaches on the planet said ‘if you’re not growing, you’re dying’.
Stress is a stimulus not an emotion, it is something external to a person which makes unusual or extraordinary demands on them in some way. There are many different types of stress but they can be loosely categorized into Physical, Chemical and Emotional. Some are experienced by all of us (Gravity, Climate change or Brexit) and others only by some (car crashes, emotional abuse or inappropriate use of medication). The interesting point is that some stresses cause people to thrive and others to barely survive.
Going back to the earlier questions, if you answered that your level of stress was very high I am afraid that your chances of exiting stage left in the theatre of life is a lot higher. However there is hope as the study that these questions came from also found that it was only in the group of people that thought stress was harmful that early death and disease affected. In short how you THINK about stress hugely influences whether it is harmful to you or not!
One of the most rewarding things we see in practice is when people talk about how they are ‘coping better with stress’, that they feel less stressed or they have more patience with their kids and/or spouse. Have their circumstances changed? Have their kids suddenly become angels from heaven? Not typically, their perception of those people, relationships and their ENVIRONMENT has changed. We know that adjustments to a misaligned or stuck spine alters the signals/information sent to the brain therefore increasing the ability of the brain to perceive and interpret information better. A better informed brain can make better decisions. Remember knowledge is power but you cannot take action without awareness first.
Dr. Gareth Ward DC MChiro (Doctor of Chiropractic)
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