It’s all part of your body’s natural ability to respond to change in your environment.

Stress is an evolutionary advantage that allows us to react to threatening situations that threaten our survival.

It made total sense hundreds of years ago for your body to trigger a “fight or flight” response when you saw a bear and you needed to get to safety.

The dangers today that we have are very often more psychological than they are physical.

Stress can also have positive effects on your life.

It helps you transform yourself and propels you to excel in your career. It also spurs on creativity and can give you a sense of accomplishment for overcoming roadblocks in your life.

But... That’s not the kind of stress this article is about.

That’s when it becomes a problem.

According to a 2008 study by Dr Salleh Mohd Razali:

“The morbidity and mortality due to stress-related illness is alarming.

Emotional stress is a major contributing factor to the six leading causes of death in the United States: cancer, coronary heart disease, accidental injuries, respiratory disorders, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.” (1)

1. Many people worry about their health.

They stress about their existing health issues… or whether they’re doing enough to stay healthy. Wanting to be healthy is great. Obsessing over it isn’t.

2. Emotions can cause stress - like low self esteem

When someone hides who they truly are to fit in or be accepted by others, it can cause them to feel angry and lower their self esteem.

3. “Automatic Negative Thoughts”

It’s a term coined by Dr. Daniel Amen, which refers to thoughts that have a negative connotation to them.

For example I was driving on the freeway on the way to a conference and all of the sudden this thought popped into my head:

“What happens if my car breaks down and I can’t make it?”

But… My car has never broken down, and it didn’t that time, but that automatic negative thought popped into my head and caused some stress, irrational stress.

When these pop up, you need to ask yourself these questions immediately:

• Is this true?
• Does this thought have any basis in reality?

The answers usually reduce your stress pretty quick.

4. Employment and money can be stressful

Whether or not you like your job, it has things that can add stress to your life. Deadlines, irate customers, commuting in traffic, etc…

Financial stressors can include bills, children, school tuition and fees, mortgage payments, or living beyond your means.

5. Sometimes reality itself is stressful!

Being able to step away from reality for a short time is a lot less stressful, meditation and mindfulness are great ways to take a short break from everything going on in your life.

Your nervous system is constantly monitoring the outside world.

When it recognizes a threat (from the outside world, or inside yourself) it sends out an alert.

Your hypothalamus gets the message.

Here’s the problem though -- it can’t tell the difference between a real threat or something your mind created.

!

It’s really important to remember what I said earlier about “Automatic Negative Thoughts” or “ANTs”.

Most stressors in our lives right now don’t come from external sources, they come from those ANTs popping up in your mind.

Soon the body is flooding itself with a hormone cascade corticotropin-releasing factor to the pituitary gland.

It controls the 50 trillion cells in our bodies and controls the stress hormone cascade.

It responds by sending the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) into the bloodstream and down to the adrenal glands.

Your adrenals then start to pump out the hormones cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Many of life’s stressors leave people like this all day long. We certainly weren’t made for that.

So what’s happening now in your body while this hormone cascade is going on?

Your breath quickens as your lungs take in extra oxygen.

It’s ready to feed the muscles to prepare for a fight that may never come.

✔

Tip from Dr. George:

Calm breathing is one of the best ways to control the stress response and reduce your emotional response.

Next your body starts releasing glucose and fats from their storage sites. It dumps it into your bloodstream to supply energy that your body needs to fend off the threat.

But in reality, there probably is no real threat.

Before you're aware of what’s happening, every one of your 50 trillion cells has been alerted.

They think something big is going to happen.

Your cells switch from their normal operation mode to a protective mode.

• They stop taking in nutrients.
• Your vision becomes sharper.
• Your hearing becomes more focused
• You shut out all distractions.

Have you ever watched an Olympic athlete? Watch the sprinters and the runners.

They get down into that crouching position and they wait for the gun

They’re totally focused and looking straight ahead.

Your body is currently in that position, like you’re crouched down waiting for the starting pistol to go off.

So you’re just standing there in that state of alertness, muscles twitching, and burning an incredible amount of energy.

The heart beats faster, sometimes up to five times its normal rate.

Someone in very good condition will have a resting heart rate of 50 to 60 beats per minute, but this stress hormone cascade can ramp your heart rate up to over 200 beats per minute.

This starts putting extra pressure on your veins and arteries, which your body can deal with if your cardiovascular system is healthy.

If there's any plaque buildup or calcification then your arteries won’t expand properly and this is the major contributor to heart attacks.

As the blood pressure rises, your tiniest muscles leap into action. Hair on your body stands on edge. Certain blood vessels constrict themselves like in your digestive system.

If your eating that perfect diet with all those minerals, you may not see the benefit.

The organs aren’t operating properly. They slow down the absorbing, detoxifying and excreting processes.

Under stress, the blood flow to the frontal cortex (Where you do your executive decisions) has been restricted.

Guess who’s in charge now?

The limbic brain. Some people call it the reptilian brain, or “the fight or flight” mechanism. It’s a great system for what it was designed to do, but it’s not very smart.

There’s also some evidence that shows the adrenal hormones intentionally repress the immune system to conserve energy. It thinks we need muscle power, not germ fighting.

It makes sense. If you’ve ever had the flu, you know how much energy the body takes to fight it. Some people can’t even get out of bed.

That tells you how much energy it can take to fight off foreign viruses.

It consumes a lot of energy.

• Your nervous system
• Your respiratory system
• Your cardiovascular system
• Your digestive system
• Your musculoskeletal system
• And your immune system

I started out as a crude oil trader on Wall Street and from the outside looking in - I had an incredible lifestyle.

All the trappings of success that money could buy.

My spirit wasn’t really into all of it. Wall Street is based on greed and that’s something that can lead to painful headaches.

It was an incredible amount of stress. I felt unfulfilled and I didn’t know why.

Smoking, drinking, drugs. Beating myself up.

I decided that if I wanted to survive, physically and spiritually, I had to find another path.

I decided to go to culinary school and moved to Los Angeles where I became a pastry chef for a world renowned chef.

I loved the work, but it was still very stressful. The head chef was a taskmaster and I was working 12 to 14 hour days again.

One of my coworkers would come in to work every day drinking this brown muddy looking water.

I asked him about what he was drinking every day and he took me down to this little herb shop.

At the time I had an incredible temper, but thanks to having that drink on a regular basis, my temper faded away.

I was given a drink that contained Reishi mushroom.

I can only say that by the time I had finished it, my whole body and spirit experienced a sense of peace and wellbeing that I thought might have been lost to me forever.

I became fascinated with what they were doing and started apprenticing for the senior herbalist and I eventually became an herbalist myself.

With how much this helped me, I knew I needed to learn more so I could help others.

Yes. Western scientists and doctors are beginning to believe what ancient healers believed hundreds of years ago.

One type that’s sort of experiencing a comeback today.

They’re called adaptogenic herbs.

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What are adaptogens you ask?

They’re non-toxic plants that Chinese and Ayurvedic healers have used for centuries to resist stressors. Each one is thought to affect a different aspect of the body.

It’s believed that adaptogens return the body to its normal state. Adaptogens are thought to support a state of balance.

We have a tremendous capacity to deal with stress and change.

However, the cumulative effects of prolonged exposure to stress can have a debilitating impact. It is therefore important that we maintain our adaptability in the face of all that confronts us.

Your ability to adapt to change and manage the stressors of life.

If you’re interested in increasing your adaptability, consider trying a herbal option.

• A clinical trial was conducted to test the efficacy of the herbal formula Bupleurum and Dragon Bone, The results showed lower participant scores on the standardized Perceived Stress Scale. (2)
• Rhodiola may help mediate fight-or-flight stress responses. (3)
• Reishi has been found in some small studies to boost immunity. (4)
• Doctors have recommended ginseng to soothe long-term sources of stress and the hormone imbalances that may result from it. (5)

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