The Temperature Gauge in Your Car

Stress can affect every area of life, and it can be very harmful to your health. 

Stress is huge. 

Its impact can be monumental and life changing. 

There’s no way to completely eliminate stress, and you wouldn’t want to. But stress can be minimized, managed and ultimately mastered. 

And when I say mastered, I don’t mean it disappears. Stress is like the temperature gauge on your car. It’s there to warn you. You don’t want your car’s engine overheating and causing irreparable damage, so you don’t want to be without the gauge but you need it to stay in the green zone.

What I mean by mastering stress is getting rid of the needless stressors. And then learning to recognize the early signs of stress or the early S.O.S. signals and responding to them quickly so the effects of stress are minimized. 

By doing that you become the master of your life and your health and every other thing stress affects. 

A Message to be Heeded

Regarding the signs of stress, Dr. Gabor Mate, author of When the Body Says NO, Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection, wrote, “We can learn to read symptoms not only as problems to be overcome but as messages to be heeded.”

Your early S.O.S. signals or signs of stress are there to alert you that you need to make a change. 

When stress is properly addressed the impact and effects of stress are minimized but the frequency and intensity of most stressful events can also be minimized. If you have fewer of them and the intensity is decreased, they do less damage. When stress is properly dealt with, you feel in charge of your life. You heal. You feel joyful and productive. 

You can move mountains if needed, or rest in a hammock and smell the roses if you choose.

 The Language of Your Body

Understanding what stress is, learning to recognize your personal stressors, and how your body responds to stress and then quickly responding to what your body is trying to communicate to you is key for protecting your health and reducing your stress load.

Your body speaks to you all day every day and communicating with your body is the most intimate conversation you will ever have.

How does your body communicate? It communicates through S.O.S. Signals. (Signs of Stress). It’s a cry for help and it usually starts as a whisper, only getting louder when you ignore it. 

If you respond quickly your body settles back down and willingly and lovingly assists you with all the things you do in a day. 

Providing strength, endurance, problem solving and connection with others are only a few of the miraculous tasks and functions your body/mind/spirit perform for you throughout each day.  

These aspects of you work like a smooth-running machine allowing you to carry on with all the needful and desired tasks that keep you healthy, happy and functioning at full capacity.

Difficult and Stressful Times

We live in difficult times right now where we’re constantly stressed over our health, our safety, work, finances, the economy, world events…the list is endless. In fact, there’s really no area of life that isn’t being affected and even threatened in some way.

And this constant barrage of stress triggers puts you at risk for stress-induced chronic diseases, aches and pains and poor mental health. 

Being aware of your body and the signals it sends helps you ward off diseases and break that cycle of stress that is so destructive.  

Understanding what stress is and learning to recognize your personal stressors, and how your body responds to stress is key. 

But there’s a problem…

The Gift of Stress

Stress has been given a bad rap. It has been turned into the enemy when in actuality it’s the opposite. 

In all fairness it’s easy to view stress as an enemy. We’re taught that it’s bad and must be eliminated. 

The problem is, stress can’t be completely eliminated BUT it does need to be controlled. Or better yet, responded to. 

If it’s ignored, stress hurts.

It’s aggressive and it seems to be everywhere.

It can feel unrelenting.

And I did just tell you that stress can kill you.

But let’s talk about how stress can be a gift.

Instead of seeing it as the enemy, let’s try a reframe.

What if stress really wasn’t an enemy but rather a very caring and persistent friend?

Naggy maybe. Pushy at times for sure.

It may even require you to do something you don’t feel like doing or don’t feel you are capable of doing. 

Did you just get a flashback of “that friend” in your life?

It’s the friend who wants what’s best for you even if the method doesn’t exactly fit your idea of “best for you”.

That doesn’t sound so horrible now does it?

Here’s the deal. Stress is not your enemy. It really is your friend. It recognizes when you have pushed too far, over committed, become overwhelmed by outside sources and even when you’re feeling overwhelmed by your own thoughts. 

Stress is aware of the hundreds of hassles you deal with every day. 

The job of stress is to warn, guide and protect you. 

Stress is the watchman on the tower, and it takes that job very seriously. 

It’s a relentless overachiever for sure, never taking a break, never sleeping, always aware of your needs. 

And it won’t let up until you pay attention, one way or another.

Let’s Talk About S.O.S. Signals

The problem is that we’re not listening. That gentle nudge occurs and you brush it aside. Your friend whispers and you turn the radio up, blocking out the whisperings and ignoring the very thing stress is trying to get you to pay attention to. 

So rather than make an enemy of this caring and determined friend, let’s figure out how to listen to our bodies and recognize what the S.O.S. signals look like so you can create a meaningful and positive relationship with the gift that stress really is. 

S.O.S signals are the signs that alert you to the fact that your stress response has been activated and you need to pay attention.

Here’s what that looks like. 

Something occurs. You get scared, angry or hurt. Before you’re even conscious of it, your body has sounded the alarm. Little warrior chemicals rush in to help you do whatever it is you need to do. That’s called the fight, flight or freeze response. In essence your body is saying, “Hey, we need some help in here”!!!

All the organs in your body are brought into the fight. The unnecessary ones shut down, like digestion, blood flow and many others, in order to conserve energy. Others work overtime creating more energy and greater focus to get you through the crisis. 

It’s really a beautiful system. But unfortunately, most things that trigger this alarm system aren’t actually emergencies. They are perceived emergencies. 

However, the hormones that flood your body give you the capacity to combat real danger or get you through a serious situation if needed, BUT they become toxic very quickly. A Little Dab’l Do Ya! As they say.

If those hormones or warrior chemicals surge through your body for very long they can begin to create quite a bit of damage. 

And your organs that step up to assist you, become fatigued. Your heart, lungs, adrenals and other organs… will give their all, but they’re sprinters. They need frequent rest and recovery. 

And because you aren’t actually needing to fight or flee, you’re stuck with all these little warriors with nothing to do. Ultimately they can turn on you so you need to settle them down as quickly as possible.

The Problem

Unfortunately, we are so busy or so used to feeling this way, we rarely recognize any of these signs in the beginning when they’re whispers.

We ignore them and keep pushing.

Here’s what’s beautiful though: if you respond, giving yourself what you truly need in that moment, not some cheap, damaging substitute, the S.O.S. signals go away. 

When you’ve filled the need, the S.O.S signals cease.

The problem is, so many of us don’t listen when our body tries to alert us to a need. We block out the whispers until they become louder and louder. Sometimes even then we try to ignore the cries of our body, mind and spirit. 

Ultimately, if you don’t learn to listen to YOUR body, there will come a day when your body simply says, “No, I can’t take anymore. I can’t push any harder or run any further”. 

 When that day arrives you will be inundated with health problems (mental and physical) that could have easily and quickly been avoided or resolved.

Your New Best Friend 

When faced with stress, no matter what its cause, you will experience changes in your body and to understand how to manage those changes, you need to improve your internal communication with your body. 

And your body is miraculously designed to help you know how to take care of it. What feels good, what feels bad, what it needs more of, what it needs less of, when it needs a break and when it’s ready to go.  

You need to learn to recognize the signs your body gives off that these warriors have been unleashed. Then decide how to get them back under control, or trigger your body’s relaxation response, also called the rest and digest phase, as quickly as possible so you can avoid a different kind of crisis or prevent a worsening crisis. 

The secret to managing and ultimately mastering stress and protecting and maintaining your precious health is to learn the language of your body and then to listen and respond quickly when it speaks to you.  

Not only does your body communicate with you, your mind and spirit are also keeping you updated on an ongoing basis throughout the day. 

They are all three giving you up to the minute and accurate feedback that is designed to warn, guide and protect you. 

And when you learn to respond, this process will lead you to health, happiness, success in your endeavors and joy in your relationships. 

In fact, the better you listen and respond, the better your life will be in every way possible.  

Stress, when recognized and responded to, can truly become your new best friend. And as you learn to unwrap the gift that stress can be, you will go from barely surviving to Fabulous and Thriving!