By Rick Halle-Podell, Licensed Massage Therapist, Founder of Massage Therapy of Oak Park

Stress. The very word causes unpleasant feelings. Short-term, stress can actually be good, even life saving. Long-term stress, however, is a very different story.

Dangerous Stress vs. Healthy Stress

Long-term stress actually diminishes our ability to function on a day-to-day basis. Increased incidences of cancer, heart attacks, anxiety attacks, arteriosclerosis and stroke are just a few of the many life-threatening diseases to which a long-term stress response contributes. Therefore, it’s important to recognize your stress response.

A feeling of being overwhelmed, fatigue, inability to concentrate, lack of sleep, sleeping more, depression, shortness of breath, irritability, headaches or just a general feeling that life is out of control are indications of stress response.

Stress response, also know as the “fight-or-flight” response, is meant to be a short-term response—one of survival! When we are threatened or perceive a dangerous situation, our nervous system stimulates hormones that are released into the blood stream. Epinephrine, norepinephrine and flucocortoids are stress hormones that allow the body to respond to stress by increasing our strength, making our senses sharper and increasing our survival rate in case of injury. All the systems are mobilized:

• Physiological responses increase our immune response.
• Eyesight and hearing become sharper
• Blood withdraws deep into the body to supply and protect vital organs.

This wonderful stress response protects us and allows us to respond appropriately. It only becomes dangerous to us when we remain in the stress response too long. The immune system becomes suppressed and fatigued leading to the beginning of various disease processes. The longer the response, the more damage done!

How we perceive stress determines how we react. In a life threatening situation, our stress response is not only desirable, but may be lifesaving. Under these circumstances, we perceive our response to stress as good and marvel at how we reacted. In a sports event such as tennis, we can use the stress of competition to funnel our stress response into stepping up our performance. Our serves may be just a bit faster, returns sharper and movement quicker, as a result our game is more competitive. In the process, we respond to stress in a healthy way and the response is short term. Our perception is that this stress response is good.

Unfortunately, modern day life causes us to respond with a long-term stress response. This is not healthy. Increasingly, science has concluded that learning how to cope with stress and how to use it to our advantage is vital to our health and mental wellbeing.

10 Ways to Cope with Stress

1) Exercise—It reduces stress hormones and increases healthy immune activity.

2) Sleep—Get eight hours a night! Make sure it’s restful and restorative.

3) Well-Balanced Diet—Eat the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables to support your immune system.

4) Meditation—It is a great tool for reducing stress; research has shown that regular meditation reduces illness and increases productivity.

6) Supportive Communication—Surround yourself with friends and family who are supportive and listen; positive feedback is a must.

7) Relaxation—Use your vacation time; plan three-day weekends.

8) Have Fun—Try to live in the moment.

9) Don’t sweat the little stuff—For many of us, it’s the small stuff that gets to us and drains energy.

10) Massage—It increases immune response, decreases anxiety and reduces soreness. Research has shown that it relieves pain and increases productivity.

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