Day Sixty-Eight: Stress

Americans don't know stress. When I was growing up, I used to watch my mother as she'd gather everyone's clothes...her children, my father, the inlaws, everyone...and she'd carry them in a basket on top of her head to walk down to the river. There, she'd wash all of our clothing. Each day, she had to search for clean drinking water for us to drink. Now, that is stress.

In America, the stresses we have are self imposed.

I love being a student. I love the insight that I gain from my professors, and the passion with which they teach their material to educate their students. This quote above is a paraphrase from one of my professors as she was discussing her childhood.

We have deadlines, we have soccer games, we've got traffic to battle, long work hours, paying bills, getting a babysitter for the event, mortgage payments, test dates, and meetings with the client. We have stress. Granted, much of it is self imposed...much of it is not related to getting our basic physiological needs met like having clean drinking water. However, stress does affect us. Sometimes, it's good to have a little bit of stress in our lives. However, chronic stress can have a negative impact on our health.

Chronic anxiety can affect sleep, raise cortisol levels, compromise our immune system, affect our cardiovascular system, make us more prone to emotional outbursts. If you've ever had a really good cry after not having much sleep because you've been experiencing so much anxiety, you understand this.

Balance is key in lowering our daily stress levels. Also, heavy cardio sessions and massage are great ways to reduce the negative energy in our system.

I challenge you to find ways to reduce your anxiety if it is impeding your health.