We all often talk about stress and our stress levels, and we all have heard that some stress is actually good in our lives as it keeps us active, alert, engaging in life and our brains functioning optimally. However I find it is sometimes too easy to cross the bridge from optimal stress levels to harmful stress, so it becomes very important to listen to our bodies on a daily basis and being able to interpret their signals so that we can intervene with the tools we have at hand.
I find very useful listening to my breath rhythm as an indicator of my tension level, which normally goes hand in hand with the speed of my heart beat. This can happen a few times during the day, sometimes on purpose and consciously, such as performing exercise or an activity particularly challenging, such as working fast to meet deadlines, but also unconsciously when negative thought patterns visit me or I let negative emotions to stay for too long.
It is very important to stop during the day on our busy schedules, to listen to what we need and provide for it, so we let our breath go to its natural state and allow our bodies to maintain the ability to return to a low-stress rate. Being aware of our thoughts is also particularly important, to replace negative thoughts with a few positive ones, or perhaps journaling at the end of the day and put them into perspective, or even meditating and learning to observe and distance your own self from your thoughts. Looking at them as a witness can sometimes change the way we see things, or realise how many things we tell to ourselves that actually not true and somehow our body ends believing, adding stress for no reason.
Harmful stress can manifest in multiple ways in our bodies, specially if it is sustained for long periods of time, however on a daily basis we can pay special attention and give extra care to our bodies if we notice a decline in performance or concentration, headaches, muscle pain, insomnia, raising thoughts, irritability… Breathwork techniques are particularly useful in this situations and of course meditation. I will soon upload some notes about breath techniques that combined with a few relaxing yoga poses can help bring balance to your nervous system and lower stress.
However, on a more playful side, specially if you have kids around, I recommend you to sometimes forget about all duties, and just let them lead you into play, going back to the child we once were, bathe yourself with laugher, dance, be creative, paint… Joy and play can relax anybody.
