​

     What is Stress and Anxiety, what causes it, and what are we describing when we use these words?

​

The stress response, of course, has been part of our make-up since we evolved as human beings - it's an ancient response that we possess. It was there to protect and keep us safe from genuine life threatening situations and was fundamental to survival when we were considered both prey and predator. Fortunately we are not generally exposed to these critical events on a day to day basis any longer.

However, this ancient survival system is still active in us all. It is known as the "Fight or Flight" response, and is activated in the amygdala part of our brain. When triggered, it releases hormones into our bloodstream  - adrenalin and cortisol - which in turn stimulate various physical and emotional responses related to being put on high alert, such as:

• increase in breathing,

• increase in blood pressure, and

• higher blood flow to the muscles,  

• release of sugars in the form of glucose to provide higher energy,

• curbing of non-essential functions

• alterations in the immune system responses, 

• suppression of the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.

 

This complex natural alarm system also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear.

​

Most people experience stress and anxiety at some point in their lives - in fact it can be most beneficial to experience it to some level as this can give us the edge when meeting challenges such as difficult tasks at work, or the extra push to finish a marathon, or deliver a speech. 

Now, in most circumstances, once the reason for the stress has been removed - for example, the aggressive dog that has just been barking at you while straining at the end of its lead has been dragged away by its owner - the body returns back to its normal regulation, or homeostasis. However, its when the level becomes too much to manage, or persists, that stress then becomes an issue and can have a major impact on life, and can become chronic in nature.

​

Why do I feel stressed all the time?

​

We all deal with stress differently. Our ability to cope can depend on our genetics, early life events, personality and social and economic circumstances.

Stress can become chronic in nature because this stress response often gets triggered by perceived threats - what you imagine might happen. Often your perception becomes distorted by past experiences, which creates a belief that when presented with the same scenario, or the similar sort of events, that the same thing will happen to you again. This triggers the soup of hormones to be released into your bloodstream and all the associated symptoms, but of course, the stressor does not go away because it wasn't real in the first place! This leaves you with the symptoms of stress such as feeling nervous, anxious, sweating, fast shallow breathing, trembling, "butterflies" in the stomach, and fear, amongst others.

So when the symptoms of stress becomes a regular feature of your everyday life, it creates a chronic worry about life in general - an anxiety. 

Do you find yourself dwelling on past events, which, by reliving them creates the same emotions and feelings? Or perhaps you are thinking of the future and picturing all sorts of uncomfortable worrying scenarios - the "what ifs" of life? Many of us do...

​

​

Learning to live life in the present moment...

​

However, we can't change the past so there is no benefit to reliving it time and time again  (unless they are happy positive memories) By reliving the past we reinforce the feelings and emotions that we associated with it making them stronger until they become a core belief by which we mould our life.

Nor can we live in the future. If we project our thoughts by way of assumptions and the "what ifs", letting your imagination run riot, then we run the risk of hooking onto a worrisome idea that you then build upon to the point where you have created all sorts of imaginary - awful scenarios along with all the associated feelings and emotions. You have created these imaginary scenarios with such vividness that your brain thinks they are real and happening now - and so the threat is perceived, and the brain puts the body into high alert.

This can become a habit where you brood and ruminate over past mistakes or regrets, creating the negative feelings and emotions, and then project these into future catastrophes.

BUT, you can only ever exist in the present moment! Therefore, if we can make sure that every present moment is one of positivity by maintaining our levels of arousal and alertness, reacting to any event within the proportion it deserves, then we can safeguard ourselves from becoming chronically stressed or overly anxious - this leads to well being and finding your joy and happiness.

​

How I can help?...

​

Living with constant stress and anxiety, feeling as if you are on high alert all the time, is very exhausting and draining, depleting your energy and resilience. I can help you to identify the triggers that cause you stress and to understand the coping mechanisms that you have in place to deal with events that you find stressful. We will work together to unravel your core beliefs, getting to the root cause of the issue, and to calm that system down by removing these false beliefs and replace them with new helpful beliefs. This way we can effectively stop the vicious cycle that you've become trapped in. I will also help you to live in the present moment and to adopt new ways of thinking and feeling about certain situations. This will provide you with new helpful coping strategies and techniques that will help you to deal with life in a more relaxed, confident manner by learning to cope better with your response and reaction, quelling the stress response and replace it with one that comes from a calm, logical thought process that keeps life's challenges in perspective.

​