Did you know that more than 75% of illnesses stem from stress in the body (according to Dwight C. Beyers, nephew of Eunice Ingham, the mother of Reflexology as we know it in the Western world today)? When we look more deeply into illness and the underlying meaning and cause of them, we realise that everything goes back to either feeling connected, loved and relaxed, or feeling disconnected, in fear, and stressed.
With this in mind, it’s important that we have an understanding of what stress is, why we experience it and what actually happens in the body as a result of it. We can then use this information to support ourselves and our clients with signs and symptoms of stress.
We experience stress as an internal response to external challenges and changes. These can be just as much in our heads as they can be tangible, actual factors; i.e. a lost key, relationship issues, deadlines at work, putting yourself under pressure, running late for an important appointment, chemical or environmental stressors, you name it. Of course, it could also just be our imagination running wild when lacking sleep.
The types of stressors and perceived level of stress are both huge contributing factors to the large percentage of people who are suffering from burnout symptoms. The numbers vary by profession and also between men and women. In the fields of caregivers and entrepreneurs, the number is as massive as 6–8 out of 10 people who suffer from extreme stress!
When this stress becomes extreme, it is often linked to peoples’ jobs or financial pressure, excessive expectations, deadlines at work, alongside long hours with not enough reward, recognition and relaxation, which then leads to burnout.
Although, the main reason seemingly causing the stress response is the feeling that we can’t cope or aren’t good enough. We lose faith in our ability to adequately respond to specific situations, people or the world at large. Everyone can be overcome by this feeling of being stressed out at any point in time during the day.
“Our stress response is a signal that our body and all its major systems have been activated. This classic fight-or-flight reaction is not just in our heads. It’s an automatic response that reverberates throughout our entire body. Adrenaline is released, muscles tense up, our stomach tightens, our heart rate quickens, breathing becomes shallower, blood vessels on the skin surface contract, blood pressure rises, and digestion and intestinal processes shut down.
None of these conditions are meant to persist for very long. The body couldn’t stand it. They are short-term responses to immediate perceived dangers. Yet we live in a society that is constantly presenting us with stressful situations. Some are very specific, such as challenges at work, financial pressures, and family issues, while some are rather vague, generalised feelings of being at the mercy of other individuals and forces beyond our control.
Unless we take conscious action, our stress response stays permanently turned on, even at low levels. Such extreme mobilisation can only be maintained for so long before our minds and bodies show signs of exhaustion.” (Laura Norman)
According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, humans are addicted to chemicals within our body. These are either stress related ones, such as cortisol, or happy ones like endorphins.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that people keep creating situations in their lives to keep them in this all too familiar stress mode. It keeps the adrenaline flowing.
This explains why some people can’t seem to ever switch off. They find that they can’t relax, even if they have nothing to worry about. Their mind wanders relentlessly and keeps busy until it finds something else to worry, fear or stress about - even if this something lies in the future. Then, once it has found something, it eases off, as it’s now back in the familiar state of high stress again. This way it keeps perpetuating itself.
Apart from subconsciously trying to distract us from what is actually going on deeply beneath the surface, excessive adrenaline stimulation unfortunately depletes vital vitamin and mineral stores from our bodies. These include those that are essential for our immune system like Vitamin C and B.
It can also cause a build-up of fatty substances on the walls of our blood vessels and damage the functioning of our digestive systems. Increased cortisol levels lead to an increased storage of adipose tissue, in other words: fat cells, causing chronically stressed people to gain lots of weight. Often this increase is also some form of energetic protection.
Under chronic stress, people are prone to more frequent and more severe viral infections, such as the flu or common cold. Simply put, stress breaks down our body’s natural defence, our immune system, as well as negatively influencing some of our major bodily functions. Relaxation on the other hand, strengthens them.
Also, a long term rush of adrenaline causes our body’s kidney energy to deplete. In traditional Chinese medicine, the kidneys are the holders and restorers of our body’s own energy, called Chi or Ki. If our kidneys get exhausted due to adrenaline overload, we end up with conditions such as adrenal burnout or chronic fatigue.
To make it easier to pinpoint when burnout is slowly creeping its way into your life or your clients lives, I’ve put together a checklist of 15 questions to ask yourself:
1. Do you get grumpy and short with people easily?
Do you fly off the handle at the drop of a hat?
Do you get frustrated easily?
Do you feel like you’re stagnating and not getting anywhere with all your efforts?
Do you feel constantly tired and find that you can’t seem to get yourself excited?
Do you feel bored and slightly detached about the things you need to be doing, but feel that you’re kind of ‘over it all’?
Are you in procrastination-city and find you can’t get yourself motivated?
Do you keep hurting yourself by accident?
Do you get sharp or dull pains in your middle and lower back, which used to be more in your shoulders?
Do you keep getting sick, have headaches or feel yourself generally getting more and more susceptible to colds and flus?
Do you get less than 8 hours of sleep every night in which to recharge and revitalise your body...or are we talking way less?
Do you struggle falling or staying asleep, no matter how tired you are?
Do you find you’re getting forgetful?
Do you lack the ability to focus and concentrate on your tasks?
Do you feel anxious a lot or get anxiety attacks?
If you’ve been finding most of the answers are yes, then its time to take some action to make changes.
It’s vitally important to make sure you help your body return to optimum health on an ongoing basis by releasing stress, whether it’s physical, mental, emotional or energetic. It’s just as important as listening to your intuition and to your body.
There are tons of ways to do this. I’ve had a lesson or two to learn about this topic over the course of my life. I know that when busyness strikes, it’s hard to keep it all up.
There are many ways to relax our bodies; for example, doing sports, dancing, yoga, meditation etc. However, one of the most powerful ways to relax, whilst simultaneously activating a normalisation of body functions, is reflexology.
Reflexology is a proven method to help you deeply relax and let go of your stress. It’s based on the principle that certain parts of the body, such as the feet, hands and ears, reflect the whole body. By effective stimulation of these reflexes, the body starts progressively clearing blockages, re-establishing energy flows and balancing itself, resulting in better health.
It’s easy to learn the basics of reflexology, and the profound relaxation you experience through it improves circulation, assists in the release of toxins, harmonises and normalises body functions as well as increases energy and wellbeing. Additionally, if combined with the right skills and knowledge, it can enable your body to release stored emotions, patterns and beliefs.
If you're interested in empowering your health and that of your clients with the ancient modality of Reflexology, take a look at The Footprint Connection™ Reflexology online course.
Image credit: Javier Allegue Barros via Unsplash