Shine Bright Like a Diamond!
“The Bible never once says, “Figure it out,” but over and
over it says, “Have faith.”
God already has it all figured out.”
~ Dave Willis
Sitting
in my office a few weeks ago my right eyelid took on a life of its own and
began to twitch like it was possessed by a tiny alien moving just my eyelid back
and forth without my control. It didn’t
freak me out as much as it did the last time this happened a few years
ago. I was under extreme stress at work at
that time and this was my body’s way of showing it. This time I just sat there and thought “the
little twitch is back!” This was a
problem that I previously handled with massive amounts of chocolate therapy, but now
that my sugar coma inducing therapist is out of business, I realize I need to
find productive effective ways to handle stress overloads. I do workout everyday now, and you would
think that would nip this little eye twitching alien in the bud, but sometimes
my cup overflows and just working out alone may not be enough. This week I set off to find answers. What exactly is stress and what can we do to
manage it?
According
to the American Institute for Stress, stress is a “highly subjective phenomenon
that defies definition.” They indicated
that Hans Selvy coined the term “stress” in 1936. He defined it as “the non-specific response of
the body to any demand for change.” This
guy did a ton of experiments on laboratory animals and showed that persistent
stress caused these poor animals to develop all sorts of medical issues and
diseases found in humans. They had heart
attacks, stroke, arthritis, stomach ulcers and a whole slew of words I don’t
even know what medical disease it would be.
Clearly chronic ongoing stress is bad for our health.
Stress
isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s how we survive. I think that when we get into situations
where we feel chronic ongoing prolonged stress we need to find ways to
effectively manage it. There’s always
going to be some level of stress if you’re a living breathing human. How you handle it will determine if your
eyelid stays calmly in one place or starts moving around like a barefoot kid
on a hot summer Arizona sidewalk.
There’s
plenty of documented research showing stress wreaks havoc on our bodies from
our stomachs to our brains. It also is a
major contributor to weight gain and not just from emotional stress eating but
real physical internal chemical reactions.
It increases hunger levels because of the hormone ghrelen that’s
released causing us to literally crave comfort foods. Other enzymes don’t do their job and your
body can’t break down fat into energy like it’s supposed to. Ranjana Mehta, PhD from Texas A and M
University did a study showing that when we’re mentally stressed about
something during a physical workout, it decreases our physical energy by
25%. Stress can cause us to lose sleep
which increases the “I’m hungry” hormone and lowers the “you’re full”
hormone. We just can’t win!
What
can we do when exercising alone just isn’t
enough? There are tons of
strategies and tips out there on how to handle stress. Some of them I found to be ineffective or just plain dumb. Here
are few gems that I discovered that I put to use this week to see how they
worked.
Mental Dress Rehearsal
This tip comes from the Navy SEALS. The SEALS spend hours going over every likely scenario and how to best respond to each in preparation for an operation. Lu Lastra, director of mentorship for Naval Special Warfare and a former SEAL command master chief, says "It’s a technique called mental loading. It helps to ease anxiety and boost confidence during stressful situations.” When faced with an unknown situation you spend some time running through the possible scenarios in your mind. How would you react to each one? What’s the worst thing that could happen? How do you react?
Mental Dress Rehearsal
This tip comes from the Navy SEALS. The SEALS spend hours going over every likely scenario and how to best respond to each in preparation for an operation. Lu Lastra, director of mentorship for Naval Special Warfare and a former SEAL command master chief, says "It’s a technique called mental loading. It helps to ease anxiety and boost confidence during stressful situations.” When faced with an unknown situation you spend some time running through the possible scenarios in your mind. How would you react to each one? What’s the worst thing that could happen? How do you react?
Clench and Release
Nina Smiley, PhD and co-author of “The Three Minute Meditator” says, “When you are so stressed that your muscles feel tense start by clenching the muscles in your forehead and face as you take a breath and hold it for a moment. As you release the tension, exhale fully and relax. Work your way down your body, repeating the process. The tightening and releasing is a physical cue to the body to let stress go.”
Nina Smiley, PhD and co-author of “The Three Minute Meditator” says, “When you are so stressed that your muscles feel tense start by clenching the muscles in your forehead and face as you take a breath and hold it for a moment. As you release the tension, exhale fully and relax. Work your way down your body, repeating the process. The tightening and releasing is a physical cue to the body to let stress go.”
Walk Away
This seemed like one of those common sense no-brainer ideas but it does work to separate yourself from whatever is stressing you out. "In a way, smokers have the right idea," says Julian Ford, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. "When they step outside to light up, they're doing one of the most important and hardest parts of de-stressing, taking a break. They consciously distance themselves from immediate pressures and remove themselves from all the cues that say, "Work harder." This naturally turns down the alarm in their brain. Happily, you don't have to engage in dangerous behavior like smoking to do this. Simply walking away from stressors for a few minutes can be one of the best practices for learning to handle daily pressure."
Just Breathe
"By forcing yourself to breathe as you do in your most relaxed moments, you trick your body into releasing calming neurohormones, causing a biological shift in how you feel," says psychotherapist Belleruth Naparstek. "Just inhale and feel your abdomen expand. Go as slowly as possible, counting in 1-2-3. Then, observe the turn of your breath, and breathe it out 1-2-3. Whether you do this for one minute or five, it's going to bring you to a calmer place.”
What’s your problem?
We
spend a lot of time stressing over our problems. Stanford Univsersity did a course called
“Design your Life” based on a book “Designing your Life; How to build a well
lived, joyfull life,” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. In regards to problem solving they said there
are temporary and permanent problems. We
waste a lot of time and energy on permanent problems that’s holding our lives
back. They pose the questions, “What if
your problems weren’t actually problems?”
You need to know what kind of problems you are really dealing with. You can’t change a permanent problem. It just doesn’t work to stress or complain
about time, how old you are, the past, your family or other people. It’s a waste of time complaining and worrying about
permanent problems. Focus on temporary
problems that you can change such as your body shape, relationships or work issues. List the problems you worry and complain
about. Ask what can I do to change this
problem. When you change yourself and how you think, everything else will change.
A diamond is
just a piece of charcoal that
handled stress exceptionally well.
~ Author Unknown
handled stress exceptionally well.
~ Author Unknown
Last
weekend I observed Dan under extreme stress during his power lifting
competition. Watching him handle this
stress, perform exceptionally well and come out victorious is a real life example
of what I learned over this past week. I
was a nervous wreck for him but he told me that in addition to physically training
for this competition he also mentally prepared.
Just like the Navy SEALS, he said that he visualized anything that could go wrong and mentally
determined how he would handle every possible situation.
He mentally planned an “if this - then that” for every potential situation. He vowed that he wouldn’t get frustrated or
allow it to throw him off his game.
During a peak stressful moment, prior to his second squat attempt, I
looked over and could tell he was in deep thought standing over the chalk bowl
behind the platform. I asked him later
what he was thinking at that moment. He
replied, “This is stressful but I feel alive!” Dan went on to break three South Carolina state records and is now ranked third in the nation. This is proof that enduring extreme stress is necessary to accomplish your dreams.
I’m happy to report that these techniques worked. The twitch is gone! It’s a fine dance between managing stress and expanding the boundaries of our comfort zone. Stepping outside that comfort zone is the only way to grow. Abraham Maslow says, “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” Robin Sharma says it best. “Life is like working out. There’s no pain in the comfort zone. But is that really where you want to live?”
I’m happy to report that these techniques worked. The twitch is gone! It’s a fine dance between managing stress and expanding the boundaries of our comfort zone. Stepping outside that comfort zone is the only way to grow. Abraham Maslow says, “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” Robin Sharma says it best. “Life is like working out. There’s no pain in the comfort zone. But is that really where you want to live?”
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