What is Body Stress?

The word stress often invokes a negative meaning. In fact, stress is an inbuilt response of the nervous system to cope with any kind of demand or threat in an efficient and at times life saving way. It also pushes us to grow and develop as human beings and is therefore a very important part of life.

When in a healthy and balanced state the body adapts to stress by naturally releasing tension. I am reminded of the dog's natural response of literally shaking off the tension after encountering a threatening situation. However, too often our modern way of life causes the "stress mode" to become chronic and to build to a point of overload. This overload of tension overrides the body's capacity to adapt. Because the tension is no longer managed by the body it is stored up as body stress.

There are three general sources of body stress:

Mechanical:

• resulting from accidents, bumps, falls, bad posture, improper use of the body.

Chemical:

• reactions (through touch, ingestion or inhalation) to pollution, pesticides, food additives and coloring, skin care products, perfumes, cleaning products, etc.

Mental and emotional:

• an overload of tasks and deadlines.
• a sudden overload of emotions such as anger, grief or shock.
• a slow build up of tension caused by chronic worrying, sadness, depression, physical pain.

These all cause the body to adopt a protective posture by tensing up the muscles. If not addressed the tension becomes stored in the body and may cause compression of the joints and in turn put pressure on the nerves that supply life energy to the body. The dampening effect caused to the nerves disrupts the communication that normally takes place between the body and the brain and reduces healing efficiency. This can result in pain, stiffness, numbness and undermined organ functions.

Body Stress Release Lorraine Blouin