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Stressed Out? Find Relief Through Ayurveda!

By Dr. Helen Thomas, D.C. | November 12, 2008

 

Stressed Out? Find Relief Through Ayurveda!

Revealed in this week’s issue…

Bullet Beyond “Fight or Flight:” How Do YOU Deal With Stress…
Bullet Stress Does WHAT?? The Secret Root of Most Diseases and Illnesses…
Bullet Tearing Your Hair Out? De-Stress and Re-Vitalize With the Help of Ayurveda…

 

Dear Friend of Ayurveda

 

 

Dr. Helen Thomas, D.C.

Hi everyone! It’s so great to be back here on the e-zine, speaking with you about Ayurveda and the positive impact it can have on our lives! I hope you enjoyed Dr. Craig’s posts about his healing journey to India. It’s wonderful to have him home again and doing well.

His e-zine posts have hinted at my new Ayurvedic Approach to Health Heart Care Program for the past few weeks, and I’m pleased to announce that you can order it starting today! You have the power to help prevent heart-related ailments and diseases (like hypertension and cholesterol which can lead to heart attack and stroke) by tapping into the healing power of the ancient science of Ayurveda. This program can help strengthen your heart and keep it pumping strong for years and years to come.  

In that same vein (no pun intended), today I want to talk to you about the connection between stress and disease and how to relieve stress the Ayurvedic way.

 

WHAT IS THIS “STRESS” YOU SPEAK OF?

 

In order to fully appreciate the powerful role of Ayurveda in restoring overall health, you need to understand how it helps you handle stress. Stress is at the root of many ailments and diseases big and small. Dr. Hans Selye, the pioneering researcher who practically invented the concept of stress, defined it rather poetically:

“Stress is anything from a passionate embrace to a boring game of chess.”

Stress can be a fight with a loved one, getting fired from your job, sitting down with your checkbook, watching the evening news, or even going out on a first date. Stress can be anything that comes knocking on your door, but the stress itself is not necessarily the “Big Bad Wolf”…it’s how we handle the stress that can cause problems and wreak havoc on our health.

When dealing with stress, you have two basic options:

1. You can either digest the stressful feelings and convert them to useful energy that helps you grow and develop, or…

2. You can have trouble digesting stress and instead, create ”ama” (toxins) which tires out and depletes the nervous system and overworks the immune system…leaving the door open to illness. 

 

STRESS: THE BODY’S RESPONSE

 

So what happens when we’re under stress? When a stressful situation comes along, an internal alarm goes off within us, triggering a cascade of physiological changes. Dr. Selye called them “Fight-or-flight responses.”

Does this sound familiar?

This response is designed to enable us to fight for our lives or get us away from the danger as fast as possible. It worked well for our ancestors because their stresses were mainly of the saber-toothed tiger variety, and once dangerous situations were over, their bodies were able to quickly return to normal.

Not so with us modern folk. Maybe that’s because instead of saber-toothed tigers, we face a constant barrage of stressors day in and day out that are difficult to fight or escape from. And our stress response isn’t so simple and clear-cut. The way a person responds to stressful situations depends in part on the way he or she has learned to cope.

We must remember that so-called “negative” emotions like fear, anger, grief, etc. are all good, natural human emotions under certain conditions. But if they aren’t resolved and metabolized (or digested), they become stressful. The more stress we perceive (and the less we’re able to cope with it), the less we’re able to recover from it, and the less we’re able to deal with new stressors.

 

CONSTANT STRESS = DISASTER!

 

Prolonged stress wreaks all sorts of havoc on your body, your mind and your spirit. It can contribute to: fatigue, diabetes, hypertension, ulcers, loss of libido, reduced resistance to disease - and that’s just to name a few!

Emotional upset and feeling stressed can affect your ability to work, to think clearly, and to have satisfying social relationships. In animal experiments, stress has been shown to accelerate aging and even DEATH, hasten the spread of cancer, and promote heart attacks.

In 1993, the U.S. Public Health Survey estimated that 70-80% of Americans who visit physicians suffer from a stress-related disorder! There’s no doubt that the mind has an enormous affect on your body.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) studies the interaction between the mind, the nervous system, the immune system and the endocrine system, and PNI acknowledges the unity of our complex interacting systems. Studies have shown that people were more likely to become ill after suffering severe emotional trauma, and recent studies have been able to actually measure the dip in immune defenses!

Modern immunobiologists routinely refer to the immune system as a circulating nervous system, and this system has a huge significance in our daily lives. In Ayurveda, restoring and revitalizing the stress-prone nervous system is the key to preventing and treating disease.

So how can we de-stress and return to health?

 

AYURVEDA CAN HELP! I CAN’T STRESS THAT ENOUGH…

 

While many of the stresses in are lives are seemingly unavoidable, how we deal with them is within our control. By employing the following Ayurvedic practices in your daily life, you can begin digesting stress properly and turn it into fuel for your body, mind and soul.

 

1. FOLLOW YOUR DOSHA’S DAILY REGIMEN AND DIET: 

If you haven’t yet figured out which dosha is predominate in you - Vata, Pitta or Kapha - it’s not too late. My booklet “What Is Ayurveda? Understanding the Principles of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Body Types” (now available as part of my “Ayurvedic Approach to Healthy Heart Care Program“) can help you discover your dosha as well as give you a daily regimen to support balance and wellness. What foods should you eat…what foods should you avoid…which churnas (spices) will promote health for your dosha…all this and more is right in this booklet!

 

2. EXERCISE YOUR STRESS OUT:

Exercise has been shown to improve a whole host of areas related to the body: improve lung function; burn fat; increase stamina; reduce risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, and even types of cancer; lower blood pressure; reduce stress and anxiety; relieve depression; and improve resistance to disease.

Wow! All that benefit from a little exercise? Amazing!

Ayurveda has long advocated a moderate approach to exercise, so don’t overdo it. The rule of thumb is: avoid spending more than half of your energy on exercise. So if an hour of running exhausts you, don’t run for more than half an hour at a time. Exert yourself enough to sweat on your forehead, under your arms, and along your spinal column. This level will stimulate “agni” (digestive fires), relax you, and even help you sleep (a vital part of a healthy mind and body!).

 

3. THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION THROUGH MEDITATION:

Meditation allows the mental chatter to quiet and eventually cease, and during those moments, the consciousness and the body are cleansed and you experience the state of pure being, of oneness with the universe. Many people have found that with regular meditation, they experience a profound shift in their inner lives…this in turn can also affect physical health.

Hundreds of meditators have been studied and their physiological processes have been measured. Researchers have found that meditation:

In my Ayurvedic Approach to Healthy Heart Care Program, I’ve devoted a section of the “Heart Care the Ayurvedic Way” booklet to meditation pose illustrations and instruction!

 

We may never be able to completely remove stress from our lives, but by practicing Ayurvedic techniques like those I’ve mentioned here, we CAN learn how to keep it from ruining our health, our bodies and our emotional well-being.

Until next time!

 

Namaste from Dr. Helen Thomas, D.C.

 

P.S. Start taking care of your heart today with my Ayurvedic Approach to Healthy Heart Care program! Read more about it here!

 

Topics: Ayurveda & Heart Health, Ayurveda and Modern Times, Ayurveda and Stroke |

3 Responses to “Stressed Out? Find Relief Through Ayurveda!”

  1. Stressed Out? Find Relief Through Ayurveda! Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am

    […] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn order to fully appreciate the powerful role of Ayurveda in restoring overall health, you need to understand how it helps you handle stress. Stress is at the root of many ailments and diseases big and small. Dr. … […]

  2. Sue Says:
    November 13th, 2008 at 12:27 am

    This was a good overview of how stress affects all levels of being and how constant stress can very quickly pull an individual into a downward spiral where the on-going stress aggravates or causes physiological symptoms and the discomfort/challenges associated with the physiological symptoms create more stress, and on it goes.

    I would add that one thing to remember is that since chronic stress also undermines energy and motivation levels, the chances are great that much as a person realizes they need to make some changes to get their lives and health back into balance, they often have a hard time getting past the fatigue/inertia. I would suggest being gentle with one’s self is a good idea as beating one’s self up over not being able to jump right in to making a lot of healthy changes also contributes to the stress cycle.

    Since so many of the stress related/triggered health challenges (IBS, Asthma, to name but two) are brought about by inflammation within the body, would you consider writing some columns or articles on these issues? I’m betting you probably have many readers who might like to learn about some ayurvedic approaches to healing or reducing some of these challenges without having to resort to courses of medications whether short or long term.

    Thank you and bright blessings to you.

  3. tania Says:
    November 14th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    wonderful topic, yes stress is a silent killer, affecting the solar plexes area in a lot of people the will center,thank you for this topic helen its somethink we all need to be more aware of in our bodies, ragards tania

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