To Your Health
June, 2008 (Vol. 02, Issue 06) |
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Food choices can increase your internal stress, so a great way to relax is by eating the right foods. No coffee. No soda. No sugar. No excuses. You might be thinking, "I need these just to wake up!" Today is the day to start feeling better.
You could stop cold turkey, before you get to the end of this paragraph. Or you might take baby steps and take two weeks or more. Either way, you will be choosing to live longer and healthier. Try green tea instead of coffee and soda. Try fruits instead of ice cream and cookies. I like freezing bananas, grapes, and berries in the summer. If you have a juicer, you can make sorbet with the frozen fruits! Whatever you choose, it's better than the alternatives. Coffee, soda and sugar are stressing you out.
The next step to decreasing stress involves balancing your perceived stress. While changing the stressors might be difficult, we easily can change our response to stress. Some people will react to stress with fear, some with grief, some with anger, some with denial, even when it's the same stress. That reaction is our choice. You choose (sometimes subconsciously) how you react to the events in your life. This might be easier said than done because we habitually react in certain ways, especially with family that we've been reacting to the same way for decades. However, it must be done. Take a different look at the world. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or as a big brother/sister. Helping others gives us a different perspective of our lives. Journaling also is important. Writing down our emotions and feelings is one way to get the stress out of our body. Daily journaling for 20 minutes is proven to decrease stress and inflammation, and even reduce arthritis pain.
Changing your response to stress will make you more energetic, happier and healthier. While the "fight or flight" response saved many of our ancestors from the pursuing tiger, there are few tigers chasing us today. Our overactive stress response in our fear-laden country is one of the lead factors for the chronic disease in our country today. Why are we 42nd in life expectancy in the world? Stress. Why do people in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia live longer and happier? Better stress response. Choose happiness. Choose health. Choose to let the little stuff go.
Jared Skowron, ND, teaches pediatrics at the University of Bridgeport and is a certified DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor. He is the author of Fundamentals of Naturopathic Pediatrics. Visit www.naturopathicanswer.com to learn more.
