Well here we are again in lock down level 3 in Auckland.
These unexpected announcements; that within a few hours we will be in lock down, affects our psyche in negative ways. Worry and anxiety about our businesses, jobs and the future.
The resulting stress triggers the body’s alarm system and fires the fight/flight response filling us with adrenaline and cortisol the stress hormone. The fight/flight response is an automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or frightening. We get heart palpitations, panic, headaches, gut problems and insomnia.
The three stages of fight/flight are alarm, resistance and exhaustion. Often if the stress is ongoing we go fight/flight/freeze. In freeze we become cold, numb, can’t feel the body, feel out of it, dissociated, stuck and can’t think clearly and the body tires. When this happens the immune system plummets.
This phenomenon happens to us all too some degree, even if we think we are handling it well. The thing that most concerns me at the moment is that our children are being badly affected by this also. Being isolated from their friends and home schooled is very difficult for them.
Going in and out of lock down is programming children with a memory of stress in the body that triggers the fight/flight response. It can begin to transmit false alarms – we are not in a life or death situation. Annoying yes, uncomfortable yes but not life or death. However, this autonomic response acts as if it is life or death.
It is important for all of us adults and children to learn how to de-escalate our stress levels, keep our immune system high and keep our minds clear to make good decisions.
I offer sessions to teach you how to learn to do this: de-escalate stress, breathe properly, make good decisions, keep your immune system high and take control back.
We are still working during lock down – either on line via zoom or face to face adhering to required safety procedures. Book an appointment with me to learn to how master yourself and your children for everyone’s well-being.
Vivienne Berry
There is already a lot written about stress in health care literature. And, in a way, it seems that there is little to be said about it that it hasn’t been widely mentioned before. That may be true, but even with all the information, research, and diverse means to target the challenges that stress poses to our health and wellbeing, it still remains one of the most detrimental driving forces influencing our lives. This means, there is still room to offer new approaches or perspectives to tackle it.
Stress is a natural response (involving most of our physical body systems as well as our emotions and mind) to help us successfully overcome a perceived challenge. It is, in essence, a universal adaptation mechanism of all living beings, vital for their survival.
Stress is a natural response (involving most of our physical body systems as well as our emotions and mind) to help us successfully overcome a perceived challenge.
However, in the case of humans, it is also a double-edged sword. Let me explain; most animals have little ability to foresee, or to plan ahead of possible future events. We on another hand, have the unique tool of the human mind.
The mind has the power to combine our experiences and construct a personalised interpretation of reality. This ability provides us with the opportunity to recreate life events in a virtual universe of our own. In that pseudo-reality, we have the chance to try different reactions to a situation to find the adequate behaviour we may choose to enforce when the time comes. This simulated reality feels so real that it can potentially affect our body, emotional and thought processes, as reality itself.
The human mind may be the ultimate gift of evolution… or better said, it may one day be. Once it has fully reached its maturity. Meaning… once it has been properly fine-tuned to face our modern lifestyles. This may not be the case yet, and as a result of it, we have to deal with some undesirable side effects for having access to such an exceptional tool.
The common inability to control our thinking and emotional processes often causes the creative power of our mind to go rogue. This results in a fixated behaviour of recreation and reviving past events or an anxious compulsion to anticipate a fearful imagined future. This damaging tendency may be one of the main reasons why stress-related conditions still remain a major health problem.
The common inability to control our thinking and emotional processes often causes the creative power of our mind to go rogue.
The stress response gathers and consumes our physical, mental and emotional resources at an accelerated rate. It is perfectly suitable mechanism to face short-term situations, but it is immensely detrimental for health and wellbeing when it is constantly running in our psychological and physiological background for a long period of time.
The mind, emotions and body systems are all linked into a unique totality which mirror each other. Therefore, our body tensional patterns are often the footprints of the journey of our lives. Some of those patterns may be very costly to maintain, and return very little benefit. On occasion, we have become so used to them that we are not even aware that they are there, or we may even assume them as a part of who we are.
The stress response gathers and consumes our physical, mental and emotional resources at an accelerated rate.
Antonio offers a unique approach to Manual therapy treatments combining both western health science with eastern bodyworks, emphasising full being awareness to link potential body tensional patterns to our emotional and mental state and help the client to discover alternative ways to positively change them.
So excited for the holidays! So often we hear this and say this at this time of year.
We New Zealanders have all our goodies at once – Christmas and New Year celebrations, time off work, and long, hot summer days to relax.
This all can be eagerly anticipated, and amazing, but for many of us it can be overwhelming.
It is not only the potentially extra financial burden (extra catering for cherished relatives coming to stay, Christmas presents (have I got the right one? Will he like it? He wants the more expensive model, 50% more than I had budgeted, but should I get it anyway?), and also social pressure – racing round to have lunch/ dinner/ coffee/ drinks with a friend whom we haven’t seen all year but absolutely must see before Dec 25th. The malls are busy & crowded and suddenly there is not enough time to get ready. And so on!
So this time of joy & celebration can bring on anxiety or even panic attacks for up to 75% of us according to a poll. A full-blown anxiety attack can often be mistaken for a heart attack, another factor to send stress levels soaring. If you feel that you are having a heart attack however, never hesitate to call 111.
There are many ways to address anxiety, no two people are alike.
For some, a good 5km run is just the thing to defuse & let off steam
For others, medication can help more than anything.
Here are some tips to help navigate through the Christmas holidays.
Walk away.
Stand up and move to another room. If you can’t find a space to be alone in, go outside, or into a bathroom or an unused bedroom. Distance yourself physically from whoever is angering you or upsetting you.
Sit down if you can and centre your breathing. Deep breaths – 4 seconds inhale, 4 seconds hold, & exhale fully for 7 seconds.
Don’t return to the group until you have calmed your breathing and you feel ready.
If it is too difficult for you to leave the room, stop engaging, & play the countdown game. Here’s how it goes:
R. Recognise when a strong emotion is present. Anxiety is not a weakness, a mental failing or childish. It is a scientific, physiological stress response that your body is experiencing in reaction to an uncomfortable or potentially threatening environment.
A. Allow it to be there. Fighting anxiety produces anxiety. Let your palms sweat, or whatever your physical manifestation of anxiety is. Don’t disagree with you body about what’s happening.
I. Investigate the feeling. Are you hurt by a certain comment? Outraged at ideological differences? Find out why you’re having the reaction you’re having
N. Non-identify with the feeling. Tell yourself that the feeling is not YOU. It is not yourself, your permanent state of being. It is a feeling. Acknowledging that can help take power away from the story the feeling is telling your brain.
If you think you may be prone to anxiety attacks over the Christmas holidays and would like to take something to balance you out, there are herbal combinations that may be helpful for you; if you would like to discuss one, please call Marion at Holden Healthcare and make an appointment before Friday 20th December.
The office is closed from Fri 20 Dec to Mon 20th January 2020; if you start to experience anxiety during this time, please try the tips above. If the anxiety persists into the New Year, please make an appointment to see me from Monday 20th January onwards.
Marion Stobie
Registered Naturopath, Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist
We see if happen to friends and family every year and I have to ask “Why don’t people learn and do things differently next year?”.
What I am talking about is getting stressed out over Christmas, spending too much on gifts and regretting it, putting on too many extra kilos from over eating & drinking, having arguments with the in laws or the teen kids or grand kids, not being organised on how to do Christmas Day or New Year’s Day with the family or friends or generally taking on too much in preparation for the big days ahead.
Having been in the Wellness Sector now for nearly 30 years full time next year (yes we are having a BIG party to celebrate later in 2018, watch this space!) I know only too well how people go over the top and blow their budgets, or their waistlines at this crazy time of year in the Western Calendar.
I would strongly suggest people do 3 things to reduce stress and make life so much easier for Christmas and New Year Celebrations and the long hot summer days coming soon (we hope!):
1. Set a budget for Xmas expenditure and DON’T go over it! You can best achieve this by planning ahead and taking advantage of Xmas sales and if you do what I do, I give my son a voucher from me for a certain dollar value on Xmas day inside a real card (not an e-one) so that he can spend it on heavily discounted products on Boxing Day sales! He has done this the last 5 years now and had gotten some great bargains on his own accord. Smart!
2. For losing weight after the holidays have finished, you have 3 strategies that work but some of them might not work for you:
A) Either don’t eat or drink as much so you don’t put on so much weight over the celebrations anyway, OR
B) go for it then do the 5:2 Fast Diet approach and practise intermittent fasting for 2 days a week after the hols and you can lose easily 1kg a week for as long or as short as you want till your target weight is met. OR
C) you can crash and burn and pick up the pieces when its back to work and the summer break is a long distant memory. Your choice which one or any combination of the above.
3. Plan ahead! Make lists of what gifts you want to give and when just a card will suffice or an e-card (many are free on line these days, but the nicer ones you have to pay $1-2 for so they are still very cheap). You know the old cliché “If you fail to plan you are planning to fail” and this is so true for expenditure over the Xmas hols.
We are doing a weight loss special that really works early next year that includes the 5:2 Diet book which is brilliant as part of the deal, more on that later in our January 2018 newsletter. . . This approach is much easier for people of any age to do successfully.
As we age we gain fat and lose muscle a lot more easily so we have to work a lot harder at losing those extra kilos we have gained and the smart ones put strategies in place to pace themselves and not put on as much weight as they would otherwise do anyway!
So I hope this helps and have a great pre-Xmas season and don’t blow the budget or the waistline too much please!
Happy Silly Season
David 😊
Holden HealthCare is offering a Silly Season Wellness Check Special over Xmas.
Call us on (09) 282 3588 for more details.
Senior Naturopath David Holden offers ten things to think about if you have been diagnosed with cancer.
This list is not exhaustive but is a good start! For help or any questions please contact us