How is your summer going? Here in Minnesota, the crazy up and down weather pattern is settling down and we finally feel like summer is here. Hurrah! After weeks of clouds, rain, and cool temperatures, I can finally turn off my desktop light therapy box!
So, with a hectic summer schedule in full swing for many of us, it’s important to focus on ways to maintain energy and good health. Heck yeah! Who doesn’t want to fully enjoy the warm sunshine, longer days, and the multitude of outdoor activities summer brings? For many, its tradition to take those long awaited, relaxing family vacations during the summer months. I did say relaxing…right?
On the flip side, summer can also lead to increased stress as the need to balance work, family, and leisure ramps up. Planning days at the lake, summer activities for kids, graduation parties, and more can put us in the red energetically. In fact, why is it that some people tend to get sick right before a vacation or other important event? Stress!
Left unchecked, stress has a medically proven negative impact on our physical body. Plain and simple, stress can make us sick! It can also dramatically affect our emotional and mental well-being. Physiologically, stress leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure, slower digestion, adrenal gland overload, nervous system overstimulation, and sleep disturbance. And if that isn’t enough, stress can make us feel anxious, emotionally edgy, and mentally foggy.
Good news is that we can counteract stress and it’s not so fun effects by using a variety of mind/body techniques and methods to facilitate and support what is known as the relaxation response. Techniques such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing, and guided imagery are useful for reducing and managing stress. Other complementary and alternative methods that promote relaxation are massage, Reiki, and Healing Touch.
Through relaxation techniques and methods such as those mentioned, the body experiences relaxed muscles, increased circulation, elevated levels of oxygen, improved absorption of nutrients, release of toxins, and best of all, an increase in endorphin levels. Endorphins block pain and are also responsible for our feelings of pleasure. Possibly a reason we so often come back from a relaxing vacation or other time away feeling so happy!
Wishing you a summer of relaxation and good health!
Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life ~ Danzae Pace
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