Does this sound familiar? Wake up, drink cup of coffee go to work while scarfing down your breakfast. While at work you stress about getting things done and what to eat for lunch and oh what to get for dinner all while worrying about who is going to get the kids tonight? On top of it you are tired and exhausted with no end in sight? Does it sound like a typical day in your life? You are not alone. Majority of people feel this way day in and day out with what seems as no hope for a balance.

I have been stuck in this cycle before and your body will eventually run out. Why is there so many demands and not enough rest? That is the world we live in or so we tell ourselves. But there is a better way. I will get to that in a minute. Let’s first talk about the truth about stress and health. You see, chronic stress is a major concern that hasn’t really been addressed properly. Our bodies need stress. You heard that right it needs it but with balance. Our autonomic nervous system essentially controls this aspect of our health. There are two branches to it. One is the parasympathetic which has input into rest and digestion whereas the sympathetic nervous system has input into fight or flight. In today’s world we are mostly in a constant state of fight or flight. This isn’t good because we can’t digest food properly or even sleep properly which is how you heal.

With this constant state of go, go, go we can’t seem to recover like we used to and the results of being in this state for too long is not good. Things like type 2 diabetes, panic, anxiety disorders, and others are rampant in our society. There have been links to stress that cause these types of problems. And what do we do? We medicate it into oblivion. The medications are there to suppress your symptoms not give you strategies on how to deal with the actual stress.

See the truth is until we can actually learn to better deal with stress and actually slow down then it will always be a problem that goes suppressed but not actually getting any better. So what are the solutions? Well for starters it would be good to not commit to all sorts of things that we think need to be done. That is a start. This will allow your body to physiological slow down so that it can work on what’s important within your body. Another way to help with that is actually measure how your body is adapting to stress. We do this by what is called Heart Rate Variability. This gives us a new insight into how your brain is matching up with your heart. It is some cool science. But that is the beginning.

By seeing how your body reacts to stress and then giving you strategies to train your body to react differently you can better adapt to the stress around you. Let’s face it. Stress isn’t going anywhere soon. We will always have something coming up that is inevitable. But by allowing your body to have balance through training then you can better handle it and feel more at ease.

I look forward to presenting more science and application on this topic as it has directly affected my life and the millions of other humans on this planet.