STRESS...that dirty little word we all know too well.

Stress isn't a new problem. In fact, it's been around for centuries clueing us into just how powerful our mental and emotional states can be to our health.

The United States consistently ranks among the Top 10 in surveys citing countries with the "most stressed out," populations. Americans report feeling more stressed, angry, and worried than they had at any point in the prior decade - and that was the "good ole days," before any of us have even heard of COVID19!

While scientists are still hard at work trying to fully understand the role that stress plays in a holistic mind-body connection we have learned that consistent, elevated levels of stress are detrimental to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Can you say, "adrenal fatigue?!"

But there's another side to stress that goes largely unnoticed. Stress is a valuable tool encoded into our human evolution. Stress is our adaptive "red flag," - it is our mind and body's way of communicating that something (or some things) within our environment are triggering our "flight of fight," response. It's a queue that our surrounding stimuli is not optimal on multiple levels. We vilify stress because we associate it with it's negative effects - poor mental functioning, physical disease and deficiency, emotional unrest.

But stress in its basic form is the result of stimuli. It's there to tell you, "hey, something is off and it's time to re-balance." For each person, the process of finding a healthier balance will look a little different. As a community, each of us processes and experiences stress in highly unique ways that also intersect with each individual's own coping / adaptogenic skills.

But this is where the "fun," comes in...rather than trying to avoid stress altogether, if we lean INTO the stress we KNOW is there we can strategically begin to unravel its hold over us. The first step is saying, "yes," to acknowledging that something is off kilter in our environment and more importantly saying "yes," to the sometimes frustrating process of discovering what stimuli is pushing us to our limits and which are propelling us in the right direction.

It's in our willingness to say "yes," that our power over stress resides. When we decide to move through it rather than trying to go around it is when we authentically empower ourselves to de-stress our lives and become the happiest, healthiest versions of ourselves. 

So, you know where this is going! Are you ready to finally and courageously say "YES," to stress?!

HOW WE CAN HELP

If you are then join me THIS Sunday at 8:30 AM to demystify stress, provide you with actionable tools to start tackling your unique stress, "sitch," and give you a roadmap to navigate stress in productive ways moving forward. This is one sesh you’re not going to want to miss. Reserve your spot, invite your friends ($5 for non-members) and get ready to move from stressed and overwhelmed to calm and clear. See you on Sunday!