“It’s just stress.”
Most people dismiss stress like they do an annoying mosquito, as if it’s not that important for good health, but per the American Institute of Stress, 75-90% of all doctor visits are related to stress.
Women can experience stress as depression and anxiety, obesity, gut issues, headaches and migraines, fertility issues, and menstrual problems (problems you might experience with perimenopause).
Stress is way more serious than an annoying mosquito and can have a devastating effect on our health and wellbeing.
What is stress?
We have been told that stress is caused by outside influences, such as a job you hate, being in a difficult relationship, or getting stuck in traffic. But that is not true. Stress comes from within.
Stress is your emotional or mental response to your circumstances. According to Andrew Bernstein in his book The Myth of Stress, your job is not stressful, your thoughts about your job are stressful. Your relationships aren’t stressful, your thoughts about your relationships are stressful. Getting stuck in traffic is not stressful, your thoughts about being stuck in traffic are stressful.
When we have stressful thoughts about circumstances in our life, our body responds physically. When we are stressed, the adrenal glands release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol and the body loses magnesium fast. These physical responses to our stressful thoughts can cause high blood pressure, increased heart rate, depression, anxiety, muscle tension, and a mineral imbalance.
When our minerals are out of balance, we experience disease.
Connecting your stress to your symptoms
When you have unpleasant symptoms such as anxiety, menstrual issues, joint or back pain, brain fog, irritability, mood swings, etc, think about what events occurred around the same time and how you felt about those events.
For example, I have always been very healthy, but it felt like my body just started falling apart after my husband passed away. I had a bulging disk impinging my S1 nerve which created excruciating pain down my right leg, and I also had a fibroid uterus.
Losing someone you love leads to a lot of stressful thoughts and where things show up in your body says something about those thoughts.
The right leg can reflect feelings of insecurity, feeling unsupported, and resisting the flow of life. Problems in the uterus can reflect feeling depleted, ungrounded, unsupported, neglected, and unbalanced. All of this makes perfect sense after the loss of your partner of 33 years.
When you can connect your symptoms to your stress, you can figure out what thoughts need to change so that your body can heal.
Why we need to change our minds about stress
Stress leads to a mineral imbalance which leads to symptoms. Stress begins in our mind so how we think about our circumstances matters. If we only deal with nutritional imbalances, we will constantly struggle with symptoms. We have to deal with our thoughts about our circumstances if we want our health restored.
I still have a bulging disk, but I don’t have any pain. How is that possible? I dealt with my thoughts about my circumstances and healed emotionally. If you'd like to see what's possible for you, schedule a chat with me at connectwithannette.com.