Manage your stress to avoid illness

If you’ve moved home you may be aware it’s regarded as one of the most stressful events in our lives. It is supposedly up there with the death of a loved one and divorce.

Most of these assumptions derive from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) devised by Holmes and Rahe in 1967, used to identify stressful events in our life.

Out of the 43 stressful life events, moving into a new home came in 32nd.

Although all of these stressful life events listed on the scale can be very traumatic to any person, the stress in our lives comes from our consciousness of health.

Some people simply do not have a good mental outlook on life. To them the world looks like a dark place and everything in it is bad. They very much play the victim.

The body mirrors itself in the mind and the mind mirrors itself in the body.

‘Stinking thinking’

Stressed out people are commonly culprits of ‘stinking thinking’ and complain all the time about anything! 

This negativity manifests into the body and creates disease.

Stress is also completely individual. What may stress out someone may not be a stress to another person. It is all about opinion.

So, we need to learn how to manage stress in order for it to not lead to illness.

The body cannot differentiate between the types of stress that can build up; therefore, a relationship break-up or overtraining in the gym is interpreted on the same biological level.

That’s why it’s important to treat all types of stressors with equal respect as they can all have the same detrimental effect on our health.

Stressed-out people develop a ‘stress identity’. They simply cannot relax. They need stress in their lives.

• Do you always need to hear noise when trying to relax, like having the TV on in the background?

• Can you ever switch off your cell phone and become disconnected from communication?

• Do you always want to ruin a good thing like a relationship when it’s going well?

These are all diversions of ‘self’ and are typically signs that the person does not like themselves.

I often hear people tell me that they don’t have time to exercise or go to the supermarket to buy organic food. But they are working all the hours in the day or spending time at the weekend cleaning their sports car.

Unfortunately, these people have their priorities completely wrong.

We came into the world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing, so what’s the point in spending all your time making money you cannot take with you, or keeping your sports car spotless?

Did you know that 50 per cent of people spend their life savings in the last five days they’re alive?

Instead of torturing ourselves with work and burying our lives in things to do, we should be spending time on the only thing that we truly have control over and that’s our health. All the other materialistic belongings we accumulate during our lifetime will not fit into our grave! 

Colin Ayliffe is a certified personal trainer and holistic lifestyle coach with over 10 years’ experience in training clients. He graduated from the University of Surrey with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Science and is also a CHEK practitioner, golf biomechanic and is accredited by the
National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Colin blogs at www.CoconutFitness.com. Visit his website to read more articles like this.