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NaturopathyIf stress makes you sick: expose and eliminate stressors

Stress is a permanent condition for many today.

In the long run, stress can seriously make you sick. That's why it's important to relax your life again and again.
Photo: iStock
content
  1. Admitted charges
  2. Important: identify and reduce stressors
  3. Perception training and more mindfulness
  4. More peace for the mind: nature helps
  5. Self-care: Do not force yourself to persevere

Increasing work density, a noisy environment, multiple work and family burdens, all of which means that more and more people are constantly tense, nervous and restless. The problem with that: Most do not realize it. Only when your body pulls the ripcord through discomfort will you realize that you have not paid attention to its signals for too long.

Admitted charges

"Anyone who is no longer attentive to self-care in the various areas of life that keep us healthy risks risking the derailment of his body's rhythms, " Dr. Anna Paul, health scientist and one of the pioneers of mind-body medicine in Germany. The director of the Department of Order Therapy, Mind-Body Medicine and Integrative Oncology at the Clinic for Naturopathy and Integrative Medicine at the Essen-Mitte Clinic sees the consequences of this every day for her patients.

So that it does not even get that far, affected people should take countermeasures in time. The prerequisite for this, however, is that they admit to themselves that they are burdened with their burdens.

Dr. Anna Paul ist international anerkannte Spezialistin für Naturmedizin
Dr. Anna Paul is an internationally recognized specialist in natural medicine.
Photo: Dr. Anna Paul

For example, early warning signs of excessive stress are the lack of desire to exercise and the loss of social contacts. Even those who forget the food and only drink coffee or who constantly eats sweets and other unhealthy things, should be aware.

Important: identify and reduce stressors

Stimuli that cause stress are called stressors. Stress is not bad at first, because it can also have stimulating and positive sides - just about every bride complains about the stress of her wedding preparations. When talking about "stress levels", however, the negative stress is mentioned, because it makes you sick in the long term.

Constant fatigue, fatigue or irritability, sleep disorders, nervousness and tension can be stress symptoms. Before severe physical complaints arise, you should take countermeasures.

Negative stressors can come from the outside, like constant noise, high expectations of the boss or a huge amount of work. But they can also be self-made, such as an increased need for control or exaggerated perfectionism - this is common in women.

In general, women seem to be a bit more susceptible to stress because of the 30 percent of people who have a stress gene, 70 percent are women. But the gene alone does not say anything about whether someone gets sick due to stress.

More decisive are the individual behaviors in dealing with stress. These so-called coping strategies decide whether the stress gene is activated. Some people have a "thicker" skin from birth. They react calmly in stressful situations and stay healthy. Others need to learn how to deal with stress in order to stay healthy. There are ways and means, such as psychological support.

Perception training and more mindfulness

Under stress, the overview is usually lost. At the beginning of cognitive behavioral therapies therefore is usually a perceptual training to expose the individual stressors - what triggers the stress? How does my body react? When does the stress trap snap? Is the pressure coming from outside or am I doing it myself? In collaboration with the psychologist, inner attitudes and behavior patterns are checked and can then be changed.

If there is an excessive need to control the stressor number, you learn to delegate and ask for help. Victims of their own perfectionism learn that no one is perfect and that the five may sometimes be even. Anyone who always gets bogged down exercises priorities, "self-exploiters" learn to "say no".

In a stress management training, the focus is initially on the body to perceive its reactions under stress. Are the hands shaking? Does the sweat break out? Is the heart beating faster? Then relaxation techniques are trained to reduce this arousal and thus manage stress situations in a more relaxed manner in the future. The mindfulness training sharpens and trains the five senses, because when the person feels comfortable and enjoys, the body releases more stress reducing hormones. A regular physical balance is also part of stress management.

More peace for the mind: nature helps

In stressful situations one may also resort to the treasure chest of nature, which offers good alternatives to chemical medicines. Passion flower extract has long been used for nervous restlessness, inner tension and nervous drowsiness. In stressful situations such as before exams, before operations or even before air travel, he can calm the mind.

Der Extrakt der Passionsblume wirkt beruhigend.
The extract of passionflower has a calming effect.
Photo: iStock

Thanks to its rapid action, which occurs after only half an hour, and the good tolerability, the herbal drug is an alternative to chemical medicines: Although the mode of action of the passion flower is similar to that of benzodiazepines, there is no danger of dependence, so Passiflora incarnata is also used for long-term therapy.

In addition, since no interactions with other drugs are known, passion flower extract can be taken as a monotherapy or in combination with other medicinal plants.

Dr. Paul explains: "If you have great difficulty getting into relaxation, you can help yourself with a phytotherapeutic such as passion flower extract. This can reduce extreme restlessness and tension and thus help to dissolve the stimulus-reaction rigidity into which the body falls under great stress. This will make the organism better able to regulate itself. And those affected can actively promote this by regularly practicing relaxing measures. "

The relaxing measures do not have to be several hours a day or a weekend at the spa hotel. Usually small things are enough in everyday life. A few examples: Breathe in a conscious manner, look at a tree, a walking meditation, in which one breath connects with each step, the sole of the foot and the whole body feels. Important in everything is to be in the moment. Only those who cultivate can also be with themselves. And to meet stress calmly.

Self-care: Do not force yourself to persevere

"The hardest part is that everyone wants to succeed right away, " says Anna Paul. But those who have not taken care of themselves for a long time have to find out what would be good for them right now. "There is no recipe for all, " says the therapist from her experience. "Everyone has to experiment with different methods themselves. And depending on the phase of life or even the form of the day, the preferences can change. The most important thing to de-stress is intentionality. To have something is the biggest stressor. "

Instead, those who are threatened with daily life should allow themselves to take care of themselves and refuel again and again. Self-care instead of stamina is the best strategy to survive hectic times in a healthy and relaxed manner.

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