You Constantly Get Sick
If you are constantly catching every cold, virus, and flu that goes around your work or from your kids, it’s often because your immune system is weakened and not up to the task of fighting off illnesses. The immune system can be weakened by a number of factors – unhealthy diet, poor exercise routine, and also high on the list is stress. When your body isn’t handling and processing stress in an appropriate way – we get stuck in a stress response, also known as the fight or flight response. When you’re stuck in this stress response, it weakens the immune system. Everyone catches the occasional cold, but a sign of a weakened immune system is when you catch everything going around, and it takes you forever to get over it – you spend the next month hacking up a lung before you catch the next thing going around. This is a huge sign your overall physical and mental well-being may be suffering.
You’re Always Tired
There may be plenty of reasons why you’re constantly tired. Maybe you have a schedule that doesn’t allow you to get 7-8 hours of sleep per night, you may have trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, or a racing mind and anxiety that’s preventing you from falling asleep. No matter the reason, it’s still a significant problem that needs to be addressed. The long-term effects of chronic sleep deprivation include heart problems, depression, memory issues, impaired judgement, and lowered immune system function.
A major cause to fatigue and trouble sleeping can be again, your body is stuck in this chronic stress response state. Think of it as a pendulum that swings so far over to the stress response – the other side is completely absent – the part responsible for sleep, digestion, healing, growth & repair. These things suffer when your body is chronically stressed.
You Feel Anxious, Irritable, or On Edge
Now, we’re all human. We have moments where we feel angry, frustrated, or on the verge of tears. But if you constantly feel irritable and anxious, it could be a sign that your body is burnt out. It has been stuck in a chronic state of stress, which activates your body’s stress response – leaving you feeling anxious, more reactive in nature, and irritable. If you find yourself constantly getting angry or upset over things you know are irrational, it’s time to take a closer look at how you’re taking care of yourself and how your body is handling stress. And also (yes, I’m going there) are those relationships in your life healthy? Are there those people in your life that always bring you down or always cause drama? Cut them out! Those toxic relationships just add to the stress and the harmful physical effects of it on your body.
Why are we talking about this? Because that’s the main thing we focus on in the office – how is your body, and more specifically – you nervous system handling stress?
It’s an automatic response for the fight or flight or stress response to get activated when exposed to physical or even emotional stress. (yes, you read that right – the same physical response to stress happens whether you slam on your brakes in traffic or if you’ve had a bad day at work) But when those events end, our body should come out of the stress response and return to balance.
Does it feel like your body is always stuck in this gas pedal, go-go-go mode all the time? This and the above signals are signs that your body, and more specifically – your nervous system isn’t handling stress well.
If this sounds like something you, or a friend or family member is experiencing – please click here and reach out to us. We’d love to chat and perform our initial testing so you know exactly how your body, and more specifically – your nervous system is handling stress.
