Ancient Wisdom for Stress Management

Modern medical science now understand that unmanaged negative stress is at the root of several devastating and often avoidable health challenges.  The ancient wisdom teachings of yoga and ayurveda offer profound practices and therapies to better manage stress and mitigate its negative effects on our well-being.

Seven significant health challenges that have their roots in unmanaged stress.

1. Heart disease

High stress is associated with increase heart rates and blood flow that increases the release of triglycerides into the blood stream.  This collection of increased cholesterol in the blood leads to plaque buildup that narrows the vessels leading to increase blood pressure.  Unchecked emotional stress can be a significant trigger for advancing cardiac problems including heart attacks and strokes.

2. Obesity

Dwelling in chronic stress, causes a person’s whole system to be bathed in stress hormones such as cortisol.  Too much cortisol in the system disrupts the body’s ability to digest and assimilate food well.  Rather than building healthy tissues and organs, the body then stores the nutrition as fat and in particular, belly fat.

3. Diabetes

As stated above under the obesity category, with chronic stress, and increased stress hormone, cortisol, the body’s digestive ability is decreased, including the function of the pancreas and insulin to deliver glucose from the blood into the tissues and organs.  This leads to increases in blood sugar that can eventually lead to diabetes.  As well, stress eating of unhealing simple carbohydrates, poor nutrition, high calories foods further exacerbates the problem of diabetes.

4. Headaches

Chronic stress is one of the most common triggers for headaches and migraines.

5. Depression

Mental health studies have shown that those who dwell in chronic states of stress evolve into anxiety issues and panic attacks.  When the stress is unrelenting and the system doesn’t have the means to disengage from the anxiety, the nervous system dysregulates and eventually becomes so overwhelmed that is devolves into depression.

6. Digestive problems

It is common medical knowledge that stress keeps a person’s autonomic nervous system in “Sympathetic” (fight, flight, or freeze) rather that “Parasympathetic” (rest, restore, repose).  A person who constantly dwells in their “Sympathetic” mode will have decreased digestive function.  This will lead to issues of obesity, increased blood glucose levels, leading to diabetes, and unhealthy body tissues and organs as the nutrition is shunted into fat stores.  Chronic stress has also been linked to many other digestive diseases such as constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, pain, heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), diverticulitis, IBS, and more…

7. Accelerated Aging

There was a significant study of the effects of stress on mothers who were under chronic stress from the care of a chronically ill child.  The study concluded that the mother’s with chronic stress showed chromosomal aging that accelerated by between 9 to 17 additional years.

Now that we have identified some of the health problems that can arise from living with chronic stress, there is some good news!  The ancient wisdom teachings of yoga and ayurveda offer time tested solutions, practices, herbal medicines, and body therapies to support people in improved stress management.  With properly managed stress, you can avoid developing the above list of chronic illnesses and diseases.

Seven significant yoga and ayurvedic techniques and practices to help manage stress.

1. Breathing

One of the 8 limbs of the Ashtanga Yoga Path is dedicated to the refinement of breathing (pranayama).  The term itself translates to expansion and extension of the life force energy.  The simple act of deepening and slowing the breath shifts the nervous system from Sympathetic (fight or flight) to Parasympathetic (rest and restore).

2. Yoga Asana

The physical postures of yoga release tension from the body that builds up from chronic stress.  Thus leaves the body feeling less pain and more energized.

3. Meditation/Contemplation

Making time regularly if not daily to sit in quiet stillness is one the best ways to decrease stress from the body/mind.  Contemplation on life’s experiences helps to the mind to integrate our experiences and learn life’s lessons.  A life of constant going, going, going without stopping for reflections, causes unintegrated life experiences to keep the mind agitated and churning in attempts to come to some understanding.  This churning keeps the nervous system locked into the sympathetic mode.

4. Align life’s actions with nature – Go with the Flow

Ayurveda sees the 24-hour cycle of the day through the lens of the Dosha’s (Vata, Pitta, Kapha - groupings of the 5 elements of life earth, water, fire, air, space).  Each of the doshas has particular elemental forces and specific suggestions for actions to take while influenced by the nature of those particular elements.  When we align our actions to the flow of these elemental forces, we go with the flow rather that create friction (stress) by going against the flow.

5. Improve Agni (Digestive Fire)

Ayurveda has many tips and trick, foods and herbal support to improve the body’s ability to digest our food better.  When we improve our digestive fire, we build healthy tissues and organs, and decrease metabolic stress.  One of the simplest things we can do is to avoid consuming cold or iced foods and or drinks.  Try this simple trick for a week or two and see how it makes you feel.

6. Receive and Ayurvedic Oil Massage (Abhyanga)

This form of traditional ayurvedic bodywork is one of this system’s premier antidotes to stress.  The body is gently massaged with Dosha (constitutional) specific warm herbal oil.  The rhythmic strokes combined with the warm oil shifts the nervous system from sympathetic to parasympathetic and leaves a person feeling deeply relaxed and nourished.

7. Receive and Ayurvedic Shirodhara (Warm Oil Pouring over the head)

This traditional ayurvedic body therapy is the number one treatment for an over stressed nervous system.  Warm herbal infused oil is slowly poured over the forehead and head for the duration of approximately 30 to 40 minutes.  The sensation of the oil pouring is deeply soothing and relaxing while nourishing the head, brain and nervous system with the warm oil.  People drop into a deep state of relaxation and often fall into a restful sleep during the treatment and awaken at the end feeling calm, and centered.

As you can see there are many and varied ways to help manage your stress and avoid developing chronic disease from your unmanaged stress.  We are here to help. 

If any of these practices or treatments intrigue you, please call our office today and schedule a session with Suzanne Silvermoon for Yoga Therapy, Ayurvedic Consultation or Ayurvedic Bodywork today. (253) 447-6667