Modern day life is more stressful than ever. When people fondly reminisce about the good old days of decades ago, they often refer to how simple life was. For example, it was far more likely that people would drop by your house for a long overdue visit when they hadn’t seen you in a while or take the time to actually call you or write handwritten letter to connect. In addition, during generations far before that, people were a lot more active than they used to be, which allowed them to have the perfect outlet for relieving physical stress as well as emotional stress. Nowadays, however, all of that has changed.
In today’s modern times, people are experiencing higher levels of physical, emotional, and mental stress more than ever for a variety of reasons. All of this stress can not impact a person’s physical body, but can also have adverse effects on their mental experience and emotional stability. Have you ever noticed how you may feel more irritable at more times than others, especially when rushing on your commute and dealing with the stress of your job? These are just a few examples of things can have a negative impact on your physical, emotional, and mental well being, but you will be shocked to know there’s many more.
For example, did you know the people you surround yourself with can prevent you from relieving your physical stress, especially if they are constantly negative? This can leave you feeling tired, drained, and annoyed. Often times, people have difficulty identifying toxic relationships until the damage is already done. They may feel as though something is amiss, and may even feel their stress levels increase, but are unsure as to the reason why. Therefore, it’s important to take notice how you feel and how your body reacts to being around certain people, even people you feel are close friends and family members. These relationships could still be toxic!
In addition, it’s important to eat a diet rich in whole, organic foods. Why? Because you are what you eat, a fact that modern medicine seems to continually and conveniently forget. Eating with the seasons was an important part of staying healthy for many ancient cultures, especially in many ancient ayurvedic body rituals. Eating an organic, plant-based diet free of harsh chemical pesticides, preservatives, and additives is great for personal health and wellness because it helps in detoxifying both the body and the mind.
In Buddhism, it is believed that meat holds emotions of anger and fear of the animal that was slaughtered, which is why Buddhists avoid eating it. Though many people found this idea silly, science has only recently begun to confirm it’s truth. When an animal endures the horrible stress of slaughter, its brain release a series of stress hormones that are still present in the meat when you eat it. As such, it’s easy to see how eating large amounts of meat could be counterproductive to relieving physical stress.
Another simple and easy way of relieving physical stress is to increase your amount of physical exercise while decreasing the amount of time you spend using electronic devices such as computers, smart phones, tablets, and even television sets. These devices can have adverse effects on the brain waves and hormones that induce sleep. In fact, many people choose not to even have a television in their bedroom! This is a common practice in the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui, which can also be a great of way relieving physical stress!
Physical activities such as light exercise and even sex are highly effective and pleasurable ways of relieving physical stress almost instantaneously. Physical exercises such as dancing, yoga, jogging, and even sex release hormones in your brain that make you feel good and relieve pain, with the most common being endorphins. In addition, physical activities can help you maintain a healthy weight, while also giving your heart and lungs a workout of their own. This helps to reduce your chances of heart and lung disease while also improving circulation.