Ditching the Stress - The Most Effective Treatment of Them All

Undeniably, stress is a killer. 

It's my firm prediction that future generations will consider stress as damaging as alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction. 

Stress is the #1 root cause of this entire syndrome: every symptom, every condition within the syndrome follows from an overload of stress.

As a result, there is no better treatment whatsoever than the significant and life-changing benefits which can be gained from ditching the stress in your life. If it takes drastic action to make these changes, make a plan, get the changes done and look back 6 months later and realise what a formidable difference it makes. 

Mark Sissons talks about this in his book The Primal Connection, but I can't restate strongly enough how much dropping your stress changes the game, allows you space to reassess your priorities and allows your body the space it needs to recover and get well. 

Stress touches every aspect of our lives - both physical and physiological. Unchecked, we can exist every moment of every day in a state of heightened stress, and it's this which causes the damage. 

Here's a few strategies to start to redress the balance:

Physical Stress: 

Cut out behaviours which put the body under lengthy, unrelenting stress: 

• - cut down on alcohol
• - give up smoking
• - look at the amount of significant cardio you do and reduce it if necessary
• - evaluate your eating plan and ensure your body is getting the fuel it needs to function properly - for a lot of ladies this means increasing calorie intake
• - once you've evaluated your eating plan, take it one stage further: make sure you're getting "the good stuff" the foodstuffs which give you the biggest return nutritionally (see my eating plan, but in short go for significant quantities of fresh vegetables, high quality protein and natural fats)

Physiological Stress:

• - Got something on your mind? Deal with it! Get it over with, move forward.
• - Get your finances in order: I really mean get your finances in order, debt is a massive contributor to stress, it's just not worth it. 
• - Get rid of the things in your life which bring you down: a messy home, the garden needs mowing, all these are simple to solve and once done, you don't have to look at them anymore
• - Commute too long and too arduous? Change it. If that means asking the boss if you can work from home, taking a pay cut or changing jobs, that's fine, get it done. 
• - Get rid of toxic friends: you know the person who sucks the energy out of you from the moment they walk through the door? get away from them. We call them energy leeches. If someone is a "drama" person, always arguing, always causing a crisis, either help them to change or walk away. 
• - Bad relationship? Ditch it and move on. I promise there will be someone far better in the future, and maybe the experience of moving on and possibly being on your own for a while may well be a positive all of its own. Bad relationships are the reasons people look back at wasted lives. We are here for too long to stick in a bad situation forever and for too short a time to wait another day 
• - Overstretched and over-committed? Rationalise. You can't help anyone if you're dead or in a mental institution because you tried to take on the worries of the entire community. Pick activities which make you happy and enjoy them because you have time to do them properly. 
• - Sitting on the sofa watching Corrie thinking: "is this all there is?" get out of your chair and go and do something - follow a dream, visit a new place, take on a charity challenge. The options are endless but nothing was ever accomplished by sitting on the sidelines. 
• - Cut your exposure to 24hr news: the constant bombardment of bad news (especially bad news that we can't do anything about) causes malaise. Hearing about the same tragedy over and over again does nothing to help the victims. Update yourself a couple of times a day to catch up if you need to. 
• - Know your own worth. If you forever think that you're not worthy, you'll never be able to fully appreciate the investment - it's life limiting and genuinely a waste of time. 

This all sounds tough, because it is tough. I never said any of this was easy but I can absolutely tell you that I wish I'd said this to my 20-year-old self. There is no greater gift you can give yourself than to get away from the things that make you ill, and a happy, fulfilled you will make your family happy too. 

If it feels like a lot to do all in one go, make a plan and pick off actions over a period of time: if it takes a year or more, don't worry, simply knowing that you are heading in the right direction will start to change your mindset. Much better to take a gradual approach than to do nothing!