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Feeling stressed?
You are not alone.
Stress is something everyone feels at times and is your bodies physical response to mental or emotional pressures and life traumas.
When you’re stressed, your body goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode. When the threat passes, your body usually recovers, but if you’re continually stressed it can take longer to return to normal and leave you overwhelmed or unable to cope. Long term, this can affect our physical and mental health
When you feel stress, your body creates a hormone called cortisol which enters the bloodstream.
A tiny region at the brain's base, called the hypothalamus, sets off an alarm system in the body. An example of a perceived threat is a large dog barking at you during your morning walk. Through nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts the adrenal glands, found atop the kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.
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Adrenaline makes the heart beat faster, causes blood pressure to go up and gives you more energy. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugar, also called glucose, in the bloodstream, enhances the brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances in the body that repair tissues.
Cortisol also changes immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear.
The body's stress response system is usually self-limiting. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormones return to typical levels. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to typical levels. Other systems go back to their regular activities.
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But when stressors are always present and you always feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on.
The long-term activation of the stress response system and too much exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all the body's processes. This puts you at higher risk of many health problems, including:
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Anxiety.
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Depression.
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Digestive problems.
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Headaches.
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Muscle tension and pain.
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Heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke.
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Sleep problems.
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Weight gain.
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Problems with memory and focus.
What happens to my body when I am stressed?
How does Reflexology help with stress
Reflexology uses pressure massage which stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system also known as the ‘rest and digest’ part of our nervous system. The Parasympathetic nervous system causes the heart to beat at its resting rate, reduces blood pressure to its normal level, facilitates normal immune, reproductive and digestive system activities.
The special tecnique used by reflexologists unblocks nerve endings in the feet, rebalances the lympathtic and endocrine system and boosts the circulation. In this way, reflexology induces a state of calm throughout your body and mind, leaving you feeling less stressed and anxious.
By helping the body to achieve its own level of homeostasis, the body is more able to deal psychologically, physically and emotionally with life’s daily challenges. It can leave you feeling calm and content.
The very act of touch on another human being can have a very profound effect on us. We communicate all manner of emotions with touch. Touch helps to bond us socially, it is comforting, reassuring and helps to ground us.