“If you win the rat race, you are still a rat.”
We are conditioned to strive to win the rat race and to keep
up with the Joneses. These are the
ideals that have shown society that we have “made it”. However, we have to ask ourselves one
not-so-simple question: at what cost?
When we push our bodies and minds to the breaking point,
when we focus only on success, we tend to forget what is really important—our
health and mental well-being. When we
are under constant stress, we end up unhappy and overweight.
What happens when we allow ourselves to continually be under
stress to perform? Physiologically, we
destroy our ability for the parasympathetic system to relax and we short-change
our body’s ability to “recharge the batteries” and repair any damage done
during the day. The simple truth is if we are stressing out ourselves over
being “top dog” all the time, we lose.
We lose our hairline; we lose our waistline; we lose our health.
Since I primarily work with stress-out people who are
looking to trim the waistline, let us focus on how the stress of running the
rat race affects your body’s ability to burn fat. Our body produces cortisol when it is under
stress. Constant stress blocks leptin
production. Between the increase in
cortisol levels and decrease in leptin levels, we now crave fat and
carbohydrates. This chemical imbalance
makes it to where our bodies will not release the fat, and we will store a
great deal of the fat around the abdomen.
Hans Selye describes three different stages of stress. First, is the alarm stage. This initial stage of stress is commonly
called the “fight or flight” stage. The
body releases epinephrine and cortisol to give our bodies a quick boost of
energy to get away from the thing that set off our alarm system.
But what happens when that thing that caused the alarm is
not a thing, but a constant stressor in our lives (think work, anxiety,
etc.)? Then, we start moving into the
resistance stage. Our bodies are on a
lower level of alertness; however, we are still producing too much cortisol and
our blood glucose levels remain high.
Our sleep patterns are disrupted.
Our eating habits start to shift.
If we do not address that which is stressing us, we will
move into the exhaustion stage. In this
stage, our bodies are overloaded and our hormone levels are very much out of
whack; we have exhausted our body’s resources.
This is the time when we are at the greatest risk for disease and
obesity.
You must deal with your stress if your health and well being
are your top goals. There are many ways
of reducing stress; however, you must first figure out what is causing the
stress. This can be done through tapping
(a deceptively simple method of working your meridian lines), meditation,
journaling, or talking with a friend or professional—you need to decide what
method, or methods, works for you and take the few minutes a day to decode your
stressors.
Once you have figured out what is causing your stress, it is
time to take action. Perhaps it is a
matter of taking a walk to clear your mind after work. Perhaps you need to MELT or tap for a few
minutes every morning. Whatever coping
skill you choose, the point is to take time to sit back and enjoy yourself
sometimes. You deserve to get to know
you.
Once you take the time to relax and breathe, you will notice
a wonderful thing happening. You will no
longer worry about the stuff, and you will begin to focus on carving out time
to spend with the important people in your life—your self included.
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