Special Offers!

Arguably, everyone in the whole world is under stress of some kind or another. This may be the voluntarily type which people who regularly exercise or negative stress that comes from, for example, sitting in an open plan office with a dozen phones ringing at once.
The kinds of stress and degrees of it are manifold, and so therefore are the essential oils you can use to help alleviate them.
But what is the difference between positive stress, normal stress, and distress?
Positive stress is the excited tension you experience when you are performing your job fast and efficiently, it is the 'high' which we get when we are enjoy our work and accomplishing something. Positive stress makes us aim a bit higher, take everything life throws at us with a flying leap and bound, our creativity and energy levels are high.
Normal stress is the state which the body performs functions in an 'animal/ what it was designed for' manner. The example of a car accident is one of the best here- chemical levels change, the body is flooded with adrenaline and in that second, everything goes into slow motion thus enabling us to make choices to survive the situation. We get shaky, our hearing and sight become acute, we may feel sick, we go onto 'autopilot' In the event of a bad accident pain is not felt and people can walk out of the car and make a call with the most horrendous gashes to their body or broken limbs. I know a man, who 22 years ago, hopped across a large field carrying his leg of it (yes you are reading this right) after entangling it in farm machinery. He has a very limited recollection of the events, remembers no little pain but managed a 15 min journey to get help (he lost his leg but has a prosthesis now).
Distress is the state when healthy stress becomes chronic; this results as a negative impact on the body. Resulting in no energy, no will and an ever increasing pressure of the load- this is where essential oils are needed.
If we believe in the physiological and psychological unity in the body (that the mind and the body have a strong link (see Spring newsletter stress continued), then surely to take care of one is to take care of the other.
If we break stress down into environmental, chemical, physical, mental and emotional you can decide 'what' is your normal day-to day routine may be causing you stress (which you may consider yourself as not suffering from!)

Environmental stress
This is caused by bright lights over your desk, noise of machinery, constant ringing of phones, cramped working space, daily tube, bus or train commute.

Chemical stress
This can be caused by caffeine, alcohol, prescribes medication, recreational drugs, tobacco, inhaling substances at the workplace, or pollution at work.

Physical stress
This is caused by pushing your body to the limits, working out at the gym, driving long distances.

Mental stress
Exams, financial worries, unemployment, uncompleted work.

Emotional stress
Relationship problems, grief, parental guilt.
(refer to spring newsletter for the effects of stress on the body)

All of the above are incredibly damaging to the body, have you experienced the situation whereby you are increasingly stressed and you forget names or use the wrong words, you feel your brain is scrambled? (I have!!) This is caused by the stress hormones being raised over a length of time and they damage the connections between the brain cells which affects brain function. On a postivie note if you stop the stress they do grow back! Long term stress makes the whole body more acid, this is the perfect environment for rogue cells to turn to cancer. I recall a consultant telling me when I was 26 years old (having just been diagnosed with cancer) that I had caused the cancer myself ]and must 'turn' my body more alkaline!
But there ARE ways to reduce the negative impacts of stress on your body which can help you to remain healthy. These can be broken down into foods, remedies and general (some slightly bizarre) ideas- so here goes.....