All of us experience stress in our daily lives. You are not alone. You will never be able to eliminate stress from your life. The difficulty lies in stress management - that is, to find a way to calm your body back to a place of safety and health.
Let’s first examine what you think of when you hear the word “stress”. There are many examples of stressors in life. Most of us experience stress when faced with life changes. Stress may be associated with the way you react to a new and challenging situation. Or, stress may be the simple and unexplained sense of anxiety we feel on a “bad” day. Our mission with ichoiceRelax is to help you learn effective stress management techniques so that you remain healthy or regain your health. Let ichoiceRelax help guide you on your journey to your best personal calmer self.
Any stress response (positive or negative) prepares your body to meet challenges or changes in daily life. Some stress is productive. Positive stress helps us focus, perform, and reach peak efficiency. It is the negative stress that can cause illness. Negative stress is associated with ailments ranging from tension headaches to life threatening heart attacks. During any stressful situation, your heart begins to beat fast, your muscles tense, and your breathing rate increases. The adrenal glands secrete adrenaline into your body. Your blood sugar goes up.
These physical reactions are caused by the simple “fight or flight” response that is triggered by the sympathetic nervous system. To fight or flee, your muscles and brain require more oxygen and sugar for energy. Your heart accommodates these needs by speeding up and pumping more oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, brain, and the heart. Your blood must remove increased carbon dioxide and metabolic waste, so you breathe faster to increase oxygen intake and remove carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, these bodily changes may occur during normal daily activities such as sitting in traffic, overcharging a credit card, running late for a business meeting, or fighting with your family.
When you continuously experience stress that activates your sympathetic nervous system, your blood pressure will continue to increase, sugar levels will go up, muscles will constantly ache, and you may find it hard to fall asleep. The countermeasure to this is to activate your parasympathetic nervous system to bring your body back down to a relaxed state. This is called the “Relaxation Response”. Your heart rate and blood pressure will decrease, your adrenal glands will stop secreting adrenaline and cortisol hormones, your blood sugar will decrease and you will feel less stressed and anxious. When you are calm, you conserve energy, and you are able to heal your body. You also sleep better and perform better during daily activities.
It is essential to recognize the harmful long-term effects of unregulated chronic stress. With ichoiceRelax, you can learn how to manage your stress and invoke the Relaxation Response. IchoiceRelax will provide the feedback necessary to help you learn and regulate your personal reaction to stress and be calm. ichoiceRelax measures your stress level and guides you to breathe at your Personal Best Relaxation Breathing Rate to increase the strength of your calming parasympathetic nervous system. Focus on your breath and be mindful of the moment. Relaxation is enhanced with tranquil scenes and music, guided meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation.
Practice 20 minutes per day to achieve optimal results.
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