Managing MS Stressors - Good Stress & Bad Stress
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Managing MS Stressors - Good & Bad
You can listen to the audio, review the summary or read the transcript below.
Stress is a normal part of daily life. Persistent stress is not.
Getting up in the morning and getting out the door on time for an appointment can be stressful, yet it’s not a persistent stress. Once you are at the appointment, the stress of getting there dissipates.
Healthy stress can motivate you to get important tasks done.
The challenge is when you start to notice yourself constantly worrying or fearful about having the next relapse or setback this type of stress can become taxing on your body and nervous system. As women who live with MS, uncertainty can be a part of your life.
When it is persistent, this type of stress is categorized as bad stress. Often bad stress shifts to become anxiety.
How do you manage bad stress, so it dissipates rather than hangs on?
See full transcript below.
SUMMARY
Key Point #1 - There is both good stress and bad stress.
Key Point #2 - Persistent bad stress can turn into anxiety.
Key Point #3 - Bad stress impactions your body and your nervous system
Key Point #4 - Connect - Changing your state can help you become more resourceful.
Tip #5 - Calm - The MS Stress Release Process™ teaches stress releasing techniques and then guides you through how to apply them in your own life.
[Full transcript]
Managing MS Stressors
Stress is a normal part of daily life. Persistent stress is not.
Getting up in the morning and getting out the door on time for an appointment can be stressful, yet it’s not a persistent stress. Once you are at the appointment, the stress of getting there dissipates.
Healthy stress can motivate you to get important tasks done.
The challenge is when you start to notice yourself constantly worrying or fearful about having the next relapse or setback this type of stress can become taxing on your body and nervous system. As women who live with MS, uncertainty can be a part of your life.
When it is persistent, this type of stress is categorized as bad stress. Often bad stress shifts to become anxiety.
How do you manage bad stress, so it dissipates rather than hangs on?
The good news is it’s possible to release stress more quickly than you can imagine.
There are many effective easy to follow techniques you can use immediately within The MS Stress Release Process™ online course.
One example is changing your body temperature to give your body a reset.
When you feel stressed, try drinking a glass of water that is filled to the brim with ice. Or even pop an ice cube in your mouth. As you do this what do you notice? Where to your thoughts go as you feel the cold?
Conversely if you can manage a hot shower to change your body temperature, that’s another option.
Several weeks ago, I was preparing my home for a woman that would be living there while my partner and I lived in Greece.
Just six days before our flight, there was bad news. The refurbished refrigerator I ordered arrived. The old one was taken away. Five hours after it had been delivered, I plugged it in and it didn’t work. I waited for 12 hours to make sure there was a problem. At that point the store was closed for the weekend. The food had to be stored in a bin outside in the snow. Unfortunately, much of it was thrown away because it went bad.
Now it was Saturday morning, I literally when into a state of shock. Would I be able to get a replacement by Monday? What if the replacement fridge came on Wednesday, just before I was to catch my flight? On top of this, I had been pushing myself hard to get ready for this 70-day trip, so my energy was low. I was conscious of how that might activate my MS Symptoms.
I was already feeling more fatigued than I normally do.
My entire system started slowing down. I went into “freeze mode”. I would describe this as a state of shock. I felt powerless and hopeless.
I realized I could be floating around in this state of freeze for hours or even days if I didn’t make a shift.
I hopped into the shower right away. I put the water on hot mode, I stayed in for at least 10 minutes. Then, I turned the water to cold and jolted my body into another state.
These actions moved me from a state of freeze and foggy brain to feeling alert.
I then went out for a walk to get my body moving. The movement and being outside shifted my mind and body back into my normal everyday state. I was able to think clearly, feel calm and even content.
My situation regarding the fridge had not changed one bit. I had changed.
Having this shift allowed me to get clarity on what steps I could take next to solve the issues ahead. I recognized I didn’t have complete control over the outcome. Yet, I was still able to function calmly while assessing the options I had.
Hold tight and I’ll tell you the outcome of the fridge scenario in a moment.
This is why I created The MS Stress Release Process™ online course. So you can benefit from learning and apply these techniques in your own life. This is a self-paced online course in which I teach and guide you on how to move away from bad stress to a resourceful state.
When you are in a more resourceful state, you make better decisions. You have greater clarity and more confidence.
Get the course details here.
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I bet your wondering how the fridge scenario worked out?
It wasn’t until Tuesday evening at 5 pm that the company sent us an image of another fridge they would be able to deliver on Wednesday morning. As it turns out this refurbished fridge was much better than the one they had delivered in Friday. The concern was, would it work once it was plugged in?
At 11 am on Wednesday morning, just 3 hours before my partner and I were to head to the airport, the fridge was delivered. They guaranteed it would work. It was cold inside, so I could tell they had tested it. The only caveat was that it could not be plugged in for 6 hours.
I asked our neighbors on the top floor of our building to come down and turn it on at 5 pm and then check it before they went to bed to confirm it worked.
After the delivery men left, the fridge and freezer needed a good wipe down on the inside and out. The floors from the entrance of our home all the way down the hallway to the kitchen were covered with melted snow, dirt and tiny gravel rocks from when they move the new fridge in and took the broken one away.
You can imagine we had our hands full with these last-minute tasks. Even though the clock was ticking, we were successfully able to get this done and the trash out to the street before our taxi pulled up to take us to the airport.
While sitting in the cab, I felt my entire body relax.
Everything worked out. If I hadn’t been able to shift from that state of freeze to a more resourceful state, I can only imagine how ramped up my mental and physical state could have become and the consequences that might have resulted.
There was still stress there, yet I was able to manage myself through it because I had a strategy. I had clarity and moved into a state of hope and trust that it would work out somehow.
How resourceful do you feel when you experience bad stress?
What are the consequences for you when you go into a state of fight or flight, or even freeze, like I did?
Get the tools you need to release stress and continue to move your life forward by accessing The MS Stress Release Process™ online course.
