16/06/2021
The Pain/Stress Connection
One of the biggest causes of pain in todayโs world is stress. Overloading the bodyโs system with a constant barrage of overwork, overtime, strenuous work, constant worry, too much time spent in front of computers, too much time without exercise, too much eating, too much inactivity โ they all contribute to the stress load. Just as important as the source of stress, however, is how your body reacts to it. Everyone reacts differently, but the result is the same. People clench their jaws. They gird themselves against more stress by hunching their shoulders together or forward, as if protecting themselves from more harm. They rum
their fingers or jiggle their legs nervously, for hours at a time. They squint or cringe constantly. They hold things inside. Their stomachs are constantly upset, racked by digestive problems or chronic irritability. They get stress headaches or have trouble breathing normally and freely. Confronted with negative stress, the bodyโs connective tissues tighten and shorten. Regardless of your personal reaction, the results are predictable. First, youโll feel tense. Certain parts of your body will start to ache. Youโll have
headaches, tightness, and then localized pain will start. A sometimes-achy shoulder will become a daily problem. A tender wrist will start to hurt all the time and feel numb or buzzy at night. Pain in one part of the hand, for example, will spread to the wrist and then the elbow, or it will create an arthritic feeling in the fingers. Over time, you wonโt sleep at night. Each body reacts and responds differently, but itโs all stress. Over time, it localizes and spreads out, and makes you feel less than you used to feel.
But when you begin to identify how you react to stress, you can start to do something about it, and stretching is one of the powerful ways to get looseness back into your tissues and your body. Regular stretching will counteract regular stress. Itโs quite possible you can never eliminate the source of the stress, but thereโs a LOT you can do to help your body control how it responds to stress.