Studies show that 80% of doctor’s visits are caused by stress.

Stress is responsable for health problems like anxiety, allergic skin reactions, high blood pressure, infection diseases, such as colds or herpes, ulcers, insomnia and resulting fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, gum disease,  headaches, heart problems, such as angina (chest pains), arrhythmias, heart attack, and palpitations (pounding heart)... and I could go on.

I think by now this is all commun sense. But as few as 3% of doctors actually talk to patients about how to reduce stress.

And stress is not only making us sick, but also sad (and.. a little bit stupid).

Getting stressed is not bad, but staying stressed is toxic. And it’s going epidemic.

Stress is an unavoidable part of life. But learning to manage it successfully can do much to improve your mental and physical health.

That’s why it helps to understand how our body reacts to stressful situations, and why the fight-or-flight response (which can be life saving in the case of an immediate physical threat) is so important when stress becomes chronic.

What exactly is stress? We all have stress in our lives. But whether the  particular  stressor  you’re  confronting  is  traffic or a car crash,  a  loud  argument,  or  the  ache  of  arthritis, each potential or actual threat triggers a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes.

You know these sensations well. Your heart pounds. Muscles tense. Breathing quickens, and sweat appear. But although the physical effects may seem simple, these reactions — collectively called the "fight or flight" response — require an intricate coordination of many different body systems.

The stress response  Our response to threats begins in the brain, which receives and processes information — perhaps the sight of unfinished work, or a car crash. Instantly, a signal from the motor cortex in the brain speeds down nerve pathways to muscles, which tense and tighten, preparing  for trouble. Another signal comes from the hypothalamus, it relays the warning to the nearby pituitary gland, which sends a chemical messenger via the bloodstream to the adrenal glands. In response, the adrenal glands secrete a series of stress hormones, including epinephrine, better known as adrenaline ("adrenaline rush") .

Simultaneously, the hypothalamus fires up the autonomic nervous system. This network of nerves relays the warning down through the spinal cord and from there to nerves throughout the body. In response, nerve endings in organs, blood vessels, the skin, and even sweat glands release epinephrine and norepinephrine.

This tandem surge of hormones primes your body to react to the imminent threat. In the case of an immediate physical danger, such as the sudden appearance of a prowling wild animal or an armed enemy, you respond by either preparing to stand your ground and fight, or else fleeing to safety. Either way, you need to gear up for action, which is precisely what stress hormones enable you to do.

Your breath quickens as your body takes in extra oxygen to help fuel your muscles. Likewise, energyboosting glucose and fats are released from storage sites into your bloodstream. Sharpened senses, such as sight and hearing, make you more alert.

Your heart pounds — beating up to two to three times as quickly as normal — and your blood pressure rises. Certain blood vessels constrict, which helps direct blood flow to your muscles and brain and away from your skin and other organs.

Blood cells called platelets become stickier, so clots can form more easily to minimize bleeding from potential injuries. Immune system activity picks up. Your muscles — even the tiny hair-raising muscles beneath your skin — tighten, preparing you to spring into action.

Body systems not needed for the immediate emergency are suppressed in order to focus energy where it’s  needed.  The  stomach  and  intestines  cease  operations.  Sexual  arousal  lessens.  Repair  and  growth  of   body tissues slows.

The autonomic nervous system is divided into two parts with opposite effects. The sympathetic nervous system revs up the body in response to perceived dangers, as described above. Its counterpart, the parasympathetic nervous system, calms the body after the danger has passed.

In this situation, the stress response kicks in sooner or more frequently than normal, increasing the burden your body must handle.

Maladaptive stress responses can lead to worrisome health problems. A prime example of this is high blood pressure, or hypertension, which is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. Another is suppression of the immune system, which increases susceptibility to colds and other common illnesses.

Well,studies and research shows that mind-body relaxation programs, like MBSR*, might keep the doctor away.

Mindfulness mind-body practices have  been  shown  to  reduce  your  body’s  stress  response by strengthening  your relaxation response and lowering stress hormones like cortisol.

Skeptics have long believed that meditation and other stress reduction techniques are nice but ineffectual practices that do little for you. Nothing could be further from the truth — and now we have the science to prove it.

Meditation is one of the most (proven) powerful stress relieving tool. Here how it works:

Insomnia: 50% of adults suffer from insomnia a few nights a week. Meditation helpson relaxing the body and mind and restfulness. Meditation helps lower the heart rate by igniting the parasympathetic system and evoques the relaxation response (the opposite of the stress response)

Depression, anxiety:  It continues to increase the use of medication for anxiety and/or depression. JAMA Internal Medicine found that meditation helps effectively heal depression and anxiety by flooding the brain with dopamine & serotonin.

Aging: Meditation is proven to actually reverse your body age (how old the body acts and feels).

Productivity: When the body is in “fight or flight” mode, mental capacity decreases. Meditation reduces stress and allows you to be more productive and focused.

Better sex: Too much cortisol prevents female orgasm. Too much adrenaline prevents male erection.

Migranes: Meditation can help relieve the intensity, frequency and duration of migraines.

By reducing the stress levels in our body, we are be able to sleep better, to have more energy, to have better focus, attention and memory, less anxiety and improved immune function. This is the primary effect, it will make you healthier and happier.

But you will also have a secundary effect, it will make you bettter at life. Because In addition to the countless physical benefits of mindfulness and meditation, this practice will fundamentally change the way you approach challenges and demands in your daily life:

The quality of your relationships gets better: enhance your emotional intelligence by enhancing levels of closeness and acceptance.

Improves work skills: Improves cognition, energy, and emotional stability, better leadership, creative problem-solving, better entrepreneurial and negotiation skills, better communication, enhances creativity, imagination, intuition and insight.

Look and feel younger and live longer.

This happens because meditation changes the brain. Neuroplasticity  is the brain’s ability to adapt. Meditation  increases the grey matter in the brain and long-term practice resulted in growth in brain regions associated with sustained attention, self-control, compassion and bodily awareness.

"Between stimulus and response there's a space, in that space lies our power to choose our response, in our response lies our growth and our freedom." Viktor Frankl

In other words, there's a moment of choice before we react to stress and pain in life. However, for most of us, we're unaware of this space "between stimulus and response" because we get caught in habitual patterns of reacting to life. And this is where stress can get us.

Programs like MBSR* helps us become more aware of these habitual reactions and helps us relate to ourselves in a new way to interrupt this cycle and create more choice in life.

Helping you become healthier, happier and smarter!

* Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 8 week program. MBSR is a life-affirming course in conscious living. Developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBSR uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, yoga and exploration of patterns of behaviour, thinking, feeling and action.