Stress

 

My last blog post concerned itself with the concept of weightless weight training and in it I mention food and sleep as foundational. I ought to have mentioned stress.

Stress

When a lion is chasing us or the office printer jams, many of us release a potent cocktail of hormones which breakdown the body to supply us with immediate fuel and some natural protective ‘circuits’ are over ridden. Thus the pregnant lady can overhead press a car that we about to crush her toddler. Well, something like that.

Repeated stress, repeats the above and over time we are effectively shutting down the very functions that keep us alive. Repeated stress ages us rapidly towards an early death.

Weight training and even my weightless weight training covered in last weeks blog post also count as stress. As does poor sleep and poor quality food, like what the American people eat.

Conquering stress

If you would like to age far slower then you must sensitise yourself to when you are feeling stressed. I am going to try and be kinder to other people. Particularly those I work with, which will be challenging. Very challenging. Probably impossible. However, in attempting to be kinder I am less likely to respond to them with anger. I am likely to find them less stress inducing. Well, practising being kind ought to be something we do anyway. Especially me.

I have noticed that my ‘focussed movements’ / physical training does produce an effect, a stressful like effect upon me. I have been acknowledging this and gently breathing through it. I am training myself not to have a flight or fight response to physical exertion and I am being successful.

My point is that there is a fine line between a stress response to a stimulus and a purely positive adaptive response. We need to identify which is which and increase the one and decrease the other as we see fit.

Perception

You cannot control all external events but you can have an effect on how you perceive them. I have conditioned my body / central nervous system to view my physical training as a stimulus to adaptation rather than a stress to temporarily overcome.

You might not have critically thought about that statement but imagine a pair of identical twins who are indeed identical. They both lead identical lives and train identically. One perceives the training as stressful and reacts accordingly to it. The other views the training as a pleasurable way to enjoy their own body. One ends up looking more like Woody Allen and the other starts to look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Please be aware of how your perception alters both your physical and mental state which are one and the same anyway.

Adaptive systems

We are all adaptive systems. No-one is able to actually understand how all our systems iperceivewith each other. Sensitise yourself to yourself, others and your environment and realise that you have a conscious system, an unconscious system and automated systems. All intertwined in ways beyond the comprehension of all. Go with your gut instincts and notice when you appear to be correct and when you are not. As you get more sensitive you can tend towards being right more often than wrong.

You are an adaptive system which has perfectly adapted to your environment and how you percieve that environment. With some critical thought you can determine if you wish to make changes and how to achieve those changes, all it takes is time and critical thought.

You take care