I often find myself getting confused between 'Gut Instinct' and 'Instinct'. It took me a good number of years to understand the difference between the two and how they can direct or mislead us, if taken in the wrong way. I then understood the ways in which our bodies understand stress way before our minds and hearts do.
There's a very strong (yet unnoticed) relationship between our minds, hearts and bodies. We were taught that our minds and hearts are always at war with each other. We are also taught that our bodies react after our brains tell them what to do. But I think the relationship is a little different than what we are aware of. Our minds and hearts are pretty much in sync - we just don't know how to read the cues. Our bodies know danger and stress way before and better than the mind does.
There's a saying that dogs can predict seizures of their owners, before the owners do. That's the reason they are called 'Service dogs'. I feel it's the same way with our bodies. Before our minds give up and call it 'burnout', our bodies give out subtle signals.
These signals then become real loud and disturbing, before even the body physically stops functioning the normal way.
So what are the ways in which our bodies talk to us about stress? And if ignored, how do they store the stress? Let's take it from the top.
Our brain: Headaches, fogginess, memory loss and zoning out:
It starts in the head usually. The constant headaches near our forehead are the first and foremost areas where stress is usually stored and is also built up. I feel this could be because of all the overthinking and imagining scenarios that probably wouldn't happen ever. And because of all the overthinking, there's a huge chance that your brain is not registering data and information like it should, which is why there's zoning out and fogginess in our head. Insomnia is also one of the many end-products of having stress being cluttered in our brain.
The clenching of the jaw:
The jaw clenching, as I see it, is the area where the stress builds up from not speaking up for ourselves for long enough. It builds up because we have chosen to not speak up when we should have, for over a prolonged time. If we keep choosing to stay mum for long enough, the jaws would keep clenching and tightening themselves up - my theory!
The shoulder and neck pain:
It starts with the subtle pain in the back of our necks, the shoulders and the blades. It starts there because I feel it's where you carry all that burden and weight of your thoughts - the shoulders. It's not even the kind of pain where we just massage it, and it goes away. You can feel the tension being built in, and you can also feel the tension pushing the shoulders down, thus making them droop.
The uneasiness in your heartbeats:
There's usually uneasiness in our heart rates if we are too anxious. But if we are always in a fight or flight mode, the chances of our heartbeat to beat out of rhythm would be higher. If you are a chronic overthinker and someone who has been worrying about things for a long period of time, your heartbeat would weaken if proper measures are not taken to curb the anxiety and stress. That's also where stress accumulates over time, stores and then explodes.
Unsettling and unpredictable gut:
If you have been anxious about something or the other for over a period of time now, there's a huge chance that your gut health is not at its best. Sometimes, it could also be vice versa that your anxiety is being triggered because of improper gut health. I read on the internet a while back that gut health usually defines how you think, how you behave and also how you look. So it's more of a paradoxical problem - if you have been neglecting the amount of stress you have been taking, you wouldn't notice how your gut might have changed over time now. If there's a constant (or more often) burning sensation in your stomach, you gag a lot and there are really bad acid refluxes, it's high time you take your stress levels under control.
The sexual health:
The 'performance pressure' is a thing! And it is even more a thing if you have been accumulating stress in your body. This one aspect of your life would take a massive hit. Single or not, you would notice issues with your menstrual cycles, libido and also your overall sexual health. Take this as a cue if your interests have toned way down in the recent times.
Muscle tensions:
Muscle tensions are again the biggest and the loudest of signs that you are running into stress and accumulating them in your body. It is ideally the FIRST place where all that stress starts getting stored in. If you feel muscle cramps, tension and tired muscle growth; you are most likely just storing stress in there!
The relationship between our body and our mind is sacred, to begin with. They work hand in hand most of the times. But when our minds miss out on listening to our bodies, the bodies start sending signals first. When the signals too are missed, they wouldn't know what else to do but to start storing all the stress in our bodies. That's when the problem starts, and unfortunately for most of us - we ignore the signs for far too long.
Image: Stress.org
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