Move Your Body, Calm Your Mind By Shannon Osborne


“ I really regret working out today.” - No one.


T


here is a collective thread of life ex- perience that stitches us together - as a species. Things we all experience -


regardless of what divides us. Most of those things are positive - it’s why all over this planet, we celebrate births, and love - we dance, sing and gather in groups.


We can resonate with someone over a shared emotion, without anything else in common. It’s a knowing glance between two mothers who don’t speak the same language or a brief moment of comfort between a child on the winning team and the losing team.


We feel. It’s what unites us.


Some of those life experiences that we all share, hold us back rather than serve us. Perhaps the most chronic and pervasive of all; STRESS.


Over the span of several decades, our culture has gone from one that experiences stress sometimes, to one that lives in a con- stant state of it. The exception has become the rule.


28 ELM™ Maine - September/October 2018


Now, an entire industry has been birthed and massively grown in an effort to bring us back in to balance. The wellness industry has grown to make over three tril- lion dollars globally, per year. That’s trillion. With a T.


We, are out of balance.


It’s not a secret that stress can be at the root of a startlingly long list of conditions; it’s unapologetic in its persistence. From dis- ease to anxiety to neck pain & headaches, the list goes on and on.


It’s probably not a secret that you’re


stressed either. If you aren’t right now, you have been recently. Maybe you’ve even had a doctor tell you that if you don’t get a handle on the levels of stress in your life - you could be in danger.


(Gulp.) Between bringing up families, careers,


money, our health, politics, or even just get- ting everyone out of the house fully dressed - we are truly up to our eyebrows. It can all feel so overwhelming.


Let’s take a big step back to take in the full scope of this. Ask yourself: Is it the stress that’s hurting us? Or is it how we


process it? Isn’t a little bit of stress supposed to be healthy?


Short answer: YES. Actually, a little bit of stress is good for us. It gives us a healthy sense of urgency. Physically, a little bit of healthy stress can keep our systems firing properly. Turns out, stress itself isn’t the villain. Stress is misunderstood. It’s misman- aged. It’s meant to be a response of the body, not a constant state of living.


Our bodies have built in systems in place to help guide us through our life experiences.


The Fight or Flight Response mecha- nism of the body is meant to kick in during that stressful moment, evaluate, neutralize the threat, and move on - away from the threat.


So you see, the stress response is not


toxic. The stress itself isn’t even toxic. It’s the way it seeps into the nooks and crannies of our lives, unchecked. When we make our decisions and choices from a place of stress and worry, that is what’s toxic.


Can we live well with stress? Can we experience it when it’s appropriate and not live in the constant state of it?


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