Are You Stressed Out?

Stress is a killer. 

It truly is. Americans are more connected to their electronics and hectic lives than ever before. Do you know anyone who does not own a cell phone today? When was the last time that you spent five minutes and focused only on your breathing? Are you aware of how much caffeine is too much?
You might find it surprising too that young adults are the most stressed out of all Americans!

75% of adults reported experiencing moderate to high levels of stress in the past month and nearly half reported that their stress has increased in the past year – American Psychological Association

So we are all getting more stressed out and feeling more anxiety, but yet we are still spending more and more time staying busy. Busy isn't all that it is cracked up to be. "Sorry, I can't hang out, I'm super busy with yoga, work, getting the kids to school, taking a cooking class, cleaning the house, feeding the dog,  and running a marathon...all while constantly checking my Facebook, posting to Twitter and Instagram." Sound familiar? If you are nodding your head or laughing than you might just be plagued with busy. Don't worry! We can help!

First, start by putting down that second iced venti carmel macchiato. Second, close your eyes and spend 5 minutes just breathing. Focus on each breath going in and out and how it feels in your throat, lungs, stomach. Hopefully that helps for a little while but for the long term we have great news: acupuncture can help relieve stress!

Chinese medicine will tell you that stress is usually liver qi(chi) stagnation. What acupuncture does in general is to balance out your entire system: the mind, body and spirit. While stress disturbs the spirit which can make it hard to sleep and lead to insomnia or leave you feeling like you are rested. Stress also keeps your body in a fight or flight response which increases your cortisol levels. If you stay in that response long enough your cortisol cannot go back to normal levels which creates that flattering belly fat that doesn't go away no matter how many sit ups you do. Being in that fight or flight response long enough with high cortisol levels also turns off that switch which allows your body to chose fight or flight or rest and digest. Acupuncture gives you back the ability to have that switch and chose which way it goes. It gives you the ability to change your autonomic nervous system.

Being in a constant state of fight or flight makes it so you forget what relaxed feels like. It is common that after leaving your stress focused acupuncture treatment, you will feel what jokingly we call "acu-stoned." You will feel so relaxed and almost as though you are floating, be careful driving home! This might be a foreign feeling to your mind but really, this is what relaxed is supposed to feel like. Our mind and body just forgot.

Now that acupuncture helped your body find that on/off switch again so you can feel rest and digest instead of fight or flight it will be easier to do this on your own and stay relaxed at the appropriate times.

When you come for treatment for stress we will discuss your diagnosis thoroughly and help you find out what you can do to continue balanced health and wellness. Since you might leave feeling a little out of it in your "acu-stoned" state, we will give you a folder with instructions and reminders on living a less stressful life for you to reference later. Until you feel again balanced again, we suggest getting weekly acupuncture treatments.

Also here is some helpful info about staying relaxed after your weekly treatment:

• avoid watching tv or playing computer/phone games the rest of the day. This activates the fight or flight response in your brain. 
• avoid caffeine the rest of the day
• do something calming you enjoy such as reading a book, doing yoga or tai chi, taking the dog for a walk, cooking a meal, gardening.
• drink lots of water and eat a healthy meal to nourish your body
• schedule your next visit to stay stress free