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at choice, choices, Effective living, Kebba, living beyond, stress, Stress causes, Stress Management
© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.
What’s stressing you out?
As a stress management expert and holistic guide, I hear people describe their stress every day. What they are usually describing are the stress symptoms, not the causes– headaches, stiff necks, back pain, legs that ache, feet that burn… the list goes on and on. They are often grasping a body part that hurts, or rubbing points on the face. Many of these people didn’t realize they “had stress” until something began to hurt. Their bodies tell them when stress causes are too much.
A second group I talk with are the ones looking for strategies and solutions for the causes of their stress: conflicts, unmet needs, and circumstances. Here’s a chart of these causes:
Stress Sources
CONFLICTS
Difficult People
Available Time vs. Needs and Goals
Available Resources vs. Needs and Goals
Personal Values vs. Values of an Authority Figure
Worry/Anxiety About These
UNMET NEEDS
Unmet Emotional Needs
Unmet Physical Needs
Pain, Chronic Health Conditions
Limited Body Mobility
Old Emotional Agendas
Feeling Limited Or Trapped
UNEXPECTED EXTERNAL FACTORS
Significant Personal Loss (Death of Spouse or Child, Job Loss)
Significant Community Loss (9/11 Attacks, Superstorm Sandy, COVID19 Pandemic)
Do you have any of these stress sources in your life? Of course you do! We all do. What we need to keep in mind is that stress symptoms in the body can turn into conditions and diseases. In Oriental medicine, this is area-specific; each emotion affects a particular part of the body.
Shutterstock photo
One of my mentors said this:
“Stress is probably ultimately the underlying cause of all disease.”
–Dr. Gladys T. McGarey MD, MD(H)
Medical research has proven that stress is a factor in human health conditions, especially depression, heart disease, HIV/Aids, and some virally caused cancers. In a review of a range of medical studies, psychology professor Sheldon Cohen, of Carnegie Melon University, found two pathways by which stress might increase how sick we are.
Stress creates changes that may, in turn, cause or increase illness.
First, stressed people don’t sleep well and are less likely to take care of themselves and follow doctors’ orders. Second, stress impacts the body’s endocrine system, which should be releasing certain patterns of hormones that affect the immune system and inflammation. Stress creates changes that create changes that may, in turn, cause or increase illness. Cohen found a strong relationship between stress and depression, especially in people with strong social stress factors, like a divorce or the death of someone they love. Workplace stress and other forms of chronic stress, however, were more likely to contribute to heart disease. Since 2000, a number of studies have also shown that there is a link between stress and HIV/AIDS. No doubt upcoming studies will relate stress and COVID19 symptomology.
Given the Pandemic we are living with currently, it seems wise to manage our stress as well as we can, to stay as well as we can. There are so many tools for dissolving stress and its symptoms: attitude/philosophy, developing personal peace, breathwork, diet, exercise, meditation, energy therapies. We’ll discuss those more in upcoming articles.
Stress can be costly, and this is your life! Wouldn’t you rather be Healthy, Happy, and Loving Lifesm? It’s up to you!
Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office. To email us, kebba@kebba.com .
Books by Kebba Buckley Button
Healthy Happy Loving Life! 
You know, Kebba, stress has a negative effect on learning also. It activates the fight and flight response in the amygdala and shuts down the frontal lobe, where thinking takes place. Stressed children usually have learning challenges.
Just as you’ve witnessed in your practice, I’ve seen symptoms rather than causes addressed in the school system. Most of the time, steps are taken to modify the child’s behavior rather than to ascertain the cause.
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Florence, wow, thank you for this piece about the frontal lobe. As a society, it seems “we” find it easier to treat a symptom than a cause, such as Tylenol for a headache. Quick fixes preferred?
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I think that everyone is experiencing an enormous amount of stress because of the COVID 19 pandemic. We are trying to live our daily lives, without acknowledging the stress but it is there. It would help if we could just discuss our painful experiences.
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Alice, that is a huge background stressor, isn’t it!? I don’t want to *complain* b/c that makes me feel worse. But sharing your heart with a caring friend can really help. Or journaling. God is listening.
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Stress can be a root cause for illness, I agree. So it’s important we do what we can to lessen the stress we are experiencing right now.
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Jeanine, you are so right! Catch it early before the effects get big and robust!
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So true.. Stress can cause so many issues.. I am normally calm but I do have (of late, more often) moments (prolonged moments) where I find myself stressed. So I try to recall how I stay calm the rest of the times.:)
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Vidya, perfect! Knowing what works for you is half the battle. Remembering to use what works for you is the other half!
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It seems like stress is like a big circle. We don’t feel well or something bothers us so we get stressed. That lowers our immune system and we get sick. Then stress takes over once again. I never feel I’m stressed but once I read your blog I realize differently. I hid my physical pain well but there are times others see it almost before I do. Thanks for sharing this helpful information.
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Martha, yes, it really is a circle. That’s why my program is “Healthy Happy Loving Life”: Healthy makes you more happy, and happy makes you more healthy! And I have hundreds of specific helps for people who need to move into either health or happiness. Isn’t that interesting that sometimes others see our stress symptoms before we do? This especially happens for those of us committed to positive living. We don’t want to have physical symptoms!
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