What is going on!
Without doubt, we are the most stressed and anxious people ever to walk the planet, and this is obvious from the sheer volume of symptoms and problems that people in the West are experiencing.
Modern living is uniquely stressful and anxiety provoking: you live in a sea of information overload, deadlines, financial worries, distressing headlines and relationship concerns. This constant chronic and acute tension causes us to be in a state of continual alert, which is not a healthy place for a human being to be.
Why do some people seem to cope better than I do?
Thrive and New Medicine Group have a special understanding of why this happens and the effect it has on each of us. Everybody will have stressful things happen to them at some point, and it is your resilience that determines whether you are vulnerable to the effects of this stress. People with reduced resilience are called Highly Sensitive People:
Take the Highly Sensitive Person test:
Reducing vulnerability
Everybody can have increased resilience, making them less vulnerable to the impact of stress. We help you to achieve this, by following a step-by-step personalised plan that targets a combination of stress reduction and increasing your ability to adapt.
Creating resilience
You may perhaps be more prone to stress and anxiety than some people, but that doesn’t mean you have to be controlled by it – you don’t have to be the victim of your genes or upbringing! Even hardy people can succumb to stress if there is too much of it, but we can show you how to optimise your abilities so you can thrive instead of just survive!
What works?
A combination of relaxation, breathing and Mindfulness awareness exercises are a core strategy that has proven helpful for many people. Creating restful sleep patterns, nourishing eating habits and addressing any emotional issues that may be involved are also key.
Acupuncture, as well as specific forms of massage and bodywork can be nothing short of miraculous in their effects on stress, and this is supported by many research studies (1, 2). There are many herbs that are useful for reducing anxiety, assisting sleep or increasing your ability to adapt to stress.
Talking based therapies and body-orientated psychotherapy can be helpful for many people as well, especially where there is a traumatic event recently or in the past that is playing a part in the feeling of being overwhelmed.
What do you need to do now?
References
1. Shu S, Li TM, Fang FF, He HL, Zhou QH, Gu W, Zhou S. Relieving pre-exam anxiety syndrome with wrist-ankle acupuncture: a randomized controlled trial. Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Xue Bao. 2011 Jun;9(6):605-10 2.
2. Zhao ZL, Zhao GW, Li HZ, Yang XD, Wu YY, Lin F, Guan LX, Zhai FG, Liu JQ, Yang CH, Kim SC, Kim KW, Zhao RJ. Acupuncture Attenuates Anxiety-Like Behavior by Normalizing Amygdaloid Catecholamines during Ethanol Withdrawal in Rats.Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011;2011:429843. Epub 2011 Feb 14.
