The Effects Of Stress On The Body

• Emotions can be stored in the body and instantly reactivated.
• Stress is determined by your levels of internal and external stress.
• Stress has many harmful effects on the body, and can contribute to disease.

Whenever you experience a particular emotional state, there are measurable changes which occur in your body as a result of that emotion.

For example, experiencing an emotion such as fear can cause your heart rate, breathing rate and brain waves to change, causing you to physically feel different.

Every time this occurs, these changes are stored in your subconscious and unconscious mind, in addition to any memories associated with that emotion.

What this means is that whenever you are exposed to something which has triggered a similar emotional state within you before, your body, and the way you feel, can be instantly transformed.

Music & Emotions

Music provides a good example of how quickly subconsciously stored emotional states can be triggered within you.

If you suddenly hear a song which you used to listen to in the past, and was significant to you in some way, then hearing that song again can instantaneously change the way you feel.

Depending on what that song means to you, it can make you feel happy, or make you feel sad. Along with those feelings will come memories of whatever event/experience were associated with that song.

Why is this important? Well, this simple example shows how our past emotions can become stored in the body, and then reactivated at a later date when something triggers those emotions (and their associated memories) again.

The significance of this when it comes to understanding your feelings, is that everyone has certain triggers in their life which can cause them to automatically react in pre-programmed ways.

So for example, if you are exposed to something that triggers a previously stored emotion of anger (or any other kind of emotion), you may suddenly find yourself having a violent outburst at someone.

Therefore the feelings you experience on a daily basis, are largely the result of triggers reactivating previously stored emotions.

This is why people react to things differently, as we all have different subconsciously stored emotions from our past.

The key to controlling your feelings is to resolve the unresolved issues from your past that are stored in your subconscious.

Internal and External Stress

In general, stress can be divided into internal and external stress. Internal stress comes from everything that has been programmed into your subconscious and unconscious mind, and therefore consists of all the emotions you have experienced in the past.

External stress comes from the triggers you are exposed to in everyday life, and what activates the emotions and memories stored in your subconscious and unconscious mind.

The level of stress you experience at any given moment, comes as a direct result of the interplay between your internal and external stress.

The Different Effects Of Stress On The Body

To demonstrate how internal and external stress can affect you, imagine a chain being pulled tight from either end. If enough tension is applied, eventually the chain will start to break at its weakest link.

In this example, the chain represents your DNA, and the tension on that chain the levels of internal and external stress you are experiencing.

When the chain breaks it does so at its weakest link, the result of which is some physiological change in your body.

However because we are all different (as we each have different DNA), we each respond to stress in different ways.

For example, one person’s weakest link may be their head, and so when they experience stress and their chain breaks, they will get a headache or be unable to concentrate properly.

For another person their weakest link may be their back, and so when they are stressed their back will start to ache.

Since we are all affected by stress in different ways, nobody can tell you exactly how you can or should deal with your stress.

This is something only you can do, and you do this by becoming familiar with how your body responds to stress.

Once you become familiar with this, you will then be able to respond accordingly by taking the appropriate action.

Chronic Stress & Health

For most of us, the stress we experience is temporary and so the effects of that stress will be short lived.

However for some people, stress is something they experience on a constant basis, or at least for the majority of the day. People who experience such stress, are said to be suffering from chronic stress.

The word “suffering” is particularly appropriate here, as chronic stress is like applying constant tension to your DNA.

Eventually the “links” in your DNA will start to break, and when they do, your body will be negatively affected as a result.

This is why stress is such a major cause of disease such as cancer and heart disease, because it stresses the body so much to the point where it literally begins to fall apart.

However the good news is that by learning to deal with, manage and get out of stress, you can remove the “tension” it is applying on your body, thereby allowing it to recover.