stress buster

Take Control of your Life

To all who feel overwhelmed and work weary, the exhilarating exercise of walking offer both a stimulus and sedative

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

From the moment we rise in the morning to the moment we go to bed life grinds us down. Physically, the force of gravity grinds us down – at the end of the day we are up to three-quarters of an inch shorter due to the compression of cartilages in our spine. And mentally, we all experience the increasing pace and pressure of life which can leave us feeling tense, tired and listless. In simple words – we feel stressed.

Ninety million working days are lost in the UK each year through undue stress in the workplace – that’s 30 times more than time lost through strikes – and the total cost to industry has been estimated at 7.5 billion a year .Doctor estimate that 75 to 90 per cent of people visiting them suffer from stress-related problems.

 But what is stress?

Stress is the disease of the 20^th century. We all suffer from it, but it’s not so much the amount of stress in our lives which is the problem, but our ability to cope with it.

We feel stressed when everything simply gets too much for us- we feel tense, anxious or depressed. The increasing pace of life, social change, work, financial worries, divorce, retirement and bereavement all contribute to stress. Even some types of exercise can be stressful. With the average woman now work – ing up to 15 hours a week longer than a man, juggling the demands of a home, children and job, is it any wonder that in the end mind and body cannot take any more.

Although there are many causes of stress, one of the major causes is physical inactivity. Sitting for much of the day in one from of chair or another – domestic chairs, office chairs, cars, buses, trains and taxies- we drag our sedentary, over – stimulated, over-stressed bodies back home in the evening where many of us then spend another three hours a night sitting in chair watching  television.

  A recent report by the British heart Foundation said that lack of exercise a day, having high blood pressure of high levels of cholesterol. And one of its main recommendations was for people to walk quickly.

In the USA the problem of physical inactivity is now so serious that the America heart association recently changed the status of physical inactivity from a ‘contributory factor’ for heart, blood vessel diseases and stoke to a ‘risk factor’. This puts a sedentary lifestyle on a par with high bold cholesterol, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking.

 Throughout the western world a sedentary lifestyle (inactivity) is now recognized as a major cause of ill health. Inactivity slows down your metabolism. You feel tried and lethargic. By the evening all you want to do is slump in a chair and go to sleep.

Inactivity breeds inactivity and it breeds tension: your muscles are wound up, your mind is wound up, you have a stiff neck and a stiff back, and to make matters worse your body burns less calories so you put on weight. In time, your muscles and bones begin to atrophy so you get old before your time.

To cope with stress and inactivity you need to take control of your life. When you feel stressed, you are out of control – circumstances are controlling you. Research from the US shows that the feeling of having no control is the major source of stress for women. Although there may be many circumstances that you cannot change, one area of your life that you can change is your level of activity.

Normally, when the body cries out for a break from tension and stress there are two types of response. One is to ply the body with coffee, snacks, alcohol or cigarettes – which only make matters worse; the other is to relax, become more active and ease away the stress naturally. And the easiest way to do this is to walk.

The simple pleasure of getting out of the house or the office and using your legs give you the feeling of being in control. Walking is more effective than a gin and tonic and is less demanding than jogging or a game of squash. Walking gets you away from the the world of competitive work and competitive sport, and gives you the peace and quiet to relax naturally. Walking is the natural way to cope with stress.