Stress Flaring? Try a Self-Care Blitz

Those of us who are a) sensitive bodies and b) holistic health-oriented know that stress is a physical phenomenon as much as an emotional one. The diabolical reality, then, is that when emotional stress triggers us, a physical flare can result.

I’ve read lots of theories of why this is, from “adrenal fatigue,” where a constant fight-of-flight state aggravates and exhausts muscles and nerves, to the psychological notion that focusing on physical pain is the body’s way of protecting itself from despair, anger, or fear.

Whatever the cause, the effect, frankly, stinks. Flares look different in every body–in mine, they usually either show up as a tonsil/Eustachian tube infection, or in neuralgia/nerve pain in the low back and hips. And the happy fact is that since I started doing gentle yoga, swimming, taking my vitamins, and eating my grains and greens, I really haven’t had one that goes to 11.

But I’ve been under unusual stress lately, and yadda yadda yadda….flare. Big one. Back. Hips. A-flarin’ they go.

To calm it–and myself–down, I’ve instituted what I’m calling a “self-care blitz.” This is something to pull out when you’ve really had it, you’re really in trouble, and you need a rescue, like, NOW.