Symptoms of Stress

Working with clients to improve their gut health requires the collection of puzzle pieces to gain an understanding of their holistic health picture. Pieces include what has gone wrong, what is going wrong, what needs help, what is a symptom, what is the actual cause?

A piece of everyone’s puzzle is stress. What differs is:

•    The stress itself – real, perceived, anticipated, past, present

•    The impact of that stress on that person

•    How that person responds to the stress

We live in a time and a world that appears to create and thrive on stress. Technology means we may feel we need to respond quickly to messages, comments, posts, emails etc.  We need to stream the latest show or podcast, participate in the latest activities, buy the latest fashions, eat at the newest restaurants, follow the latest trends. Everything feels like it has to be done now!

With this busyness and need to respond immediately inevitably creates stress.

Add an illness, financial problems, or isolation and stress is now a constant, maybe even a normal state of being.

If we take the leap that chronic stress is indeed normal and expected, what is the impact? Are we getting more done? Are we healthier? Or are we:

•    Tired, all the time

•    Suffering from erratic and unexplained gut issues

•    Experiencing changes in hormones – thyroid issues, blood sugar imbalances, PMS, etc

•    Gaining weight – especially around the abdomen

•    Lacking confidence, unable to make decisions

•    Anxious or depressed

•    Addicted to coffee, alcohol, drugs, etc.

Stress is the single most consistent, yet underappreciated, factor in a person’s state of physical, mental and emotional health. Awareness is the first step, next is to look at what you eat, drink, sleep, how you move, your mindset and how you breathe. These are all easy areas that you can tweak to ensure you are more stress resilient.