Do You Need to Calm the Fajizzle* Down?
*It’s FAJIZZLE because saying F*CK on the internet is not cricket but this stuff is important!
And, if you answered yes, how the hell (fajizzle?) do you actually go about doing that?
Most of us recognise a need to calm THE FAJIZZLE down
In fact, most of us in today’s modern world have an over-developed fight-or-flight response.
Your fight-or-flight response is another term for an acute stress response. This is a physiological and psychological reaction that occurs when you are scared. And, that can be either mentally or physically. When you are frightened. your body releases hormones that prepare for one of two responses:
- stay and deal with the threat you face, or
- to run away to somewhere safe
The idea of ‘fight-or-flight’ is a literal description of how our early ancestors could respond to extreme danger in their environment. They had two choices – to fight or to flee. And for them, this was usually acute.
Stumble across a a saber tooth tiger (bugger!) What to do? Do I run or do I stay and fight?
No matter whether you choose to fight or to flee, your body’s response to stress is to react to the danger it faces.
This fight-or-flight response is the first stage of Hans Selye‘s general adaptation syndrome (GAS), a 3-stage theory describing the human body’s stress response. Selye was an Austrian-born scientist who first published his GAS theory in 1946.
The three stages of GAS are:
- alarm reaction
- resistance
- exhaustion
Alarm reaction stage (AKA Fight-or-Flight Response)
During this first stage, your body sends and alarm signal to a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus coordinates your autonomic nervous system which allows for the release of hormones called glucocorticoids, which in turn trigger the release of adrenaline (which gives you a boost of energy and increases your blood pressure and heart rate) and cortisol (the stress hormone).
You may even feel this happen. And, your blood sugar levels also go up, too.
You can probably readily recall a time when you experienced the fight-or-flight response. In the face of something that gave you a fright, your heartbeat sped up, you rate of breathing increased, and your body prepares to respond by tensing up.
Resistance
During this second stage, your body tries to counteract the physiological changes that happened during your initial fight-or-flight stage. This is where your parasympathetic nervous system tries to kick in. and return your body to normal by slowing down the amount of cortisol produced. Your heart rate and blood pressure begin to return to normal during this time.
If the cause of your fear is no longer present, your body will return to normal. On the other hand, if you remain afraid, your body will stay in a state arousal, and more of those stress hormones will be produced.
Over time, this can cause an inabilkity to concentrate and general irritability.
Exhaustion stage
When confronted with extended periods of stress, your body enters this final stage of GAS, the exhaustion stage. When this occurs, your body has depleted all its energy resources by continually trying (and failing) to recover from the initial alarm reaction stage.
Once you reach this exhaustion stage, your body is no longer able to fight stress. Symptoms you may experience:
- fatigue
- depression
- anxiety
- overwhem
It is during this third stage that you are most at risk of developing stress-related health conditions. Long-term stress can affect us both physically and mentally, even more so when we are already suffering from chronic illness.
In fact, WHEN you already have a compromised immune system, YOU are more vulnerable to these conditions
WHAT’S WITH THIS Calm the Fajizzle Down THING?
Now you know WHAT this stress response thing is, understanding your stress triggers may help you to make lifestyle changes to reduce your stress.
And that can only be a good thing, don’t you think?
Anecdotally, most of us start this AIP health caper thinking its mainly about the food. Sure – what we choose to eat is important. But – it’s by no means the only thing. Actively developing strategies to help you to deal with the every-day stresses you experience are pretty pivotal to your health, too. Especially when it’s almost guaranteed you have dysregulated hormones and challenges with anxiety and fatigue if you already suffer from autoimmune disease.
So – finding ways to calm the fajizzle down by managing the impact of stress on the body and mind is critical.
The thing is – managing stress isn’t actually that difficult. It can include practices like creative visualisation, breathwork, legs up the wall, spending time in nature, having a dedicated morning ritual or embraciing meditation.
“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” — Hermann Hesse
BUT, Just because it isn’t hard TO CALM THE FAJIZZLE DOWN doesn’t mean that it is easy…
- spent time learning more about the phenomenon that is stress and examining how we can each improve our stress management practices.
- considered different stress management tools and techniques that we might add to our own personal health toolbox.
- took a look at the idea of neuroplasticity and the importance of developing a growth mindset. We learned that your brain has an incredible ability to reorganise itself depending on your environment, behaviour, thinking and emotions. (Spoiler alert – really cool stuff)
- put plans in place to fit more stress management into our lives
- came away from the month with a renewed understanding of just how important it is to make it a priority calm the fajizzle down.
It was a great month.
IN FACT, It was so great that I’m now extending calm the fajizzle down to a whole new program that I’LL BE offering SOON…
Because it is very clear that this struggle to juggle our ‘stuff’ is universal.
BE AMONG THE FIRST TO KNOW WHEN MY NEW CALM THE FAJIZZLE DOWN (CFD) METHOD GOES LIVE!
If spending a month with fellow #bloodyfabulous – if somewhat stressed! – women learning strategies for how you can calm the fajizzle down sounds like you, I invite you to join the waitlist so you’ll be one of the first to hear all the details (including a secret squirrel price!)
Together, we’ll be facing up to some of this stress shizzle for once and for all, as well as really digging into how you can implement effective personal strategies to help you deal.
Of course, it’s me – so that means it will be pretty grounded and real, and hopefully We’ll have some fun along the way.
Come and join the CFD crew at a super-special beta rate!
I can’t wait to have you join me…
