Are you stressing?

If you’re a mom, you likely know about stress. You likely experience it more frequently than you care to consider, but what exactly is stress? Where does it come from and what does it do? And, most importantly, what can or should be done about it?

First off, let’s get down to what it is

According to the World Health Organization, “Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.” The WHO goes on to say that stress is a natural human response. Everyone experiences it, but how we deal with it is what’s critical.

As moms, there’s no shortage of worrying and mental tension. Kids are effective providers of stress whether they mean to be or not. Just remembering all the things required to keep your kids lives and activities straight is stressful. Add to that helping young people navigate skills like organization (missing assignments, lost sports uniforms, etc.) and relationships.

Kids are expensive, so money or lack thereof can also be stressful. And, of course, there’s the stress that comes from unceasingly second guessing your abilities as a mother – or is that just me? Whatever the source, stress and being a mom are part and parcel.

Stress isn’t always so bad

Stress in and of itself isn’t necessarily all bad. We were designed with the fight or flight response of the parasympathetic nervous system to keep from being mauled by rampaging orangutans and other equally dangerous things determined to do us bodily harm. This is a good thing. By nature, we’re built to respond to this.

Also, if you put stress on a muscle, it grows. If you stress your brain with a hard task, you learn. The body is designed to react to stressful stimuli in order to protect itself from predators, danger, etc. But when constant, the effects can add up to some pretty ugly stuff beyond just feeling funky.

When it’s too much

According to the Mayo Clinic after the threat is gone, stress hormone levels should return to normal. When someone is constantly under stress, however, they’re exposed to far more cortisol and other stress hormones than the body is designed to handle. This exposure in turn can result in the following:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Weight gain
• Insomnia
• High blood pressure
• Muscle tension and pain
• Stroke
• Digestive issues
• Problems with memory and/or focus
• Heart disease/heart attack

Blow bubbles

Thankfully, there’s things you can do to alleviate stress. Inhaling through the nose stimulates the vagus nerve which in turn promotes relaxation. Getting out into nature is also a great way to de-stress. Participating in childlike activities like playing and blowing bubbles is a great way to destress and spend quality time with the kids. Yoga and other exercise are good for unwinding the body and mind.

Mindfulness and prayer are effective ways to reset and untangle all those things that might make you feel worked up. Just last night Joy Hensel, Synod Minister for Mental Health and Wellness for the Northeast MN synod spoke to the confirmation kids and other congregants a about caring for our mental health. During her presentation she taught us the following:

And don’t forget to count your blessings. Look around you and find five (or more) things for which you can be grateful. If your kids, specifically, are stressing you out, take a minute to think of all the wonderful things about them and feel thankful. I can’t stress enough how important that part is to remember.