How to expand your Stress Threshold

With our over stimulated world silence is hard to find. We have become so accustomed to ambient “noise” that our system is constantly "on". Dealing with inputs of sounds, smells, lights, tastes, sensations etc, is a lot for the body to handle. The more you are stressed the more you do not have a good handle on your emotions. Its easier for you to swing from anger, to sadness, or have unreasonable reactions to small incidences.

When we are thinking about lowing the stress in life, it is important to remember that every input to the body is stressful. I talk to my patients a lot about this concept of a stress threshold:

There is only so much threshold for stress everyday before you get sick. So, if your environment counts for 30% of your stress, and food for another 30% and emotions for another 30%, then you only have 10% left for any other life stress. This works for most people if they keep to their routine, avoid their family, not talk to anyone…

But the moment something comes along that causes more stress, as in a large bill, a job change, family issues, ect, you max out your stress threshold.

Silence can allow these inputs of food, environment and emotions to be handled one at a time. Silence is like pulling the plug and allowing the body to get back to balance. Do you have moments in the day where you sit in complete silence? Where you focus on the sound of your breath and just be?

It’s a simple trick that resets your nervous system in to a parasympathetic (or calm) mode. (BTW this is the ONLY time the body heals itself).

My silent time is first thing in the morning. I love the silence… I crave it. The 30 minutes allows my body to just be and not have to switch on so quickly. Consider a time of the day when you can be in silence.