You must relax, and you must relax daily and deeply! We usually know where are play button is, right? Go, go, go! What I want you to do is to find your pause button, or even your rewind button! Most of us are stressed to the max. Almost everything in our environment causes us stress. Remember, stress is both good and bad. A wedding is the happiest time in a person's life but it can cause a lot of stress. One of the biggest stresses in our life is going to be our diet. The end result is often a feeling of confusion, unhappiness, lack of focus and an unhappy feeling. This is so confusing for so many of our patients because they know that they should not feel this way. However, something is just not right. Most of us who have these feelings will go to multiple doctors and usually get the same answers, "Your labs are normal so you must be depressed. Here is an anti-depressant."  In fact, I have said that thousands of times to my patients.

However, when you calculate out the impact of stress on our environment, you can see that this impact can be overwhelming. The more I study, learn and experience the effects of Adrenal Fatigue with my patients, the more I know that these patients need help with their pause button. 

In order to effectively deal with stress, it is very important to have the ability to "bounce back" from the punches and blow of life. Most of us have no idea what is really causing us stress. Of course, we know getting the kids here and there, getting to work on time, financial stress and relationship issues do cause stress. However, there are the silent things that just keep piling up on us that we are not aware of. Many of you know that I am Gluten sensitive. I am not allergic to gluten. I can eat it with out any immediate effect. However, I have high levels of IgA to Gliaden (A polypeptide that is found in wheat, oats, rye, and barley). When I eat any of it, I begin to feel bloated, tired and irritable. (My kids know when I have had wheat!). Over time, your body accumulates more and more stress when we keep piling it on.

It is very important that we develop and utilize our pause button. We need to have the ability to bounce back from these events, whatever they may be. Eliminate as many stressors as you can. If not able to eliminate them then learn how to manage them. It is essential to your health and your wellness. 

Eating junk food, drinking tons of caffeine, drinking a lot of alcohol to relax at night, and sitting in front of the Television for hours in the evening all have a negative impact on our bodies and our mind. If you are stuck in a relationship that does not bring you joy, comfort and emotional well-being will greatly dissolve your health. There are certain tools that you need to learn. I want you to learn how to relax and trigger your pause button.

It is unrealistic to think that you can eliminate all your stressors. If that were the case, there would be only one person on the earth, right?  We know that relationships in general do cause some stress. What I want you to do today is to take an inventory of your biggest stressors. Try and identify what causes you stress. Do not make any plans to eliminate the stress but just list them. Besides each entry put a plus sign or a negative sign. Tomorrow, I am going to give you some essential tools to help you manage your stress. Many of you will give me an eye roll or two, but don't knock it until you try it.

Let's plan on meeting here tomorrow. Until then, try and find your pause button.