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Nob Hill Chiropractic

Dr. Stephen Gardner

Stress Without Distress

By Dr. Stephen Gardner
Written with Karen Larré
Published in Living Naturally Magazine, September 2007

Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. The difficulty with stress is not so much the external circumstances or the event itself, but our reactions to it (how we deal with it internally).

Some symptoms of stress I've seen in my pratice include: heart palpitations, difficulty with concentration and focusing, memory lapses, high blood pressure, anxiety, poor sleep patterns, digestive problems, exzema, hives, depression, fatigue, allergies and perhaps the most common - neck and back pain and headaches.

Dr. Gardner's 5-prong approach to dealing with stress:

  1. Address your mental balance. Meditate, breathe and make a consious effort to relax.Energy psychology, mind-body therapy, EMDR and NET (Neuro-Emotional Technique) are a few of the god techniques that are useful to lower your stress level and bring you back into harmony.
  2. Nutrition.Eat a basic healthy diet including basic supplementation. Saliva and nutritional testing with kinesiology testing are available and can determine specific deficiencies. Personalized suplementation can make a dramatic difference in your level of daily well-being.
  3. Structural re-balancing. Chiropractic, massage, Rolfing, accupuncture and other good body work techniques all help to release stress from the nervous system and energy body.
  4. Create a balanced life. Take care of your basic needs; exercise, eat well and rest adequately. Do fulfilling work, enjoy healthy realtionships and have fun, recreate and do things that inspire you on a regular basis.
  5. Let go and let GOD.The serenity prayer is a great adage to live by. None of us ever do life perfectly.

Here is my favorite analogy. Compare life to taking a hike... prepare well, get to the trailhead, put one foot in front of the other, remember to breathe, deal with the obstacles (over, around or through - whatever works best), and enjoy the views along the way.

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