How Stress and Anxiety affected my body
I’ve recently learnt to scuba dive, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and which was exciting and terrifying in equal measure. As a child, I used to always feel anxious when swimming in the sea, so this was quite a big deal for me!
During my extensive training in the water, I started to experience some severe neck and shoulder pain, which got worse over the next few days. I always try to get to the root of the cause and I kept asking myself, what happened here?
It turns out that, as I was learning this new skill, the stress of it made me breathe erratically which, in turn, got my nervous system to go into ‘fight or flight’ overdrive for a few days, increasing my breathing rate and the release of stress hormones into my blood.
When you breathe deeper and faster, you tend to use more of your neck and shoulder muscles to try and get more oxygen in; I began to feel these areas tightening up as the days went by. And, if that wasn’t enough, these increased stress hormones in my body meant I didn’t sleep well enough, and the lack of restful sleep meant that my body could not heal at night and, in a vicious circle, made things worse.
Luckily, knowing what I know, I managed the restrictions and the pain daily through some mobility drills and some breathing exercises, but it still gave my some indications on what my clients do through on a daily basis when in pain.
It was really interesting to see on my own skin how stress and anxiety can cause physical pain, it was a great reminder of how emotional factors affect tissues!
Coincidentally, around the same time, I started listening to an audio book, Breath, by James Nestor, all about breathing efficiently. His book gave me an in depth knowledge of how mouth breathing can cause shortness of breath, increase snoring, cause other harmful affects to our body over time and why we should do nasal breathing daily to help us being less anxious, prevent infections and generally promote a healthy wellbeing. I can’t recommend it enough!
If you suffer from regular stress and anxiety related issues, here at Move with Eze we use various advanced techniques to help you be in a more relaxed state and encourage your body to be in a ‘rest and digest’ state of mind. And, of course you can sign up to our free newsletter where you can find tips on breathing and other health issues.
What’s causing your pain? I’d love to hear your stories and help you get to the root of the cause of your issue. So don't forget I’m always here to help, so feel free to get in touch with any questions.
Okey