Stress - How I Manage

Breakneck speed world we live in causes high sugar levels

I want to take this moment to welcome our new followers from India.  Welcome to my blog and hope you can find some good information in the blog.  As always - add comments or email me - happy to get to know everyone.  

Also for my loyal readers, sorry I took yesterday off, it was a very event filled day with presentations, looking for new contracts, and getting work done on the contract I am on.

FBS - 110 this morning (stressful day yesterday along with late night snacking - bad combination)

BP - 121/65 (home machine - I have to get a new one) - HR 62

My life with stress

I live in a high powered world - technology.  I have also been a senior player in companies as the CEO and COO which comes with a lot of stress.  My wife has always said you are stressed and need to calm down.  But I am convinced of one thing - God did not gives us men ears to listen to our wives.  Must have been one of his big humorous moments. It takes a doctor's study to convince me stress has something to do with my diabetes.

Back to the wife for a moment.  I would argue and say my job does not cause me stress.  You see, I used to think being stressed out was the same as having stress.  Not the same and the following study does a much better job of explaining how stress impacts diabetes.

http://diabetes.webmd.com/features/stress-diabetes 

Stress and Diabetes

From the article "When you're stressed, your blood sugar levels rise. Stress hormones like epinephrine and cortisol kick in since one of their major functions is to raise blood sugar to help boost energy when it's needed most. Think of the fight-or-flight response. You can't fight danger when your blood sugar is low, so it rises to help meet the challenge. Both physical and emotional stress can prompt an increase in these hormones, resulting in an increase in blood sugars."

The article goes on to say "When blood sugar levels aren't controlled well through diet and/or medication, you're at higher risk for many health complications, including blindness, kidney problems, and nerve damage leading to foot numbness, which can lead to serious injury and hard-to-heal infections. Prolonged elevated blood sugar is also a predecessor to cardiovascular disease, which increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes."

Intervening wife

As my wife has always done, she brings things into my life as subtle changes and under a direction I can accept.  Being stubborn is one of my strong traits - notice I did not say string suit.  For instance, I did (maybe still do) suffer from road stress - not road rage but at times I could really tell the driver off in the other car; while my windows were up.

So to help, we were driving in her car and it had Christian music on.  We started talking about it and she mentioned how it helped keep her calm when she was driving.  Next thing you know, I have all my radio channels turned to Christian music and I listen to nothing else but Christian music.  It helps me going to work and it calms me down when returning from work.

Oh yeah, the road anger; still there, but when it flairs up - I quickly let it go.

In our church group, we mentioned last year listening to Christian music.  One of the members this week says she has kept it up and it works wonders for her drive.

Removing life's boombox

I have also taken a step - not by accident - by removing the TV from my home office.  I am and can be very frustrated by our political system; regardless of the party.  My blood is already going just talking about it.  I used to listen to political talk shows all of the time.

When not doing that, I like high-action movies so I was spending time trying to focus on work and have that in the back ground.  Needless to say my life was 24x7 constant on.  

By accident means the cable company raised my rates to a point I could not justify the payment I had to make to watch the shows.  So, I took the TV out of my home office.  It is so quiet in there now and I focus on work.  Oh yeah, I now listen to Christian music over the internet.  My blood gets stirred from a different direction.

Turning out for a few minutes a day

At the office, I will take periods where I will go to my car and just sit in silence and try not to think of anything and just let my mind and body be still and quiet.  Christians have something we call Centering Prayer and that is like a deep meditation with God.  I go on that journey sometimes while at work.  It does wonders for the mind.

I do not want you to mix the concept of being still for a moment and taking a nap.  A nap is good, and probably does remove the stress, but it is not giving you techniques to turn out loud volume stress.

So if you are "NOT STRESSED OUT", that does not mean you do not have stress.  Having stress and being a diabetic is not good.  As the article points out, even an injury causes our bodies to have stress.

I hope you can use some of the techniques in the article to reduce some of your stress.

May God grant each of us the opportunity to "Be Still And Know That He Is God" as he desires us to know.  May he give us ways to find stillness in this world that screams in our ears, mind, and hearts loudly 24x7.  May he grant us the peace we need to heal our bodies.

Bob,