“Don’t worry, about a thing, cause every little thing, gonna be alright”
Yea right Bob, what world are you living in? Let me paint a picture for you. You’ve just left the office after a demanding day and your boss is leaning on you to turn in the project before the deadline and its just not doable. What is he thinking? It must be nice to sit in that office all day doing nothing!! The babysitter has to leave your house by 5:30 and your 30 minutes away from home and traffic slows to a stand still. So, you pick up your phone, dial your wife/husband and it goes straight to voicemail. Then you remember that he/she left their phone sitting on the counter and didn’t take it with them. You take a deep breath, sit back and turn up the radio and hear a advertisement for a discounted oil change and then suddenly remember that your tags expired a few days ago….arghh. Then your phone rings, its the baby sitter, little Johnny just fell and cut his head open on the coffee table and in the commotion of trying to round up the kids, Roofus the family dog, got out and hasn’t been seen!!!
Does this remind you of anything? The details might be different, however this story of someone’s day and your day probably have something in common….STRESS. What is stress exactly? Its a term we use almost daily but do you really know what it is? Stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” While stress can be positive, when we experience large amounts of stress it can start to effect the body negatively. Some negative effects of stress are high blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain/loss, asthma, arthritis, depression and anxiety just to name a few. An OSHA report states that stress costs Americans more than $300 billion dollars annually. Web MD also states that 75-90% of all doctor visits are for stress related ailments and complaints.
So, now that we all know that we deal with stress and the effects of it, how do we deal with it? There are a few standard answers; work out, talk, rest, breathe…the list goes on and on. But, if i told you that there was a way to help reduce stress levels right now, or anywhere for that matter, no matter what you are doing, what would you think? You would probably call me crazy. But I am going to tell you anyway……the answer is SMILE:)
Now I want everyone to take a moment and smile. Not a forced, closed mouth smile. I want you to smile like when you were a child and you were ripping open gifts on Christmas morning. One of those big, cheesy, oh-my-goodness my face hurt smiles. Now how do you feel? Better I hope. When you smile it floods your brain with endorphins and neurotransmitters that make you feel good. Its contagious too! Walk into a room and smile at everyone. I guarantee you that no matter how bad of a mood everyone is in, most everyone will smile back by the time you leave. A smile is infections. But don’t just trust me, check out this article on livestrong.com: http://www.livestrong.com/article/18859-health-benefits-smiling/
Next time the kids are going bonkers, the meatloaf is burning in the oven, the phone is ringing and your head won’t stop pounding because you had to skip lunch to meet your dead line just take 30 seconds and smile!! If you are not happy, then fake it till you make it and smile! I promise that doing this will add a ton of joy to your life.
Love and Peace,
Adam:)
At Peltier Family Chiropractic we are always excited to see smiling faces in our office. If there are any health issues that are keeping you from smiling, fill free to give us a call @ 937-818-5873 or visit our web page http://www.poweronwellness.com to schedule an appointment:)