I was going to blog about food diaries today but having watched the edge of your seat acrobatics of 'Traces' which is now showing at the Peacock theatre I'm inspired to write about eustress.
The word stress rightly has negative connotations, it's how you feel when your boss shouts at you, your car get's broken into or some muppet treads on your toe on the tube.
Eustress on the other hand is stress that feels good, euphoric even, ... the excitement of getting married or starting a new job or the thrill of a rollercoaster, sky dive, skiing a black run or watching acrobats drop six foot head first towards the floor and stop with only inches to spare! You're enjoying yourself so you don't think of these feelings as negative.
However any stress, whether negative or positive, when accumulated over time can be negative to your health. It encourages a faster heart rate, raised blood pressure, suppression of your digestive and immune systems, disturbed sleep patterns and central weight gain. So with busy city lives if you 'unwind' by playing a game of squash, watching a scary movie or taking part in extreme sports then you're simply adding to your stress load and not reducing it.
When you're truly relaxed your heart rate and breathing should slow and your mind become calm, you should feel unaware of time or deadlines and in a state in which you could stay in for a long period.
If you find this difficult then you might want to try assisted relaxation through meditation, yoga (hatha), massage, aromatherapy, reflexology or acupuncture. And if the whole idea of spending time relaxing is alien to you then you probably need it more than most!
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