Flow De-Stress: How flow based activities can lower cortisol levels.
As a blogger and a rapper I am very big on words and what they mean so there will always be some information about the maik of words. This blog is about stress and what is a surefire way to reduce said stress. We first acknowledge that stress is a chemical compound released in your brain and body during particularly overwhelming or strenuous situations called cortisol. Cortisol due to physical strain looks like pressure on yourself to do more when you are clearly already exhausted and want to take a seat. In these situations we can push past the feeling and then get into a flow that allows us to forget that we are tired for the time being. However it almost always ends up in a physical crash where you fall asleep somewhere you know you didn’t intend to or take a “nap” that lasts longer than your typical night’s rest. Cortisol due to mental strain looks like overthinking a situation that you can’t do anything about in that exact moment, or have no control over in general. As well as over extending your ideas to people that don’t take your advice and still complain to you about how bad things turned out for them or complaining in general. This gives us an idea of how cortisol can be raised in our brains and bodies.
Flow based activity is the best way in my opinion to reduce cortisol levels because you are allowing your mind, body, and soul (inner child) to work together in harmony pleasing yourself in a wholistic way! When referring to whole we mean “containing all the elements properly belonging: complete” and the suffix istic means “relating to, characteristic of, or of something”. So this word means relating to the entire being, person. Which we better understand now is more than just the physical flesh. That being said, there is a vital part of ourselves that gets ignored when we are producing cortisol. That is the soul of the body. The soul we speak about is in many cases an abstract idea so to give it more substance I relate it to the inner child. When we are a child we seldom find ourselves worrying about anything or doing things when we don’t want to do it. Parents that have abandoned their inner child chalk it up to “you don’t pay bills or have responsibilities yet”. However I feel as though there is more to it than that.
In my experience stress is a direct by-product of some sort of resentment. When we are brought up being told that we have to do things we don’t want to do in order to get things we want we usually end up doing more of what we don’t want, which just doesn’t make sense if you think about it. At some point these “rules” would prove to be beneficial to the person if it were that way. When the results of that seem to be people without money doing a lot of what they don’t want to do only to get a little taste of what they do want and go right back to what they don’t want; And people who have spent a lot of time doing what they don’t want to receive what they do want and still not be satisfied, so they continue to do what they don’t want to attempt to maintain an image that they have what they want. That’s a bit of a tongue twister but read it twice and you’ll get the gist.
Now we are gonna get into the good stuff which is what we can do to lower those levels. Flow in the dictionary means “to move along in a stream: to circulate: to stream or well forth: to issue or proceed from a source.” This makes me think of water, and the cleanest water comes from a stream with a constant flow. We are beings made up of mostly water so somehow I think that is relevant to how we can be the best versions of ourselves. And to add to that if you think about the essence of the last definition to issue or proceed from a source, it’s safe to mention the most abundant source of all which is the creator of all things, water and people alike. If we allow ourselves to move along in a stream without judging or stopping our thoughts by doing more of what we want to do like children. We would find ourselves in this constant state of flow.
This does sound easier said than done because many of the adults in this world are habitual and some habits are harder to break than others. So an exercise we can do to combat that challenge is reflecting and writing down activities you loved as a child and turning them into a hobby or even a job. Some examples of that could be if you were a child that enjoyed the playground and monkey bars, finding more time to go to the gym or considering studying physical training. If you were very creative and spent a lot of time drawing or building blocks, find an art workshop to join, or consider an architect class. If you were a child that loved nature and rain or puddles and mud; take a weekly ceramics class, or find a hiking trail and consider leading a hike. There are so many ways that we can honor our whole selves and still satisfy the “responsibilities” of life without being okay with or at worst addicted to stress. Stress can kill.
I love you x Infinity
Affinity