Stress is a curious thing. It does carry a negative connotation, in my mind at least, although I can honestly say that I often up my game under a little bit of stress. However, above a certain threshold, it starts to work against me…
After all, stress is basically your body’s way of responding to a threat preparing you for emergency action. As the stress hormones (such as adrenaline and cortisol) are released by your nervous system you become more energetic, alert and focused – the “fight or flight” mode is meant to protect us. Which is great, of course, as it helps you pull through the tough days. But prolonged stress can be very harmful, as we know.
It’s not rocket science to understand that too much stress is bad for you and that stress management is an important part of our wellbeing. Today’s world is full of demands and stressors that I’m sure many of us, unfortunately, have to deal with in our day-to-day lives. Working in the City isn’t exactly a stress free environment.
I know it and yet I only recently failed to see the warning signs and pushed myself too far. The result was, the best I can describe it, a 24-hour anxiety attack. I’m sharing this awful experience with you so that hopefully you won’t be as silly as I was.
After my holidays I got back to London, all fired up and excited to get back to work and back to the gym. We had big plans and hopes for the first weeks of the year, which are often busy in the sector I work in. And we smashed it! First ten days back at work were intense, exciting and successful. Closing a deal after another in a quick succession didn’t leave much time to breathe but I had the adrenaline rushing through my veins, no problem. After work though, I didn’t go home to rest, I hit the gym. As I do.
Exercise has always been my go-to stress release mechanism. After the more mental challenges during the day, it feels so good to put my body to work at the gym, to get a good sweat on and clear my head. But also exercise puts stress on your body, particularly high intensity training. Something I didn’t really consider (ok, I might have ignored that little voice in my head telling me to go home…).
On the first quieter day after this hectic period, I started feeling a bit odd. I didn’t feel stressed at all, on the contrary, I felt awesome. I had pulled through it and everything went well! I literally had a silly grin on my face all day. Something was a bit off though – I could feel my heart pounding but looking at my FitBit my heart rate wasn’t abnormally high. I also felt a bit light-headed, a bit dizzy, in a way that I really had to focus to figure out what the emails popping up on my screen were saying.
On my way to the ladies’ I felt my legs a bit wobbly, just a little bit but enough to make me feel uneasy. I texted my boyfriend saying something weird is going on and he told me to drink water, try to relax and definitely give gym a miss and come straight home after work.
I’d like to think no one at work noticed anything was up, and I managed to keep my head together and got through the day just fine. But when I got home, I felt anxious, teary and frustrated. I couldn’t understand what was going on and why I was feeling that way (seems so obvious now!).
I feel grateful that I have such a supportive and loving boyfriend and a home that truly is my safe haven. I spent that night doing nothing but receiving cuddles and strokes and some words of wisdom. And slowly the tightness around my chest started to ease…
I took another day off from the gym to rest before going back and booked myself a yoga class and a massage for the weekend. By Sunday I felt so much better. Just in time for another Monday! But next week, I’ll do things differently – I have to, for my own sake 🙂
Stress can’t be good for our conception chances either!
Recreating Vinyasa flow at home after class.
xoxoxo,
Sini