My sister recently asked me to write something about how I’ve managed to have what she sees as an interesting and successful life. I gave it some thought and found the answer in a paper I wrote almost 30 years ago for an English class I took in an adult education setting. I have to say that by no means do I see myself through my sister’s eyes. I see myself most often as rather flaky because I am a dabbler. I worked as a secretary for nearly my whole adult life, but not at the same place. I am easily bored and often changed jobs to get a new perspective. I enjoy talking with interesting people about varied subjects. I became acquainted once with a lady who owned our town’s only radio station and ended up working for her part-time as a newscaster and recording commercials. I rubbed shoulders with some amazing journalists representing some of the bigger establishments at various events I attended. I could go on and list other examples of my eclectic life, but the point my sister wanted me to make is how I’ve managed to collect such a wide variety of experiences, aside from the fact that I’m old and naturally have collected experiences. The paper I referred to above was in answer to an assignment to write about the most influential person in my life. I’ve done some editing of that paper, but the message has not changed. I entitled my paper, “First Sight,” and think it answers my sister’s question quite nicely.
Stress is a by-product of life, and it will never be practical to expect to rid stress from our lives. Learning to recognize what is creating havoc in our lives, discovering ways to keep it from doing damage, and arming ourselves with stress-fighting techniques is what we’ll cover today.
Stress is a form of chemical warfare against the brain. It has the capability of ravaging brain cells and inciting dementia. That’s pretty graphic, and I’m here to lay out some things I’ve learned and to encourage all of us to put boots on the ground in self-defense.
Chronic stress can become self-perpetuating where the brain ends up wiring itself to act in stressful ways. We know there are many hormones in our bodies, and optimum health requires those hormones to be working in perfect harmony. When they are out of balance, which can happen for many reasons, we suffer the consequences. For this reason, we should always be open to a heart to heart talk with our doctor. He or she can arrange for lab work, which may identify that imbalance and be of help in getting us on the road to recovery. There are prescription medicines as well as anti-stress supplements, and your doctor is your best source in determining which are right for your situation.
In my research for this article, I found that adding foods high in magnesium can be very beneficial in fighting stress. During times of stress, your burn rate of magnesium increases and as your magnesium depletes, you become subject to stress, which makes you jumpy and more irritable. Magnesium has a relaxing effect on the body. Foods rich in magnesium include dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa), avocado, nuts (cashews, Brazil, almonds), legumes (lentils, black beans, chickpeas, peas, soybeans), tofu, seeds (pumpkin, flax, chia), whole grains (wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, quinoa), fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, halibut), banana, and leafy greens (spinach, kale, collards, turnip greens, mustard greens).
As a Welderly, I live my life amongst a wide spectrum of ages, from grandchildren to adult children to my peers. I find the years going by with increasing speed, and sometimes I feel that I’m being left behind by family members. It’s very confusing because I don’t want them hovering over me and treating me like a helpless older woman. At the same time, I feel despondent when I don’t get a phone call or when communication seems perfunctory. My children are all good people with families and jobs and lots of responsibilities, and I’ve always been independent. We’re doing a delicate dance at this point, neither of us sure who should be leading and probably not even understanding the way to dance because we don’t know what kind of music each has in his or her head. We also don’t know what kind of moves the other can do. I often feel that people are haphazardly bumping into the ladder where I’m precariously teetering on the top rung, hoping they don’t see that I’m scared.
This article is the second in a ten-part series regarding brain health in our living welderly lives. Some of the information I share is from a book I’m reading titled Regain Your Brain by Peggy Sarlin. I also attended a Healing Energy Convention held locally last weekend and will draw on that exercise as well.
My previous essay, in this regard, dealt with the importance of quality sleep while this article will detail the value of what Ms. Sarlin refers to as the symphony of hormones playing inside our bodies. That symphony depends on every cell functioning at an optimum level resulting in physical energy and being sharp-minded. If that hormone level is off-balance, we suffer the consequences, including lack of energy and memory issues.
Did you know that by age 70, our youthful hormones can drop as much as 90 percent? For optimum brain health, we need to boost our youth hormones and reduce the aging ones. Youth hormones include the human growth hormone (HGH), testosterone, estrogen, and thyroid. At the Healing Energy Convention, I attended a class about the importance of HGH. I learned that this hormone is highly effective in reversing signs of aging and it is replenished naturally in our bodies during the deep sleep stage. I’ll also refer you back to the article I wrote a couple of weeks ago entitled Memory Loss and Lack of Sleep. We need to recognize our need for quality sleep every night and make it a priority. My sleep quality has increased immensely in the last several weeks by implementing some of the tips I shared in that article. I use earplugs to keep out noise at all levels, a sleep mask to nullify distractions such as street lights, etc. and I’ve put myself on a schedule. My body knows it can depend on having regular hours for sleep. I feel more rested, and I know I’m getting into that deep sleep stage because I am dreaming nightly. It’s amazing what a difference this has made in the way I feel.