Adapting and Thriving in a Stressful World

If you feel like life’s daily stresses are more acute these days, you are not alone.

While somewhat less severe in the Seacoast region, the economic recession and its attendant high unemployment rates have created a double whammy: job seekers suffer significant stress while unemployed, and those with jobs often feel overwhelmed by the workload they must pick up under austere company budgets and a reduced workforce. Even the global delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland were warned of the growing dangers of worker burnout from economic turmoil, constant communication, and a relentless pressure to succeed – all leading to a rise in stress-related conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, depression, anxiety, and many autoimmune diseases.

Financial and work-related stresses are examples of emotional stress that often lead to declining health, including neck pain, immunity suppression, and sleeping problems. While not as widely discussed as other types of stress, such as the physical stress of an overt injury or working in front of a computer all day, or the chemical stresses of poor eating choices and excessive alcohol intake, emotional stress is now one of the great health problems confronted by health practitioners around the country.

Fortunately, with mental and emotional stress, it’s not the “stressor” that determines our fate. Instead, it’s how well we adapt to the stressor, and how well we reorganize ourselves internally that determines how we manage life’s changes and challenges.

New methods of stress management are becoming more available to help patients not only relieve the physical pain that stress causes - including neck pain and headaches - but also to help patients upgrade their strategies to thrive despite increasing stressors..

Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) is method of health care that focuses on the function of the nervous system, which controls the body’s response to stress. “Whether we are thriving or just surviving in the face of life’s challenges has a lot to do with how well we physically, mentally, and emotionally adapt to changes around us,” said Dr. Kimberly Higney, chief NSA Practitioner at the Cardea Center for Well-Being, a Greenland, NH-based wellness center. “In our complex, fast-paced world, more is required of us to be successful professionally and personally.”

NSA was developed to use a minimal amount of force to reduce tension and pulling in the nervous system. “This is important because that tension on the brain and nerve tissue keeps us in a constant state of emergency, and that constant stress not only robs us of our potential, but also keeps us dependent on a healthcare system that doesn’t address the root of the problem,” says Dr. Higney. “Unlike traditional health care, our focus on the nervous system allows people to upgrade their body’s response to stressors, better handle whatever comes at them, and make wiser, more proactive choices about their health.”

Dr. Higney’s approach to wellness, and the outstanding results her practice produces for patients, has earned Cardea a reputation as one of New England’s leading NSA wellness centers. Their approach typically includes the use of state-of-the-art assessment tools to determine the baseline function of the nervous system, and signs of how the body is handling stress. This is followed by a series of gentle but surprisingly effective adjustments to affect the spinal cord and nervous system that facilitate self-regulation and reorganization within the body, producing self-healing while relieving temporary pain.

Cardea’s growth and popularity have been based on patient satisfaction, word-of-mouth referrals, and a growing acceptance in medical and social circles of the benefits of NSA as to health, vitality, and wellness. A large study of 2800 patients receiving NSA has demonstrated a high degree of health changes, emotional well-being, and lifestyle improvement, and it’s also received effusive praise from noted motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and nationally-recognized physician Dr. Deepak Chopra for its holistic healing benefits.

Cardea has also partnered with the Green Alliance, a green business union of 85 green businesses across New Hampshire, Southern Maine, and Northern Massachusetts, to expand its reach among the region’s eco-conscious community.

“Since the demands of life will continue, we need to teach our bodies to adapt more effectively. Otherwise, pain relief will just be temporary,” concludes Dr. Higney. “Covering up symptoms to avoid addressing underlying problems just isn’t good enough anymore.”

For more information:

Cardea Center for Well-Being: http://www.cardeawellbeing.com/

Green Alliance: www.greenalliance.biz