EMOTIONAL REGULATION THROUGH CHIROPRACTIC CARE
Emotions are tough sometimes. Imagine you’re in a bad mood or you’re frustrated, then someone comes up to you and begins to push your buttons. You might find that you shut down and repress, or, on the other end of the spectrum, you explode without regard to who it affects.
Keep imagining: you are running late for something (likely due to kids needing shoes or poor time management) and the person in front of you is driving INCREDIBLY slow, every single light you encounter turns red, or you have to take what feels like a mile-long detour. The frustration builds, and, before you know it, is likely only a matter of time before something has the potential to set you off. Nothing has set out to enrage you purposefully, but you can feel the sense of overwhelming emotions boiling up!
This is commonplace in adults, but don’t forget that it frequently happens with kiddos as well! If you have or care for kids, how many times have you asked them to do something simple that ends up turning into a giant situation? Simple things like requests to clean their room or finish a little more of their food might be the trigger that brings about a tantrum or cry-fest. Maybe you’re out running errands at the store and you deny their millionth request for every toy in the aisle and they start to melt down. These are BIG feelings, and we can all relate in one way or another!
Spoiler alert: the majority of the time it is not actually the toy they couldn’t have that caused the issue, just as it’s not the traffic lights or construction’s fault for enraging you. They might be what activated a reaction, but the true cause is likely a stymied and overwhelmed nervous system.
But why??
Here’s the answer: your nervous system can get overwhelmed and stuck when it isn’t able to adapt efficiently to stress. Emotional pressure builds up and leads to elevated and uncontrolled emotions. As adults, we have learned different ways to cope with our emotions and gain some control over them, but kids are constantly learning about the world around them, and regulating their emotions is one of the things they have to learn!
Think about all the stressors in your life currently: there are physical stressors (such as sitting for long periods of time, not exercising, overdoing it while playing with your kiddos, poor posture, repetitive movements, etc.) and emotional stressors (home, work, kids, friends, relationships, watching the news, procrastinating, etc.). These are likely the first things that come to mind when “stress” is mentioned, but don’t forget that there are likely chemical stressors in your life as well: are you eating fast food a few times a week, on a handful of medications, consuming lots of sugar, or not drinking enough water? Those affect you too!
Those mentioned above can be current stressors in your life, but the stress that has already happened in your life needs consideration as well. The birth process (in whatever form occurred) or antibiotics for [ear] infections, sitting most of the day in school, drinking endless pop and eating countless amounts of candy or cake at every kids’ birthday party, playing sports, and all that comes with them – even learning to roll or walk or to ride a bike – every step of discovering who you are in this world likely includes some sort of unacknowledged or unknown stressor. Not all of the aforementioned items are bad; in fact, many are good and necessary and a regular part of life! However, each and every experience leaves its mark on our bodies and impacts us deeply in ways we may not even yet understand.
Stress, in whatever form it takes, can be overwhelming! It creates interference in our nervous system, which, in turn, makes it more difficult for our body to adapt. When we can’t adapt properly and efficiently, the stress builds up and begins to fill our bucket (the place every single daily experience ends up in our brains). This interference in your nervous system can create issues in your health and make it harder to regulate your emotions. Think of it as plugging in so many appliances that you blow a breaker! Your body comes to a halt in this stressed-out state and creates high internal stress… on top of your external stress!
This is one of the reasons we’re here! Chiropractic can unlock your nervous system and help improve your ability to adapt to stress, big or small. It works through removing the interferences that have been stuck there; by freeing your nervous system of interference and keeping it free, it can go to work on clearing out your internal stress and help you adapt to your external stress more efficiently.
We LOVE this aspect of chiropractic! We believe that every body is capable of incredible things and is innately designed to HEAL; it simply needs to be unlocked and allowed to do so!