by Alan Baker
So your days are running together because you are subjected to stress coming from all directions and you just can’t seem to get a handle on what it is that is causing all the problems and making you a physical and emotional wreck. You forget that everyone is suffering from stresses of one sort or another, and it is how you handle those stresses that will determine just how much your life will be controlled by anxiety sweating. How about those guys way back in the dim annals of human history that were running around in hides and living in caves making drawings on the walls. Do you think they were plagued by sweating bouts. Sure they were. They had nothing but a spear between them and all kinds of huge animals that had fangs as long as your arm that only had one thing in mind; that was to have the caveman for dinner as the main course. I’m sure anxiety sweating was a topic of conversation around the campfire over a meal of filet of wooly mammoth as they sat around picking their teeth.
So what to do about it. What are some of the ways that we can get our lives into a workable state that will help to prevent this anxiety sweating from happening. How about a weekly schedule that can be broken down into a daily record of what you need to do and when. That would help get you on track so that you are prepared for life’s ups and downs and are not knocked sideways when the unexpected happens. Regular exercise helps too. When you are fit, you feel better and you are not so likely to go off the deep end when emergencies strike or just plain stresses occur, and you can control yourself better and not succumb to a tailspin of pounding heart and sweating. Or how about biofeedback. When stress occurs and anxiety sweating is just around the corner, stop; get your ducks in a row and mentally force yourself to listen to your breathing, breathe deeply, and take a few minutes to just calm down. It works.
Okay, now let’s think of other ways to keep stress and anxiety under control as much as possible. How about your job. Make sure you allot the needed amount of time everyday that surrounds your work and keep it organized while balancing your work hours with your time at home. Don’t be constantly rushing around at home trying to catch up because you spent too much time at work; your homelife is just as important as anything else and it can suffer bigtime if you let the work/home balance get off kilter. And your finances. Let’s get them into a stable condition so that you don’t have to cringe every time you walk past the desk where the bills are, or don’t have to figure out a way to rob a bank just to pay the electric bill. Balance is important, and your bouts of anxiety sweating will decrease markedly as the sources of the stress do too.
Another factor that can cause unbelievable stress in your life is your relationships with other people. Are you dating, engaged, married, divorced, widowed, totally alone, surrounded by family, working with people you like, or working with folks that make your life miserable? Depending on how you interact with the people that surround you in life, is how your body is going to stress out every day. If your marriage is not what you thought it would be and you are having second thoughts but you don’t want your better half to know what you are thinking, you sweat. If you have decided to take the plunge and buy that ring and take that step into matrimony, you sweat. You head off to work determined to tell Sally what you think of her because you can’t stand the way she always whines about her job and uses you as her sounding board, you sweat. So what to do. Take control. Evaluate what would be the best move for you to make in the circumstances, and stick to it. Don’t waffle. Waffling causes more anxiety sweating than any one person needs to have to deal with, and it will drag you down in the long run. Take the bull by the horns, face whatever it is that is making you stress out, and take it on. You may get whacked big time, but it’s far better than quivering in a corner in a pool of sweat.
So when we think of anxiety sweating, what comes to mind as to what is going on in your body to produce all that stress and then all the profuse sweating. We have not progressed very far along the genetic trail since our ancestors were cavemen, and our bodies react the very same way for us today as theirs did way back in the dawn of time. There are only two reactions that are programmed into our makeups, and those are determiners as to whether we stand and fight the thing that is stressing us out, or should we head for the hills and make a run for it. Our bodies feel the stress and immediately send a message to the adrenal glands in our bodies that begin to pump out adrenaline so we are armed with the chemical ammunition we need to take care of whatever it is that is bothering us. But, if we don’t have control of the external causes of the stress, we react over and over again producing much anxiety and the sweating that goes along with it.
But, don’t despair. There are many ways to relieve yourself of stressful situations without making your body go through all that. Plan time to take a walk, and truly involve yourself in the walk. Listen to the sounds around you, look at the colors, smell the smells; let yourself bond once again with the most basic of needs we have as humans, to be one with Mother Nature. That old adage rings true when someone advises you to “stop and smell the roses”. Life is more than schedules and alarm clocks and deadlines; it is pulsing with excitement and fun and happiness. You just need to slow down and let it happen. Keep your life on as even a keel as you can muster in your own little corner of the world and you will find that the better you feel about yourself and your way of life, the less you will be subjected to bouts of anxiety sweating because you are in control.
The answer to all of this lies in the fact that if you want to have a more positive life in general, and enjoy the life you have, then you must have control of what it is that is going on for you on an every day basis. Examine what it is that is stressing you out, and with having a workable schedule , planned downtimes for battery recharging and regular physical exercise, you can face those stressors head on and reduce them markedly. The more you are in control of your mental and physical status, and the more stable your life at work and also at home is; the more you will find that your stress is diminishing and your anxiety level is dropping. There is no magic bullet here, just good planning and a desire to stay on the straight and narrow that will produce the stamina you need to face down the negativities in everyday life that trigger stress, and as a result, when you eliminate them you are also taking away from your life those embarrassing bouts of anxiety sweating that have plagued you for as long as you can remember.