Think about it. When was the last time you made it through a day without being anxious about something and suffered the unfortunate result of sweating profusely because you couldn’t control the way your body reacted to the stress. Even the cavemen had anxiety in their lives. The thought of a wooly mammoth bearing down on you as you raced for the security of the cave with nothing between you and him but a little stick pointed on one end is enough cause to make you sweat profusely. We’ve come a long way from the caveman days, but we still have plenty of situations that cause anxiety and the resultant sweating. The unannounced summons by your boss to the inner office (“Please close the door behind you.”), to the kids not being home when they were supposed to be, to your wedding day—all of these are stressors in our lives that can overwhelm rational thought processes and cause our bodies to react and sweat profusely.
So let’s examine some ways that you can get control over your life as it is today, and lessen the bouts of anxiety so in turn you can reduce the number of embarrassing times of profuse sweating that plague your day. One of the most effective ways of getting your life into a manageable pattern is to have a running schedule of some sort, so you know how your time is to be allotted during the weeks and what you have to get done in a timely way. That way, when something unexpected is suddenly thrown into the mix, you won’t collapse under the stress of it all and suddenly have an attack of anxiety sweating. And how about getting some exercise on that schedule too. There is nothing better for your peace of mind than to be fit physically and to feel good, not only about the way you look but actually feel good healthwise. Another good thing to try is biofeedback. This trains your mind and body to respond to commands you give it so if you are in the throes of a stressful set back, you can calm down, reduce your heart rate, and regulate your breathing by simply talking to yourself and bringing your stress level down so the sweating is not triggered.
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.
Now we move to an area that can cause the most stresses in most folks’ lives: interpersonal relationships. How is your love life? Are you married, divorced, widowed, alone; what’s the story. How much of your waking time is spent worrying over your better half, or how to get out of an unhappy marriage, or how to plan the wedding day, or just not being popular on the dating scene. The more you let these factors control your thinking and your subsequent reactions to them, the more you will be susceptible to bouts of despair and the resulting anguish and anxiety that goes along with them. It’s time to take the bull by the horns if you are suffering in some kind of situation like any of these and take some action. Step back and look at the situation closely and evaluate what your options are and what you can do about them. Don’t think too much about it, you can overevaluate too; just stop waffling and become decisive and act. Remember we are trying to save your health here, and trying to stop all those bouts of anxiety sweating that have become regulars in your life.
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.
So what to do about all this. One of the best ways for relieving stress and gaining control over our daily lives is to slow down and start to interact with the natural world around you. Take a walk and really take a walk, don’t just amble along. Look and listen and smell, and you will be amazed at how much your system will calm down just by enjoying the pleasures that are all around us in nature. We are inherently connected to nature in everything we do, and when we let it flow into our senses, we revitalize that natural connection and it gives us the stamina to take on the stressors of the day. Our lives are filled with all kinds of techno gadgets and we need sometimes to just remove ourselves from that frenzied beeping world and slow down. “Stop and smell the roses” says a lot.
All being said and done: life is full of excitement, happiness, danger, and stress. You are the one that needs to take control and keep your life in balance so that the negatives don’t outweigh the positives. When there is too much negativity in your life and you have a hard time seeing the silver linings, then it is time you took stock of your way of living every day and examine it closely to see where you can make changes for the better and can make it a more positive experience. Opportunities are all around you and are there for the taking; you just need to recognize them, and recognize that you need to make changes that will allow you the freedom to grab some of them before they all pass you by. Life is one big parade, and there is no better way to live it fully than to stop standing on the sidelines with your anxiety sweating consuming you, and step into the line of march, get in step, feel the rhythm of the positive drum beat, free yourself of worries, and go for it.
