Why Stress Is Lowering Our Life Expectancy

By Nancy Daniels, the Official Guide To Public Speaking
The official guide to Public Speaking

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While driving the other day, I had the opportunity to hear a bit of Dr. John Gray, author of the best-selling book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, talking about his latest book, Why Mars & Venus Collide.

Of course, some feminists aren't going to like hearing this, but Dr. Gray is confident that women are different from men, that we are wired differently. As he said, "Women's brains are made up of thousands more neural receptors than male brains. The result of this is a higher level of communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain which results in women having what is called an expansive thinking pattern." In laymen's terms this means that women are designed for multi-tasking. Another way of looking at it is that we women 'sweat the small stuff.' And today, there is an enormous amount of small stuff.

Men, on the other hand, having thousands less neural receptors, have a wonderful ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. Of course I'm generalizing, but suffice it to say that men 'sweat the big stuff.'

I am married to a wonderful man. Anything I would ask of him he would do for me; however, as good as he is, it is still my job to tell him what needs to be done. Meaning, I could say to him, "Don't forget to stop at Wawa to get the milk, take the videos back to Blockbuster, and get some gas." He would most obligingly do all three things for me. But I'm the one that knew the three things needed to be done, not him.

Because the majority of women are working outside the home, they are in a situation in which they not only still sweat the small stuff but they also have to sweat the big stuff. Unfortunately, that level of stress is shortening the life span of women today. Up until the last decade, women were living 6-7 years longer than men. Today, those numbers are changing and not for the better.

[Some years ago I had read that we were anticipating an increase in the building of retirement centers and nursing homes for the upcoming babyboomer generation; however, even then I questioned if we would need all of them because I believed stress was going to kill us before we could get there.]

Ladies, if we don't sweat the small stuff, then the small stuff doesn't get done. And that then affects the big stuff. The problem for the majority of women with whom I've worked is that they are carrying that stress in the shoulder and neck areas. Some women notice it in their jaws as well. By the end of the day, they are sore.

Oddly enough, when you improve the sound of your speaking voice, you must learn to breathe with support. Once you start breathing with this support, you will discover that the tension, the soreness, the pain in your neck and shoulders will go away. And your jaw will miraculously unclench!

Who would have thought that improving the sound of the speaking voice could alleviate the stress we carry every single day!