Don’t Let Stress Control Your Life
Improving Your Health by Reducing and Managing Your Stress People have always been under stress, but the stressors of today are more constant. They begin as soon as you get out of bed in the morning and continue until you go to bed at night. This is especially true for women, who are frequently juggling the demands of household duties, a job, family and friends. These everyday stressors of your daily grind build up over time, causing a significant detrimental effect on your health. There are many steps you can take to handle stress and live your life to the fullest.
However, chronic stress, be it positive or negative, can affect your health in a variety of different ways. It causes your insulin and cortisol levels to rise and can eventually culminate into adrenal fatigue. Chronic stress impairs your immune system, making it more difficult to fight off infections. It can also lead to weight gain.
Four Major Steps for Stress Management
How you respond to the stress in your life is much more important than what actually causes that stress. But what do you do to either decrease the stress in your life or manage how it affects you? There are ways to handle the stress so Benita Swartout, D.O. that it has less of a detrimental impact Stress and Your Health on your life. There are four major steps that I recommend to manage your stress: Anything that causes you to adapt is a form of stress. It’s not always negative u Regular exercise. A regular exercise — there are positive stressors, as well. program can drastically reduce the For example, welcoming a new baby into stress levels in your life. With exercise, the family or throwing a wedding may you will feel less stressed overall be positive stressors. Negative stressors and you’ll be able to manage your include such things as car accidents — response to stress better. or even very minor incidents, such as u Proper nutrition. A healthy diet is very effective in reducing slamming on your brakes to stop quickly. and managing stress. Certain foods, such as refined carbohydrates, can have a detrimental effect on a stressed You actually need some stress in your life. It’s a motivating body. factor. When you have a due date for something, whether u Quality sleep. You need 7 or 8 hours of quality, non-drugthat’s an assignment at work, a personal goal, or anything induced sleep every night to give your body an edge in else, it’s the stress of that approaching date that motivates managing stress and combating the negative effects of you to take action to complete a task on time. Without stress, your daily stressors. it can be very difficult to stay productive and accomplish everything that you need to do during the day. u Relaxation techniques. There are many techniques, including yoga, meditation and deep breathing, that can help you to relax and reduce the detrimental effects that stress can have on your life and your health.
Different Stressors
for Different People
What one person finds stressful, another may not. It’s not the cause of the stress that’s important — it’s how you react to it. For example, you may have difficulty dealing with the long line at the grocery store, but you may have no trouble at all with a fast-approaching deadline for a major project at work. Meanwhile, a friend may breeze through grocery lines while feeling overwhelmed by a project deadline.
By following these simple guidelines, you can reduce your stress levels and help your body respond to stress in healthy ways. These positive responses to stress can drastically reduce the health risks posed by chronic stress.
Relaxation Techniques to Try When the effects of stress weigh in on your life, you can find quite a bit of relief through different relaxation techniques. If you’re looking for formal, structured guidance in relaxation,