Wellness Weds: Let’s Talk About Stress!

For some of us, it may be quite stressful to talk about this topic. No worries… take a moment to collect yourself. Calmly take a deep breathe in and then out (repeat a couple times if necessary). We are not talking about stress in a way that will make you feel stressed out. Instead, we are offering a constructive approach to stress in hopes that this article will help you to take some small steps to improve how you handle it. First things first, let’s go straight to the basics:

What is stress?
Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you sense danger – whether it’s real or imagined – the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning free throw, or drives you to study for an exam when you’d rather be watching TV.

But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life. In our fast paced world, stress is something so common that many of us live with it on a daily basis. We get it from our work environments, our home life, and sometimes our relationships too. Having a better understanding of stress, its causes, and our responses can be very helpful for how we deal with it.

How much stress is too much?
Experts say that the body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s stress system is activated, the easier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

Because of the widespread damage stress can cause, it’s important to know your own limit. But just how much stress is “too much” differs from person to person. Some people roll with the punches, while others crumble at the slightest obstacle or frustration. Some people even seem to thrive on the excitement and challenge of a high-stress lifestyle. With this in mind, learning to control our thoughts and having a plan for positive responses to stressful situations can be very beneficial to your health and your well being.

What are some things you can do to better handle stressful situations?
You may feel like the stress in your life is out of your control, but you can always control the way you respond. Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. Stress management involves changing the stressful situation when you can, changing your reaction when you can’t, taking care of yourself, and making time for rest and relaxation.

Here are some super easy tips to get you on your way to better handling stressful situations:

• A strong support network is your greatest protection against stress. When you have trusted friends and family members you know you can count on, life’s pressures don’t seem as overwhelming. So spend time with the people you love and don’t let your responsibilities keep you from having a social life. Make it a priority to build strong and meaningful relationships. You can do this by finding a local organization to volunteer with and be a part of, do some social networking (through social networking sites where groups meet regularly, like http://www.meetup.com), schedule time to hang out with friends and colleagues (even if you have to literally pencil it into your calendar, it is totally worth it).
• You can’t completely eliminate stress from your life, but you can control how much it affects you. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing activate the body’s relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. When practiced regularly, these activities lead to a reduction in your everyday stress levels and a boost in your feelings of joy and serenity. They also increase your ability to stay calm and collected under pressure. The next time you feel a stressful situation arising, take a moment to breathe in deeply allowing oxygen to flow throughout every facet of your body, and then exhale releasing that air back into the world. Focus on your calm breathing and relaxing your muscles.
• Most people ignore their emotional health until there’s a problem. But just as it requires time and energy to build or maintain your physical health, so it is with your emotional well-being. The more you put in to it, the stronger it will be. People with good emotional health have an ability to bounce back from stress and adversity. This ability is called resilience. They remain focused, flexible, and positive in bad times as well as good. Easy ways to invest in your emotional health include doing things that challenge your creativity, finding ways to relax (lighting a scented candle, taking a bubble bath, creating a space in your home that is just for you), exercising, doing meditation and/or yoga, spending time with animals (visit an animal shelter), having leisure time (do things because they feel good), and engage in work that ignites your creative energy.

Above all, it is important to recognize when a stressful situation is about to occur or when you are in one. Acknowledge it for what it is, and call it by no other name. Then calmly determine how you are going to handle the situation. For some, this may mean taking a step back and reevaluating how to progress forward. For others, this might mean taking a time out to listen to your favorite song (one that will pump you up and let you know you can handle it). It may take some time to determine what will work best for you, but whatever it is, do that one thing. Don’t let a stressful situation get the best of you. Remember that you have the power within you to handle the situations you are presented with, and stand firmly upon that knowledge.

Resources:
“5 Easy Ways to Reduce Stress” http://www.holistic.com/holistic/learning.nsf/Title/5+Easy+Ways+to+Reduce+Stress
“10 Ways to Reduce Stress Without Spending A Dime” http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/10/10-ways-to-reduce-stress-without.html
“Understanding Stress: Signs, Symptoms, Causes and Effects” http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

By rawfoodnation Tags: emotional health, meditate, reduce stress, relax, stress
Posted in Lifestyle Tips, Wellness Weds | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Wellness Weds: Let’s Talk About Stress!”

1. Elena says:

   July 29, 2009 at 8:15 am

   Great article: short and to the point.

   Stress can cause serious damage indeed, some of which we don’t realize until it is a bit too late. Infertility is rampant in America, and yet we fail to acknowledge that it is at large due to stress. Stress depletes tyrosime productions, which in turn depletes dopamine, depletion of dopamine can cause an array of problems that include, but not limited to: tremors, restless leg, parkinsons, anxiety, moodiness, attention problems, fibromyalgia, garigue, more stree, weight issues, libido problems, poor concentration AND increased prolactin levels, which would cause estrogen dominance in women, thus making them unable to reach menses, or have a short luteal phase. Stress also wears out our adrenal glands, which are also responsible for proper hormone production among many other numerous functions, such as allergies, asthma and fatigue.

   [Reply]
2. What Is Stress? | Find Stress Relief With Several Approaches says:

   July 31, 2009 at 6:11 am

   [...] Let’s Talk About Stress [...]