Stress
“I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.”― Steve Maraboli
What is stress?
Stress is an emotion of physiological or mental agitation. Like all other emotions, stress has an important purpose. Stress helps you to be active and achieve a heightened emotional state that enables you to get work done or encounter a danger. It is your body’s reaction to a stressor.
When to Worry
If you feel stress sometimes it is fine and very natural to feel that way but if you feel stressed most of the time or all of the time you probably need to consult it with your health care professional or a mental health practitioner to seek a way out. Being stressed all the time means that you are in the fight and flight mode all of the time which is unhealthy for your mind and your body.
Types of Stress
There are two major types of stress categorized based on the duration it lasts. One is acute stress that lasts for a shorter duration and the other is chronic. Acute stress is healthy and helps you in managing frustrating situations and staying alert during them. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is a threat to your health and the worst part is you might get so used to it that you might not even identify it as a mental health problem.
Symptoms of Stress
You might be a person who works under stress in an office every day or a businessman who is always stressed about the profits from his investments. The problem with consistent stressors makes you unable to understand that what you are going through will, in the end, bring out horrible outcomes. To help you understand the alarms of your body constantly requiring attention we have outlined some common symptoms that you might face if you are exposed to stressors for prolonged periods below:
- Stomach problems
- Memory issues
- Headaches
- Lack of energy
- Drug abuse
- Changes in body weight
Symptoms may vary from person to person due to individual differences and a person may not go through all the symptoms.
Physiological Risks
Except for symptoms chronic stress can cause several health conditions that may persist throughout your life. Some of such physiological health conditions are mentioned below:
- Blood pressure problems
- Cardiovascular disorders
- Diabetes
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Acne breakouts
It is easy to guess that you don’t at all want to go through any of the above-mentioned problems and their long treatment phases, therefore, it is important that you manage their root i.e. stress before it is too late.
Stress Management
As in some conditions like stressful jobs etc. you cannot eradicate stress therefore stress management is the best way out. Here in this article, we will try to provide you with some ways through which you can manage stress effectively. Stress is easy to manage if once you identify what are the things that are causing you stress. They may vary from person to person but coping strategies are somehow the same despite the difference in causes.
Take a Vacation
Whatever is stressing you out you need a break from it. Go out on a vacation and have fun to recharge your energy level and get back to your hectic routine with more motivation and enthusiasm. You don’t need to spend a lot in doing so. All you need to do is do what you love, hang out and spend time with friends or relatives.
Take Out Time for Yourself
No matter how important your work is it is not more important than your mental health. You need to take out time from your work for yourself and do something you like to do. You can watch movies, listen to songs, go out for a walk or going to the gym. Such things do not require much time, you can just take out an hour for yourself and it will work like magic to take away all your stress.
Communicate
It is good to communicate with positive people. They take away your stress within seconds. Make sure you stay away from negative people as they are simply energy-draining and stress causing. Communication has its healing power. Just recall your friend after talking to whom you don’t feel stressed at all.