Every day in our lives we are subject to physical, emotional as well as psychological stress. To cope with stressful situations, our body’s response is to release hormones and chemicals to handle these stressful situations efficiently. Unfortunately, these chemicals may linger in our bodies even after the stressful events have ceased.
Sources of stress
The moment you wake up in the morning, potential stress events already linger. For example, if you’re a mom and you have little kids who will go to school. Doing all those chores so as not to let your child be late for school may be stressful especially when you wake up late.
Anger which may be difficult to avoid when your work requires frequent interaction with people can also trigger stress response from your body. Driving your car, meeting deadlines, being shouted by your boss, and many other daily activities can release stress related chemicals in our body.
What happens when we are stressed?
When stressful situations occur, our body can shift to a ‘fight or flight’ mode. This activates the adrenal glands to release hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine(adrenaline). The release of these hormones makes us more alert by pushing more blood to our brain and raises our blood sugar levels. Other bodily functions that are not needed in a fight or flight situation such as our digestive system functions below normal levels to give way for the more important bodily functions for an ’emergency’ situation as our body sees it.
This bodily reaction was meant only for the body to cope with a stressful situation which means it was designed to last only for a short period of time. For example, imagine that you are in a jungle, and you encounter a lion. The body then will react to prepare you either to fight or flee. Your senses sharpen and you gain temporary strength. Whichever way you choose, the stress hormones get spent and your bodily functions return to normal levels.
In our modern lifestyle, we are bombarded with stress one after another without using the effects the stress hormones have provided us. We get angry, get overworked or whatever stress we encounter and the extra energy and other manifestations the stress hormones have prepared us are not put to use and it accumulates overtime which could be detrimental to our health. It could lower our immunity system, decrease our bone density, increase body fat and many more negative effects.
How to spend the stress chemicals
One way to take those stress hormones and chemical out of your body is to exercise or physical activity which the fight or flight mode was intended to be. At least 12 minutes of exercise that could make you sweat and breathe heavily will do. Doing those 5 times a week is very good.
Getting a regular and quality sleep can also very well help. To sleep uninterrupted for the duration that’s fit for you, 7 to 8 hours, can make your body’s healing and repair mechanisms do its job efficiently including those stress hormones that are beginning to accumulate in your body. To sleep in a comfortable bed that eliminates physical stress in your body like air mattresses can greatly help.
Remove stress from your body and you’ll always be in your peak performance.
Each of us confronts stress every day, and how we choose to deal with this has a direct affect on our happiness and well-being. Often our emotions cloud our ability to make good decisions and unwittingly we continue a negative pattern of stress-management. Use these five easy suggestions to improve your capacity to handle the stressful events that come your way and begin living more contently today…
5 tips to removing stress
- Breathe. When stressful events occur, often our first response involves an involuntary level of panic; blood may rush to our faces, stomachs drop, breathing quickens…By stopping yourself and focusing your attention on three deep breaths, this allows all of your senses and self to become fully present in the situation. From this present place, better decisions are made. Clarity is achieved when you can detach from an emotional, automatic response and shift to a perspective of ration and reason.
- Don’t blame – including yourself! No matter how you slice it – here you are and there is something for you to learn right now – what is it? Here’s a hint; it’s all about you. How someone else is behaving may not be appropriate but strip the extras away and it is still all about you. Instead of pointing fingers at anyone else or even yourself, what do you need to do right now? What is your part and how can you make it better today? (Warning: be careful not to fall into victim thinking – “I’m so bad” – that it keeps you from moving forward. It’s not about blame, but opportunity.)
- Ask for help/support. If you are feeling stressed, sometimes one of the best things you can do is seek the counsel of a wise friend, therapist or spiritual advisor. An outside perspective can illuminate personal blind spots that may be tripping you up over and over…
- Stay present and flexible – don’t spin out. A thinking mind can be a dangerous thing – imagining the worst-case-scenarios can be almost intoxicating to obsess over but stop yourself. It is likely none of these worst-cases will come to pass and you have wasted all that time and energy as to be prepared – just in case the worst-case happens then you’ll know what to do…Stop. These are future concerns, shift back to what can I do right now and keep your options open. Rigid thinking of “if this happens, then…” traps you in repeating the same cycles over and over.
- 5. Focus on your desired outcome. It is very easy to identify want you don’t want but shift your focus to what you do want or how you would like your reality to be. Whether you are having difficulty in a relationship, with money, family, it doesn’t matter – spend a few minutes each day thinking about how you would like your relationship to feel, or what it would feel like to have enough money, love…Your thoughts have power. When you change your thoughts, you change your life – new doors open and opportunities appear…Try this for a week and watch the surprises bloom.
Of course, the most essential tool and what frames all these tips, is an unshakable sense of humor. I am the first to say I have a gallows humor, but it has served me well to laugh at myself and the ridiculous situations I have found myself in at times – completely of my own making. Just remember – if it doesn’t kill you, well then, I guess you’re not dead…or the other answer, you GROW stronger.
7 Stress Management Tips – Reliable Ways to Relieve Stress
Every human, man or woman, is having diseases both physically and mentally. Physical diseases can be cured by taking medicines whereas the mental diseases are not so. It serves well if one is aware of the stress management tips enabling him/her to reduce stress and feels relaxed. Only a few are wise enough to know the techniques and ways to relieve stress. Anyhow there are specially trained experts to help for the needed.
Mentally affected persons are different from mentally distorted persons. Some sorrowful events and over work for mind are to affect mental health of a person. But a stress with mental tension is mostly due to own making burden instilled to the brain consequently leading to mental health disorders. So, one should know the under mentioned stress management tips to be free from distorting vibrations in the mind.
- Planning daily activities: It is always good to have a plan of action before to carry out. Any activity with a preplan is well done giving good results as anticipated. It is to say that there is a pleasure to the individual once the goal is achieved as expected. The pleasant result definitely relaxes the mind to proceed further without stress.
- Don’t be in a hurry burry: There are some persons to be always in hectic and hurrying. It is indeed to spoil the rod than to spare for better results. Such persons whether at home or at office spoil their name with bad results in hurried activities. The worst is to say that the individual is thrown to stress and strain. So, it is needless to be hurried in anything if wisely thought.
- Relaxed walking or outing: Whether men or women tired with week through office work and bounded domestic work need rest at least one day at home. Instead of being lazy at home, it is good to spend the holiday with a short picnic to a very nearby place like park or sites for relaxed walking exercise. This will keep the mind pleasant and freed from all stress and tension.
- Yoga and breathing exercises: Yoga for stress management is of two types. One is to keep the body at various static positions making the internal parts flexible accordingly and keeping them alert and active. The other is to keep the mind at an absolutely calm status of tranquility. Yoga is to keep the mind relaxed. Breathing exercise regulates blood circulation and makes you feel relaxed. Both yoga and breathing exercise guided by a trained master are best suggested for coping with stress.
- Divert your mind to mild music: When you are tired with work, physical or mental, tune your mind to hear mild and melodious music which id no doubt one of the relaxation techniques for stress. Soft music is always recommended for reducing stress due to tension in the workplace.
- Anger stress management: Anger is the first enemy for increasing the stress with any person which is almost treated as an anxiety panic disorder. It is advising to all those are easily susceptible to stress to avoid getting angry for each and everything.
- Develop a give and take mind: It is a good psychological process of feeling pleased by giving first something to your friends and feel pleased with a few other things receiving from them. It is one of the reliable ways to relieve stress.
Knowing simply what stress management is and how to manage stress cannot serve the purpose of reducing stress but practicing alone the above suggested stress management tips when in need will certainly help as ways to manage stress.
Last of all:
We all know that eating right and supplementing with the proper products can make all the difference in our stress levels.
Removing the stress from our internal organs can only be done from feeding our organs what they need.
