How to manage stress

Stress is the way human beings react both physically and mentally to changes, events, and situations in their lives. People experience stress in different ways and for different reasons. Stress can cause mental health problems, and make existing problems worse.

Life events such as marriage, changing jobs, divorce, or the death of a relative or friend are the most common causes of stress.

Some people experience changes in their behavior. They may lose their temper more easily, act irrationally or become more verbally or physically aggressive. These feelings can feed on each other and produce physical symptoms, which can make you feel even worse.

*Identify what’s causing stress. Develop a plan for addressing it.

*Walk away when angry.

*Eat healthily. A healthy diet will reduce the risks of diet-related diseases. Also, there is a growing amount of evidence showing how food affects our mood.

*Don’t use smoking, alcohol or other drugs to deal with emotions.

*Exercise. Physical exercise can be very effective in relieving stress. Even going out to get some fresh air and taking some light physical exercise, like walking to the shops, can help. Physical activity is important for reducing stress levels and preventing some of its damaging effects on the body. Research shows that activities like yoga and relaxation exercises not only help reduce stress, but also boost immune functioning.

*Take breaks and take things slowly. Even spending a day in a different place can help feel more able to face stress.

*Make breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including those on social media

*Get some restful sleep.

*Don’t be too hard on yourself. Try not to do too much at once.

*Make some lifestyle changes: Practice being straightforward and assertive, use relaxation techniques, develop interests and hobbies, make time for friends
How to manage stress

Always be happy

Being stressed is not part of a healthy lifestyle. Not only is stress damaging to us physically, it can also cause us to eat more and exercise less. Stress can be a huge obstacle that gets in the way of our healthy lifestyle goals. What can you do to effectively manage your stress? The following six steps will help you to make changes to have less stress and more happiness in your life.

Be aware of what stresses you and how you react to stress.
Learn to understand what situations; events, circumstances and people cause you to feel negative stress. Think about what message your brain is telling you about why you feel stressed. Notice the physical reactions you have, a racing heart, and shortness of breath, tight muscles or feeling angry and upset.

Think about the changes you can make.
Is there a way you can set up a structure to reduce or eliminate the stress by being more organised or managing you time better. Can you avoid or eliminate any of the things that cause you negative stress? Can you reduce your exposure to stress by taking a break away from the situation?

Better manage your emotional reaction to stress.
Different things cause different people stress. You may find public speaking extremely stressful but others thrive on this type of challenge. Having too many deadlines may leave you tearing your hair out but may make someone else feel completely organised and less stressed. We feel stressed because of how we personally perceive the situation. Are you stressed because you view things are critical or urgent when that may not be the case? Are you feeling pressure because you are a perfectionist? Try and be more moderate in your view and put the situation into perspective. Get someone else’s perspective on the situation and compare with your own. Are you being over dramatic?

Better manage your physical reaction to stress.
Learn relaxation and deep breathing techniques that will slow down your racing heart, improve your breathing and relax those tense muscles. Learn to smile and laugh more. It’s hard to be angry and stressed while you’re laughing.

Look after your emotional needs.
Don’t live up to other expectations, as these will not be in alignment with your own needs and values. Hang around upbuilding and supportive friends or co-workers. Find someone to share your concerns with. Also learn to ask for and accept help.

Look after your physical health.
Being in good physical shape in itself reduces stress. Be physically active everyday. Eat well, don’t smoke or drink excessively. Get enough sleep and regularly take time out to do things you enjoy.This week look at what is causing you stress and then work at applying the appropriate steps in this article. Be realistic and make changes slowly. 

Can stress be reduced by exercise?

Feeling stress is a common experience and is part of “defense mechanism” to better combat unusual situations or “adaptive behavior. Stress is an exceedingly complex concept. Both highly positive and negative events require adjustment, detract from the quality of life, and affect one's stress levels. Negative life events (e.g., losing one's job, the death of a child, a serious illness) are obvious stressors.

It is probably impossible to eliminate stress and anxiety, but one can learn to manage them. While there are variety of treatments for stress and anxiety reduction such as medication, cognitive behavior therapy, relaxation techniques, coping skills, recreational activities and family support, physical exercises may be the one most recommended by health care professionals and very successful to deal and to relieve stress and anxiety symptoms.

Exercise has been linked to numerous physical health benefits such as improving weight, blood pressure, lowering the risks of cardiovascular disease and other illnesses, and even increasing longevity. Anxiety, depression, and hostility (or negative affect) are typical stress symptoms. Since exercise is associated with short-term mood benefits, it is an effective approach to stress reduction for members of both normal and highly stressed populations.

One biological explanation asserts that exercise increases body temperature, adrenal and steroid activity, as well as the release of certain neurotransmitters such as endorphins.

According to the study by Southern Illinois University, all of the participants responded that they experienced positive emotion elicited after engaging in physical exercise. The positive emotion seems to bring them a feeling of happiness and comfort about who they are more than before they engaged in physical exercise. People with high levels of stress before engaging in physical exercise seemed to alleviate perceived stress after finishing exercise due to positive emotion. (Jong-Ho Kim, Larry A. McKenzie, The Impacts of Physical Exercise on Stress Coping and Well-Being in University Students in the Context of Leisure, Health, 2014, 6, 2570-2580)
Can stress be reduced by exercise?

Understanding yoga

As studies continue to reveal yoga’s many health benefits, this centuries-old eastern philosophy is fast becoming the new fitness soul mate for workout enthusiasts.

Yoga is for everyone and everybody - young and old, slim and obese, liberal and conservative, pregnant women and even people with systemic diseases.

A 2003 study of the YogaEd program found that yoga class participation not only help students improve their attitudes toward themselves, but their behavior also improved.

Prime among yoga’s many health benefits is its proven ability to help reduce stress. Yoga can help to reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and improve circulation to help remove toxic waste from the body.

Most people are usually drawn to yoga first as a way to keep fit, but the idea behind the physical practice of yoga is to encourage deeper mid-body awareness.
Understanding yoga

What’s Wrong with Stress?

What’s Wrong with Stress?
Research confirms that excess stress worsens nearly every health condition. Stress raises cholesterol levels and blood pressure and it makes blood clots faster, cussing heart attack and strokes.

It cripples immunes function, making us more susceptible to infections and tumors.

It raises blood sugar levels in diabetes makes irritable bladders more difficult to control and increases inflammation.

It triggers lupus attacks, causes premature birth, and increases pain and disability in arthritis.

Nearly identical reactions occur in animals experimentally subjected to stress, so it’s not all in our heads.

Prolong stress is a killer and rushed, unaware living is a major cause of stress.

More to the point , too much stress makes you feel miserable. Our muscles get tight, out breathing short, We develop pains in various parts of our body, we feel tired all the time.

This kind of stress takes the pleasure out of life and leaves us on the constant edge of anger or depression.

When we feel this way we are much less likely to engage in self care.

It must be said that’s some people can suffer very little stress and still can be sick.

Some of us actually understood, bored, doing little or nothing to keep ourselves interested in life.
What’s Wrong with Stress?