While stress is your body’s natural reaction that’s meant to protect you against various threats, it can be overwhelming and debilitating. There are many demands and distractions in our world today, sometimes so many that your body feels stressed all the time. Fortunately, knowing how stress affects the body and ways to control it can help you tremendously.
How Stress Affects You
Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Common symptoms of stress
on the body include headaches, fatigue, muscle tension and pain, sleep problems, changes in sex drive, gastro-intestinal problems, and getting sick easier due to a weakened immune system. Stress also affects your mood and often leads to increased anxiety and depression, restlessness, memory problems, lack of motivation and focus, feeling overwhelmed, sadness, and grumpiness or anger.
Over time, chronic stress can have drastic and negative impacts on your health. Examples of chronic stress include sustained anxiety, depression, weight gain, digestive issues, impaired cognitive function, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and increased risk of heart disease.
Ways to Control and Reduce Stress
Eat Healthy
Eating a well-balanced diet is a crucial part of taking care of yourself. In addition to reducing the risks of diet-related diseases, the types of food we eat affect our mood and productivity levels. Aim to eat fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and drink plenty of water.
Eliminate Unhealthy Habits
While some habits, like drinking, smoking, using drugs, etc. appear to reduce tension, they often make stress worse in the long run (not to mention the damage they do to your physical health.) When people get stressed, they tend to turn to these unhealthy habits so be aware.
Get Enough Quality Sleep
When you’re incredibly stressed, you may have trouble falling asleep and getting enough quality sleep. It’s recommended that adults get about 7 – 9 hours of sleep each night because this is the time when your body and brain recharge. If you are suffering from sleep trouble, make sure you have a relaxing bedtime routine: listen to soothing music, stop using phones and tablets at least an hour before bed, make sure your bedroom is dark, cool, and quiet, and stick to a consistent schedule.
Stay Active
One of the best forms of stress relief is exercise. Physical activity release endorphins – hormones that improve mood, relieve pain, and increase feelings of well-being – and other neural chemicals that refocus your mind. Some examples of great exercise include going on a walk, jogging, working in the garden, hiking, swimming, biking, strength training, or anything else that gets you moving.
Try Relaxation Exercises
Meditation is a wonderful stress reducing activity. During meditation, you quiet the loud thoughts in your head and refocus your attention. This gives you a sense of peace, calm, and balance that helps your health and well-being. Other relaxation exercises include yoga, deep breathing techniques, massages, and journaling.
Laughter is the Best Medicine
While laughter can’t cure everything, having a good laugh does wonders to your stress levels. When you laugh, it lightens up your mood and causes physical changes to the body by cooling down your body’s stress response. Watch a funny movie or tv show, read some jokes, or hanging out with funny family and friends.
Jordan is a writer and photographer based in the DFW area. She graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a Bachelor ‘s degree in English and a Minor in Marketing. She is a history nerd and animal lover, with one dog and three cats at home. In her free time, she enjoys reading, arts & crafts, working on her first novel, and traveling to places near and far.
