Stress ???
Get out of it…
Stress is our body’s way of creating energy when faced with a perceived danger. In some situations, stress can help our bodies react to emergencies with more strength and efficiency. Unfortunately, our bodies can’t always tell when we are in an emergency or not. Therefore, we may feel stress for things that are not a danger to our survival, such as taking tests. Too much stress can lead to unclear thinking, mood fluctuations, and poor eating habits. It is helpful to identify your personal stress and react when you feel your body increasing in stress.
What Causes Stress ?
Many different things can cause stress from physical (such as fear of something dangerous) to emotional (such as worry over your family or job.) Identifying what may be causing you stress is often the first step in learning how to better deal with your stress.
Some of the most common sources of stress are:
- Survival stress
- Your survival or health is threatened
- You are put under pressure
- Experience unpleasant or challenging event
- Internally generated stress
- Anxious worrying about events beyond your control
- Tense or hurried approach to life
- Relationship problems
- Environmental stress
- Living environment
- Come from noise, crowding, untidiness or other distractions
- Fatigue and overwork stress
- Stress builds up over a long period
- Try to achieve too much in too little time
- Not using effective time management
Recognize stress there are two kinds of stress
- Short term: Manifestations (signs/symptoms)
- Long term: Physical, internal and behavior effects
- Short Term Stress Manifestations (signs or symptoms)
- Fast heart beat
- Increased sweating
- Cool skin and cold hands and feet
- Nausea
- Rapid breathing
- Tense muscles
- Dry mouth
- Long Term Stress Manifestations
Physical Signs
- Change in appetite
- Frequent colds/illnesses
- Aches and pains
- Fatigue
Internal Effects
- Worry/anxiety
- Confusion
- Inability to concentrate
- Overwhelmed
- Feeling out of control
- Mood change
- Depression, irritability, impatient, being restless, frustration
- Lethargic
- Difficulty sleeping
- Alcohol or drug use Behavioral Effects
- Talking too fast or loud
- Frequent yawning
- Fiddling, twitching or pacing
- Bad moods (Irrationality, emotionality, aggression, defensiveness)
- Negativity
- Bad judgments
- Forgetful
- Increased mistakes
- Increased absenteeism
- Neglect of personal appearance
Here are five healthy techniques that psychological research has shown to help reduce stress in short and long-terms.
Take a break from the stress – It may seem difficult to get away from a big work project, a crying baby or a growing credit card bill. But when you give yourself permission to step away from it, you let yourself have time to do something else, which can help you have a new perspective or practice techniques to feel less overwhelmed. It’s important to not avoid your stress (those bills have to be paid sometime), but even just 20-minutes to take care of yourself is helpful.
Exercise – The research keeps growing – exercise benefits your mind just as well as your body. We keep hearing about the long-term benefits of a regular exercise routine. But even a 20-minute walk, run, swim or dance session in the midst of a stressful time can give an immediate effect that can last for several hours.
Smile and laugh – Our brains are interconnected with our emotions and facial expressions. When people are stressed, they often hold a lot of the stress in their face. So laughs or smiles can help relieve some of that tension and improve the situation.
Get social support – Call a friend, send an email. When you share your concerns or feelings with another person, it does help relieve stress. But it’s important that the person whom you talk to is someone whom you trust and whom you feel can understand and validate you. If your family is a stress, for example, it may not alleviate your stress if you share your works woes with one of them.
Meditate. Meditation and mindful prayer help the mind and body to relax and focus. Mindfulness can help people see new perspectives, develop self-compassion and forgiveness. When practicing a form of mindfulness, people can release emotions that may have been causing the body physical stress. Much like exercise, research has shown that even meditating briefly can reap immediate benefits.
Reference
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress/index.shtml
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-causes-and-effects.htm