Mastering Your Stress or Anxiety
We all have stress. It can be good stress (positive) or not so good stress (negative). Obviously too much of any stress can seriously affect your mental and physical wellbeing. By now, we know that there is a definite connection between your mind and your body. It is estimated that most diseases are stress-related. To obtain total wellness we must address all aspects of our lives and seek balance. If there is a lack in one or more expressions (mind, body, spirit) in your life and you don’t know what exactly is making you stressed and anxious, you will inevitably experience what I call “subconscious anxiety” and feel symptoms triggered by biological events you don’t realize are happening.
Good stress (eustress) offers opportunity for growth and satisfaction. Events such as getting married, getting a promotion, starting school or starting a new job are eustressors. Distressors like financial problems, divorce, poor grades and bad arguments can be debilitating. Ability to cope and manage stress can make a big difference in the quality of your life, and may actually help you live longer and happier.
Dealing with stress can be challenging if we don’t know we have it. To deal with stress, first identify what is it that stresses you out or what makes you anxious. Is it at work, at home, with family, with people, at school? Next, pay attention to your reaction to the stress or anxiety, physical responses like high blood pressure, rapid heartbeats, stomach disorders, ulcers, insomnia, headaches, muscular tension and migraines can result. Those are all triggered by the fight and flight response to stress and are meant to protect from immediate danger. However you need to learn to control those reactions and stop running away from the tiger in your head (it’s just in your head, the phone, the computer or your wife are not the tiger). Stress and chronic anxiety can also lead to mild depression and withdrawal.
Next step is to eliminate or reduce the stress if possible. Sometimes the key is to simply get the courage to talk to someone about the problem, someone you trust. Getting the facts together and developing a plan or a compromise can help reducing or eliminating stress.
Research on stress vulnerability has shown that two people may have the same stressors but one gets sick and the other stays well. Why is that? By eating right, exercising (mental and physical exercises), minimize or eliminate consumption of alcohol, eliminate smoking and unnecessary drugs. Moreover there are other important factors such as surrounding yourself with positive and supportive family and friends, rotating or changing your schedule, getting more organized and accepting your life’s situation, therefore making your body less vulnerable to the effects of stress. Taking control of your life’s situation by making a commitment instead of feeling hopeless or denying that problems exits is what I call “getting out of your comfort zone where reality is no longer available to you.”
Life would be boring and dull if we tried to get rid of all our stressors. Therefore, the last step is to learn to manage or control the stress response and to minimize mental and physical reactions to everyday problems. Exercise can absolutely help.
Look out for my next post; I will be taking you through some simple and powerful stress and anxiety reducing tools.
The tips and recommendations in my posts are self development tools only and are therefore not meant to be medical advice; please consult with your physician before starting any exercise program.
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