Stress is something everyone suffers from in their lives, be it teenagers, adults or children. Sometimes stress arises from situations that could have been avoided and most of the time, stress can be reduced through meditation, exercise and relaxation. However, though stress can be reduced, it is always better to avoid taking on too much stress on yourself as it proves to be very bad for your health. Stress is something that affects your body just like food and exercise do. Stress can sometimes help you face challenges and problems, and in other times, make things worse. It all depends upon you and how well you handle stress. To handle stress, you have to first know its source and know your stress management options so that you can adopt the best option for stress management for you.
You know when you are stressed, when you come up against something that irritates, scares, or angers you. Sometimes, stress can also make you nervous or pissed off, wherein a part of the brain tends to shoot stress hormones into your body. With this, you find changes in your body’s functions. The heart starts beating faster, palms start sweating, knots form in your stomach and sometimes, you also find a lump in your throat. These feelings can either make you drowsy, or wired; it depends upon you. Some people tend to get more upset with these feelings so that more stress hormones are released wherein the body is upset. This in turn leads to another distress message being sent to the brain and again, stress hormones are released. This ends up as a vicious stress cycle.
It is necessary to have stress hormones in the body as it is these hormones that warn the human body of incoming danger. With a racing heart, you are ready to speed away from danger. The jumpy nerves you get before an exam, a competition or interview help you put more efforts into your preparations. However like all of these things, too much stress is too bad for you. The main thing you have to know is how to break this cycle, and this is the meaning of stress management. It is ok if your stress responses are short where you are only warned of danger. However, if they continue to stay in you, it can lead to harm, you tend to become lousy, and develop a bad attitude with stress, you tend to become a real drag when experiencing too much stress, and worst of all, stress can make you unhappy and prevent you from doing what you can and would do to have the type of life you have always wanted. Sometimes, stress can bring about illness, as the body becomes weak under stress. People get a cold or infection because of stress; and this is another reason stress tends to be bad for your health.
Even overdriving or exerting yourself can lead to stress. This is because with over exertion, the body does not have enough time to fix broken and tired cells. This leads to negative effects on your health as well. With overexertion and stress, many people tend to turn to tobacco, alcohol or drugs for solace. This is a very bad move as all of these things are toxins, which end up destroying the healthy cells of the body, causing disease. In times of stress, many people tend to end up binge eating and bingeing results in obesity. Some people eat more chocolates and some, greasy, salty foods. This is very bad for your health as it only leads to an increase in weight, and the penultimate consequence of stress is depression. Many people cannot tolerate stress and end up depressed, which makes them moody, sad and they end up crying on a daily basis.
It is always better to avoid stress; and if stress does start, it is better to try some stress management tactics before it becomes bad on your health. If you’re feeling stressed out, exercise; go to the gym, take a walk, go hiking. If you would rather relax to relieve stress then go to the beach or get a massage, read a book or take in some culture and instead of focusing on how stressed you are go to a museum and take in the beauty of what human beings are capable of creating or take a class and learn how to create something yourself; use your mind, expand your knowledge, relax, get busy, just don’t let stress take over.
