stressed woman

Fight Stress with 7 Easy steps

Stress and Life! Today, the word stress seems to be an integrated part of our life. Every single person, no matter whether a child going to school, homo-maker or working professional, everyone experiences stress in their daily life. Maintaining your life, health, work and relationships together in this speed pacing world is not easy.

The reasons for your stress can be temporary, for instance, finishing a project at work, preparing for your weekly tests, cooking for a party, etc. These reasons are temporary and ease you soon after the work is finished. But, the long term stress reasons such as crashing stock market or medical conditions have a big effect on your life.

According to a recent survey it has been proved that Women are constantly under stress due to their multitasking issues. Nancy Molitor, an assistant professor and PhD of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Chicago, Feinberg School of Medicine says that due to the economical crisis, stress conditions are worse than earlier. Molitor is also a private practitioner at the Public Education Coordinator for the American Psychological Association.

Stress management is only possible when you take medical help and not virtually. But, managing Stress and health can both become easier with the tips mentioned here.

Stress Attack

During a stress attack, your hormones get imbalanced, the immune system gets weak, brain function gets affected and other medical conditions become chronic.

Short-term stress mostly causes sleepless nights. But on the contrary, stress that lasts longer usually leads to other chronic conditions like digestive difficulties, high blood pressure, heart problems, fatigue, back pain, neck pain, insomnia, depression, anger, breathing disorders, low sexual desire, etc. These are just a few conditions that are caused by long time stress, but to cure stress, there are several methods that help reduce your stress and boost your good health.

Based on the reasons, the curing methods also vary. It completely depends on how a person connects to the treatment procedure. According to Dr. Molitor, you should be ready with a big bunch of methods in your magic bag.

She says that you need to create your own ways to speed your work and take out time to relieve stress. This will act like an oxygen mask before you face your tasks.

Face Your Challenges

Life is never easy. For Ramona Russell, life has been extremely stressful ever since her college days. At the age of 29, she had a very demanding job in Sacramento, working for a non-profit organization. She was burdened with all types of work, right from talking and training volunteers, marketing and public relations. Apart from this, her heart was broken with the news of her sister being diagnosed with breast cancer. Within no time, stress surrounded her. Her non-profit organization started sinking while her sister’s health was also deteriorating. This made her life extremely messed up. During her teen years, Russell loved running and was a good athlete. Even after college she continued running every day and took part in marathons. Soon, as her company closed, she started looking for a new job. But, running regularly helped her reduce her stress and become fresh and light minded. She said that running helped her focus on her priorities and support her sister during her treatments.stressed woman

According to Dr. Herbert Benson, MD at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, repetitive exercises like running or playing games helps you relieve stress. Dr. Benson and his colleagues also found that the relaxation response to these exercises changes to the way your mind and body reacts to stress. In mere words, your heart rate and breathing slows down, metabolic activities reduce, blood pressure decreases and thus your muscle tension also decrease. A recent study also showed that the relaxation response also has the power to alter gene-expression in the long run. You can try playing some stress relief games on your mobile too to divert your mind from negative thoughts.

For Russell, running helped her cope with her financial crisis as well as her sister’s breast cancer and death. “When I run, I feel all stress melt away”. According to Russell, exercising for fighting stress helps her gain energy to fight her stress. Today, Russell is 33 and has started her own business named Uptown Liz (in memory of her sister) a shopping website that mainly refers all the customers to products that are sold for charitable causes.

Other Stress Busters

  • Exercise regularly: Apart from running in a marathon, there are several other stress busters that work and help you relieve your stress easily. Physical exercising just 2 times a week can also help you cope up with long term stress.
  • Say good and boost your spirits: With everything going wrong around you, our spirit dies within. In such cases, it is important that you keep boosting your spirits by saying positive things about yourself. This helps keep the stress hormone, cortisol low. Keep your goal ahead and your mind clear of negative thoughts.
  • Understand the scene and take control: Not everything in your hands can be controllable. Trying to control things often leads to stress. Avoiding things on the other hand also increases stress. Thus, it is best that you try to manage everything easily without stress. Take advises from people and try to understand the situation best.
  • Try relaxation response activities: Do activities that are repetitive. This will help your mind get diverted from your stress. It also helps you quiet your mind, thus relieving stress. For instance, cooking, running, knitting, meditating, playing musical instrument, etc.
  • Follow or develop a passion: Passion is one strong emotion that can change your world. It not only narrows your vision and keeps stress at bay, but it also helps you enjoy your life. For instance, if you love music, practicing it every day will only help you enjoy it more and extending your limits. Large numbers of women attain relief from stress by finding a new hobby, career or passion.
  • Follow a healthy schedule: The food you eat and the schedule you follow has a great impact on your health. Eat fruits and veggies more to keep your system fresh and healthy from within. Avoid the consumption of caffeine and too much sugar as they ignite conditions of stress by making you hyper sensitive. Apart from proper food, it is also essential that you take proper sleep and give your mind and body proper rest, if you miss your sleep or feel unhealthy, you will start taking up stress for unnecessary matters. So, make a schedule for proper sleep and meals.
  • Take out some time: IF you think you can easily tackle stress, then take some time off and re-think about it. Managing stress is easy, but only if you have proper guidance and tips. So, don’t feel shy in asking help for managing your stress.
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