In a study conducted in 2018 with over 4,000 respondents, it was found that in the past year, 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope. That’s 3 out of 4 people with extremely levels of stress!
Being able to reduce stress is the one of the greatest factors that positivity affects your mental health and overall well-being. Stress is the feeling of physical or emotional tension. It is brought on by any event or thought that causes anger, nerves, or frustration.
Stress typical plays a significant role in all of our lives at some point. The key is being able to control it before it controls you.
High stress situations commonly occur because people tend to overload their schedules and take on big challenges. In some ways, stress can be positive as it will work as a motivational purpose. However, too much stress for a long period of time harms your health and wellness.
As one takes on more responsibilities or tasks, they have more and more stressors to balance and deal with. The important thing to realize and acknowledge is that there are ways to help reduce that feeling of being overwhelmed and stressed.
Managing stress is so important in order to maintain a healthy and happy life.
About Stress
Everyone of affected by stress and everyone has a different way to cope with it and recover from a stressful situations.
Not all stress is bad though. When stress becomes a more long-term, it begins to serious affect your health and you may start to see some negative symptoms. Without addressing this, the constant strain on your body can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, other illnesses, and mental disorders.
It is important to recognize the signs of too much stress and find ways to manage it.
Signs of Too Much Stress
A lot of times you may not realize how much stress you are putting on your body until it has already become a big problem. To much stress might cause you to feel weak and unhappy and it now controls your life and feelings.
Learning to recognize a few symptoms of too much stress will help to better manage your stress before it gets too overwhelming.
Symptoms
- Headaches
- Tiredness
- Irregular sleeping; too much or too little
- Weight loss or gain
- Forgetfulness
- Constipation
- Use of drugs/alcohol
Reducing and Managing Stress
Using these practices below to reduce stress is highly beneficial but it is also important to engage in activities that help reduce your stress even before you start feeling stressed. Below are some of the best practice I do that help me manage and avoid stress.
Engage in self-care!
One of the best things you can do to reduce stress in to engage in self-care. Self-care is the practice of improving your physical, emotional, and mental health through regular sleep, exercise, relaxation, and healthy eating. All of that combined helps reduce and manage stress to enhance wellness.
Self-care also includes any activities in which you can relax and unwind. This looks different for everyone. For some, it can include taking a bath and putting on a facemask. For others, it might include mediation or yoga.
Whatever that activity is for you, add self-care into your regular routine to manage stress.
For more about self-care, how it benefits you, and other forms of self-care, click here.
Read the next post in the Wellness Series here.
Exercise
Exercise is a great form of self-care that is also one of the best ways to reduce stress. It reduces levels our body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also increases endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators. These chemicals help you feel relaxed and accomplished.
Make lists/prioritize
Figure out what is important to you.
This is super important especially if you are someone that commits to too much or over-books your schedule. Remember, we can only fit so many things into one day. When we get overwhelmed with a bunch of things to do, we get stress.
One way to avoid this is by writing out all of the things you have to do so you are not trying to remember everything in your mind. You will be able to then look and decide what the most important things.
I do this almost every day. I’m a student in college. It is no secret that I have a bunch of assignments and things I have to prioritize each day. Sometimes, it get a little stressful and I start to feel overwhelmed. However, making a list of my tasks helps to keep those tasks and my stress organized and manageable.
Sometimes it is a matter of eliminating a stressor.
When your list gets too long, you might have to make a decision to eliminate something in order to manage the important tasks and keep your wellbeing and stress to a minimum. This might not be the easiest decision; however, it is important to make sacrifices when it comes to mental and physical health.
Get Social
Start spending more time with family and friends. When we are stress, we tend to isolate ourselves. One study, particularly for women, says spending time with friends can help release oxytocin, which is a natural stress reliever.
Spending time with people you enjoy, and love will help release stress and promote happiness and a sense of belonging.
This also gives you a chance to talk out your feelings and problems with the people you love and seek advice. This is a healthy way of coping with stress as opposed to turning toward drugs and alcohol. Sometimes all we need is someone to listen to us which in turn, makes us feel better.
Let go of the little things
Finally, let go of the little things. There is no point in stressing about things that don’t matter. There is very little control you have of things around you. The only control you have is of yourself and what you do with that.
Don’t stress about other people.
When things don’t go the way, it should, or the way you want, take a moment, and adjust your course. Change the direction.
Don’t waste time and energy stressing about what might happen or what is going to happen. Chances are, the things you plan, especially long-term, are never going to turn out the way you thought they would. Take life one step at a time and enjoy the ride.
Reducing stress might be easier for some people and extremely hard for others. If it is hard for you to let go of small details and remind yourself of the things that really matter. Remind yourself of the things you have control over. Some stress is unavoidable, however if you work to limit the stress that you have the power to change, you will have a better well-being and happiness.
Remember that is it important to manage and reduce your stress constantly. Find ways to suit you and your life to cope with stress in order to maintain your mental and physical health. This will in turn create a healthier and happier life and promote wellness.
Read the previous post in the Wellness Series: How Manifesting Can Change your Life: 3 Power Steps
Read the next post in the Wellness Series: Navigating Emotions: The 5 Best Strategies to Understand your Feelings
“A man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” -Confucius
“Peach is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” – Wayne W. Dyer
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