Managing Stress

Doctors have warned patients about stress for many years now. That’s because stress can cause a lot of damage to a person - both in a physical as well as a mental capacity.

When you experience stress, especially if that stress is long term, the effects begin to show up in various places in your body. You may begin to experience headaches and even start to develop migraine headaches that are so severe they impair you ability to function.

Besides headaches, stress can also cause stomach issues. You can develop stomach pain that’s so sharp it feels like an ulcer - and yet medication won’t make the pain go away.

Stress can bring on high blood pressure that can remain elevated and lead to additional health problems. You may start to have chest pains that cause you to question whether or not you’re having a heart attack.

Muscle aches and pains are also part of the ways that stress can show up in your body. Some days it might feel like the weight of the world is literally on your shoulders, and you can’t even crawl out of bed to face the day.

Changes in bowel habits are common when you have stress in your life. Constipation, diarrhea or a combination of both can happen. Nausea and feeling light headed or off balance are other symptoms that show your body is under stress.

Stress takes a toll on your immune system, too. It can cause you to not be able to fight off simple viruses as easily as it could before. You might notice you’re constantly plagued with colds.

Fatigue often goes hand in hand with stress, yet no matter how tired you are, you may find that you’re unable to sleep. Insomnia keeps you tossing and turning throughout the night because you can’t find any relief from your thoughts.

If stress relief isn’t found, you may begin to experience a lack of interest in sex. If you currently have any medical issues, stress can make the symptoms associated with that condition more pronounced.

People with asthma and arthritis will often have worsening symptoms due to the stress. Those who have diabetes will experience higher than their normal glucose level readings.

Mentally, having stress that’s not dealt with can lead to depression. You may start to feel a cycle of sadness or grief that’s just not relieved by anything. You may feel like there’s nothing worth smiling about and everything you used to find joy in, you won’t want to participate in.

Anxiety is common with stress. You may feel jittery - unable to sit still. Trouble handling anything that comes up at work may be part of what you go through. Spacing out, performing your daily activities (but not really being present) is also common with stress.

Mood swings are typical with stress and anger is usually more noticeable. Stress can make a person more apt to have a short temper. You may start to pull away from your family and friends.

During times of stress, addictions often develop. Stress that lasts longer than a few weeks can lead to problems eating. You may start to eat too much as a way of trying to quiet the inner turmoil and learn to quell the stress in an unhealthy manner.

This is how a food addiction can start. Or you may go the opposite direction and begin to avoid food. Stress is a common cause of eating disorders as people try to find a way to stop the anxiety through something they can control.

People trying to deal with stress can also often develop alcohol or drug addictions as a way of trying to feel better and to numb their thoughts. It might start out infrequent, but become a crutch as time goes on.

Stress can affect relationships. Isolation can be part of how people try to deal with stress. They disappear physically, avoiding their family, friends and coworkers and begin to shun social gatherings.

If you experience any of the symptoms of stress, then you need to find a way to get relief so that you can live your life with inner peace.  You have to recognize your stress triggers and then choose a plan to deal with them.

Stress Triggers

Although stress triggers can vary according to the individual, there are many common stress triggers that everyone can have. Worrying can make stress worse.

In fact, stress can put down some pretty strong roots if you have a habit of worrying.  Topping the list of stress triggers is financial worries. Thinking about money - especially the lack of having enough to pay the bills - can trigger stress.

When there are money problems, it can keep you up at night worrying. The next day, you’re not productive and thinking clearly, so the crisis continues, worsening with each passing day. 

Relationships and problems within those relationships can also be a stress trigger. In relationships involving couples, the top three stress triggers are arguments over in-laws, sex and money.

In households with adult children, stress triggers can be caused by worrying over conflicts with the adult child. In this day and age, many kids have flown the coop, only to return home soon because they can’t find a way to support themselves.

Work can bring on stress. Even if you aren’t overwhelmed with duties, you can put on a self-imposed pressure that can stress you out. Resentment toward a coworker or a boss can be a stress trigger, too.

Becoming too busy and getting overloaded with things to do to the point that there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get everything done can make you feel stressed out. When you reach this point, you may begin to notice physical symptoms of stress.

Worrying about the future, about what might happen in various areas of life and with those you love is a common denominator among people who deal with stress.

Having a lot of disorganized or cluttered areas in your life can lead to stress. That’s why it’s important that you make sure that your environments are designed for calmness and relaxation.

Striving to be perfect in everything you do will lead to stress. No matter how hard you try, you will never reach perfection in everything that you do and aiming for perfection will only leave you feeling frustrated and riddled with anxiety.

Stress Relievers

Stress can make you feel like you’re living inside of a pressure cooker. It can either be internal or external in nature and it often makes a person feel like he or she has no control over whatever is going on.

The key to finding a successful stress relief option is to make sure that it addresses the type of stress you have. Stress relief techniques can help you learn how to deal with stress by teaching you ways to cope - and it will help you feel more in control of your stress.

One of the simplest ways that you can deal with stress is to check your sleep habits. Whenever you’re not getting enough sleep, it can cause stress, and it can also prolong the time it takes you to learn the process of how to cope with it.

Make sure that you take steps that help you sleep. Don’t deal with anything that triggers your stress right before it’s time to go to bed. That means avoid paying bills, not getting drawn into relationship conflicts and not spending time thinking about issues that you can’t solve at that moment.

Learn a mental technique to help you sleep. Imagine rounding up all of the things that cause you stress. Open a door in your mind and push the things in there. Close the door and bar it, promising yourself that you’ll deal with them in the morning.

What usually happens is that when the morning comes, you’ll be able to think with a clear head and understand that the issues are solvable if you deal with them. It will help you not feel overwhelmed as you try to fall asleep.

Avoid caffeine and any upsetting news stories right before bed. Try to make sure that your bedroom is a haven. If possible, don’t use your bedroom for anything other than as a comfortable place to sleep.

Exercise is another great stress reliever. The type of exercise that you do is up to you. You can aim for something low impact such as walking, or you can take up a cardio routine.

Whatever exercise it is that you choose to do, it will help you deal with stress and there’s a good reason for that. When you exercise, it makes you feel good because it stimulates your brain to produce endorphins.

These hormones give you a feel-good effect - a natural high that can last for hours and sometimes all day. Exercising has long been known to fight stress because it allows you to feel a sense of control.

It can alleviate many of the symptoms associated with stress. Exercise improves blood flow to the brain, which can help you deal with headaches. You get lowered blood pressure readings when you exercise - even if it’s stress that raises your blood pressure.

Getting active with exercise also relieves the tension that stress places on a body. That means the muscle aches and pains that stress introduced into your life can be relieved by exercising.

You’ll also discover that your glucose level will smooth out and your emotions will improve.  You learn to feel good about yourself, about your body and about your environment when you feel like you’re in control.

Plus, exercising gives you a host of benefits besides dealing with stress. It can make you feel more energetic, get you in shape and it can help you get a good night’s sleep - all of which will help you get a handle on stress.

Yoga

People use yoga to help them deal with stress. There are different styles of yoga - but the benefits are the same with each style. Yoga is a series of poses that can relieve stress in your body.

While some people see it as a form of exercise, it’s really much more than that. Yoga is a relaxation technique that can give you the necessary coping skills to combat stress - but it can be used throughout your life to help you remain focused within rather than without.

Instead of focusing on the internal or external stress triggers, yoga shows you how to focus on breathing and relaxation. The practice teaches you not to dwell on what’s happened.

This is an area that causes many people stress and it does no good to constantly rehash old events unless you’re willing to take action on them. That’s why yoga doesn’t teach that the stress triggers aren’t viable - but that keeping them on a hamster wheel in your mind does more harm than good.

Dwelling on things you can’t solve is counterproductive. Yoga teaches people to also not think about what may come in the future. While you can’t solve what’s already happened by stressing over it, you also can’t prepare for the future by stressing about what may come into your life.

Instead of looking back or forward, yoga teaches users that the present is sufficient in order for you to live the best life possible. While yoga can’t remove the situation causing you stress if your stress is external, it can remove the emotional response that the stress triggers internally.

By learning how to stop fretting and stop focusing on the stress and instead learning how to simply be, you’ll be able to minimize or eliminate the stress that you’re facing.

If you’re a beginner with yoga, you might want to look at the lyengar yoga, since that style is fairly easy for those new to the practice. If you want to use yoga as a form of exercise to deal with the stress, you’ll want to check out bikram yoga. For a yoga practice known to target stress, you might find kundalini yoga helpful.

Meditation

Meditation has been around for years and is used as a successful means of alleviating stress. During meditation, the mind stops the focus on the stress and instead focuses inward, reaching toward a calm mindset.

Meditation helps those who do it to learn coping skills and helps them be able to look at what causes the stress with a better point of view. It also helps you see how to stop dwelling on the negativity associated with the stress.

There are several different types of meditation that you can use. Among the most popular are transcendental, mantra and mindful meditation. Qigong and Tai chi are also popular.

Aromatherapy

With this type of stress relief therapy, you learn how to use essential oils to promote relaxation and freedom from stress. These oils have a calming effect and can promote the body’s own natural stress relief triggers.

These plant oils can be used in various ways. You can use them in a bath or as a room spritzer. But the most common way that people who use aromatherapy as a stress reliever is in the form of candles or on unscented incense sticks.

You can buy aromatherapy candles or make your own. It’s the same with the aromatherapy incense sticks. You can buy them scented or unscented. Drops of the essential oils can be used to scent the sticks and placed in a holder.

Choose an oil that’s known for its calming properties such as lavender or jasmine. There are also aromatherapy machines that release puffs of scent into your home or office without you having to think twice about it.

EFT

This is short for Emotional Freedom Technique. To relieve stress with this form of therapy, you learn how to locate and tap pressure points located on your body. These pressure points in turn trigger the relief from stress.

The basis for this technique is found in the electromagnetic energy in the body. When this energy is tapped into, it can relieve stress, similar to acupuncture or acupressure therapy. 

Using a gentle touch with their fingers, those who practice EFT will tap the points and while tapping, will use the mantras practiced in the therapy. Unlike yoga, instead of not looking at the core cause of the stress, EFT therapy has the users directly address whatever the problem is.

The problem or situation that led to the stress is acknowledged, but followed up by a positive affirmation so that you don’t end with a focus on the stress itself. The mantras used are a form of self-acceptance that help calm the emotional impact of dealing with stress.