Stress- A Toxin in your life
Did you know stress itself is not bad. As a matter of fact, stress is our body’s response for survival to certain situations. For example, you notice an angry dog chasing you, your body immediately reacts to this stressful situation. This is the instinctive physiological response to a threatening situation, which prepares one either to resist forcibly or to run away. There is a lot of physiological things going on in our bodies in times like these. The only time it becomes dangerous is if we are always in that state of being. High amounts of stress can cause a surge of hormones to respond to different stressful situations. If we find ourselves always in this state, our bodies can become exhausted and can often lead to certain illnesses. Stress becomes a toxin in your life that can greatly impact your health and lead to more severe illnesses. Prolonged stress can weaken your immune system which can later cause depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, and even heart disease. Although we cannot get rid of stress entirely, there are ways to alleviate stress. Here are few tips for dealing with stress are:
- Get your body moving
Exercise is a great way to relieve stress. Not only does it help with stress management but there are also other benefits to exercising, like weight loss, higher self-esteem and even overall bone and heart health. Next time you are feeling stress. Get Moving! Go for a walk, jog, hike or dance. Exercising should not feel like a chore rather than something you enjoy doing. As long as you get moving you will feel better than sitting down and eating a bag of potato chips.
- Meditate/ deep diaphragmatic breathing
Meditation is another technique that requires you to breathe and relax your mind and your thoughts. Sometimes we get caught up in the moment and we don’t give our mind a break. Meditation has been scientifically proven to lessen stress and reduce risks of other health conditions due to stress. Deep diaphragmatic breathing can be combined with meditation. This requires you to engage your diaphragm to contract. When you inhale your diaphragm contracts and moves downward.
- Sleep
Getting enough sleep is important for various reasons. Lack of sleep has been linked to higher stress levels in a person. Having good quality sleep restores your body’s cells and help you restore your energy supply for the next day.
- Laugh and spend time with loved ones
Laughing and spending time with loved ones is also an easy and effective way to relieve stress. Your body releases endorphins that can relieve stress.
