Ways to Manage Stress

We’ve all heard that stress can do crazy things to the human body. WebMD says that the human body is designed to experience stress and react to it.
Stress can be positive, keeping us alert and ready to avoid danger. Stress becomes negative when a person faces continuous challenges without relief or relaxation between challenges. As a result, the person becomes overworked and stress-related tension builds.
Stress that continues without relief can lead to a condition called distress — a negative stress reaction.
Distress can lead to physical symptoms including:

• headaches
• upset stomach
• elevated blood pressure
• chest pain
• problems sleeping

Research suggests that stress also can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases such as:

• heart problems
• diabetes
• skin conditions
• asthma
• arthritis
• depression
• anxiety

Managing Distress

If stress leads to distress and distress leads to health problems, it is important to learn how to manage stress.

Obvious Ways to Deal with Stress

Some of these may be things that you have heard all of your life. Either you come by them naturally or they are a common sense of dealing with life’s many problems and obstacles. May it be a good reminder to some of you that have forgotten some of the more obvious ways to live a stress-free life.

1. Avoid substances like alcholol, tobacco, and drugs.

Stress also becomes harmful when people use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs to try and relieve their stress. Unfortunately, instead of relieving the stress and returning the body to a relaxed state, these substances tend to keep the body in a stressed state and cause more problems. – WebMD

A lot of people think that because they’ve had a rough week, the need to get hammered so they can start fresh again or so that they can be relieved of all their stress. While alcohol, drugs, and a drag might make you feel better for a time, that feeling is temporary and as a result you feel more stressed than you did before.

2. Meditation


Meditation doesn’t have be sitting in an empty room with your legs crossed like a pretzel. You can meditate on your way to work while alone in the car. Meditation involves relaxation and focus. Think about all the the trouble and worries in your life and manage them. Organize your thoughts, your routine, and the tension you feel. Put everything in perspective and you will realize that you are in control and that the pains, worries, and problems in your life and miniscule and can be overcome with time and effort.

3. Exercise

It has been proven that exercise relieves stress. Natural News says that exercise releases endorphins into the system. Endorphins are morphine-like hormones that are responsible for the feeling of elation, or well being that distance runners get from running. Other chemicals like dopamine and serotonin are also released in the brain during exercise. Together, these give a feeling of safety and security that contributes to off-setting some of the “internal” causes of stress, such as uncertainty, pessimism and negative self-talk.

To benefit from exercise, it needs to be regular. Exercise needs to be part of a daily routine. Instead of working during lunch, why not take the time to go for a brisk walk, a run or work out at a gym? Exercise will reduce stress and reducing stress can increase productivity.

Regular exercise also impacts on the way you feel about yourself. For example, if clothes fit comfortably and your body is toned due to regular exercise, you feel good about yourself. If you feel good about yourself, your self confidence is given a boost and stress due to feelings of inadequacy is reduced as a result. It will not only make you healthier but regular exercise will also cut down on stress and anxiety and their associated symptoms.

Not so Obvious Ways to Reduce Stress

1. Live a Clean and Organized Life

Clean out your car, organize your closet, do the dishes every night and keep up on your laundry. Tripping over dirty clothes on the way to the bathroom contributes to built-up stress.

2. Get a Back Rub

A back rub is great because it’s effects are long lasting. When you get high or drunk, you feel good for a few hours but you wake up the next morning feeling like crap. When you get a nice back rub, it feels great for a few hours and if it effects how you feel the next morning it will be because you feel more flexible, nimble, and better than you did before the back rub.

3. Go for a Walk

Going for a walk gives you the opportunity to do some meditating, but also embrace the world around you. As you walk, notice how big the world is and how small you are in it. Understand that your problems are small and like I said earlier, your problems can be controlled with time and a little bit of effort.

4. Get Long Hours of Sleep

Sleeping is extremely important. Your body requires sleep so that it can rejuvenate and prepare itself for days ahead. Your body is like a grass and sleeping is like water. If you don’t water your lawn regularly, it will die and be grumpy and stressed all the time.

5. Watch a Cartoon

Those “Shoot-’em-Up” films can be stressful and you might not notice, but they make you tense and stressed. Put on ‘The Goofy Movie’ or ‘Cinderella’ and try to remember what it was like to be a kid and have your biggest worry be the crust on your peanut butter sandwich.

No matter how you do it, reducing your stress and distress will result in a happier and healthier you.