No one likes to be stressed. The emotional and physical toll it can take on your body is part of the reason why stress may be your worst enemy. Fortunately, with good stress management skills, you can turn the effects of stress into a positive learning experience.
What is stress?
According to MedlinePlus, stress is an emotional or physical response to a challenging activity or situation. It can result in feelings of agitation, anger, or nervousness. Stress can also cause physical tension to build in your body.
What are the types of stress?
First, stress is completely normal. Everyone at some point in their life has to deal with the impact of stress. Not all stress is the same. Basically, there are two types of stress.
- Acute stress
- Chronic stress
Acute stress
Let’s begin by saying acute stress can be protective. For example, the adrenaline rush you experience if you hear a noise when walking home in the dark causes you to run faster than you ever thought you could. This is known as the fight or flight response.
Other examples include your heart racing when you are taking a big exam, playing in a big game, or trying to meet a work deadline. The increased brain activity and heart rate from the release of stress hormones are meant to help you thrive under pressure.
How you respond to this stress is important to your well-being. Each of us responds to these forms of stress differently. At the end of the day, the impact of a stress like this on your body will depend on your response.
Chronic stress
On the other hand, chronic stress lasts for an extended time. Relationship problems, money concerns, and a difficult boss are all examples of chronic stressors. Typically, these types of stress can last weeks or months.
How you respond to these chronic stressors is important. Regardless of the level of stress, chronic psychological stress can cause an adverse reaction in your body. Therefore, learning how to tap into your inner strength will help.
How does stress affect your body?
In response to mental and physical stresses, your sympathetic nervous system activity increases calling for the release of hormones to help you spring to action. In response, you have increased blood flow to your brain increasing your level of alertness. Your heart rate also increases and your muscles can tighten up.
For a short time, this response is good since it helps you manage the situation. However, if uncontrolled it can cause higher levels of inflammation. Due to this arterial inflammation, uncontrolled stress maybe your heart’s worst enemy. Beyond the health of your heart, your risk for developing other chronic diseases also increases.
What health conditions are linked to chronic stress?
It is well known that stress causes inflammation. Together, stress and inflammation can affect various body tissues and are major risk factors for the development of the following medical conditions.
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease (including myocardial ischemia)
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Depression
Furthermore, the cascade of reactions that elevated stress levels cause in your body can make the condition worse. Your brain’s fear center may hinder your response. Interestingly, your lifestyle plays an important role in how your body deals with stress.
How is lifestyle linked to stress?
Truthfully, your lifestyle is an independent risk factor for health. With that being said, your lifestyle can either make you thrive or nosedive.
First, your lifestyle is important for your immune system to function properly. Second, your lifestyle is essential to your heart health. Finally, your lifestyle is linked to your mental health.
With that being said, physical inactivity, poor sleep, and an unhealthy diet can increase the effects of stress. Basically, if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, stress will take a greater toll on you.
How can you manage stress?
The million dollar question, how do you manage stress? First, different people have different stress management techniques. Unfortunately, not all strategies are healthy.
For example, you may turn to substances to ease your undue emotional stress. Although it may temporarily dull your emotions, in the end, it will only make it worse.
To properly manage your stress, you need to look inward and discover your inner strength. When you learn these mind-body techniques you can limit the biological factors that cause higher levels of inflammation. While these skills can be learned, honing your skills in a formal program might be best.
Healthy Lifestyle
Some of the best ways to improve your ability to respond to stressful events like a natural disaster involve living a healthy lifestyle. Even without stress, a healthy lifestyle is important for healthy hearts, healthy minds, and total wellness.
Recent studies show the benefits of habitual physical exercise in reducing your stress reactivity. The good news is new findings say that it does not matter what type of exercise to achieve the benefits! So, where stress maybe your heart’s worst enemy, exercise is your heart’s best friend!
But don’t stop there. Having a consistent pattern of bedtime help establish good sleep habits. These good sleep habits are so important to help you respond to those not-so-easy events.
Next, to strengthen your stress-fighting army, a new study shows just how important your diet is. Specifically, you should focus on a regular diet high in fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.
Finally, and often neglected is the importance of your relationships. That’s right, not your friends and family can help better manage your stress but are protective against cardiovascular events.
Breathe
Simply focusing on your breathing can be a helpful relaxation technique. A recent study highlights the benefits that deep breathing plays on your mental health. By decreasing your sympathetic nervous system activity and activating your parasympathetic nervous system, deep breathing flips the switch to chill mode.
To save time, combine mind-body exercise practices like yoga and Tai Chi together to exercise the muscles of the heart and body in a stress-reducing way! As an added bonus you can also expect lower levels of body fat which is part of the traditional cardiac risk factors.
Check your lighting
Surprising as it sounds, the light you are exposed to on a regular basis can cause the release of stress hormones. Specifically bright blue light caused an increase in cortisol circulating through the bloodstream of study participants. So next time you are changing the light bulb opt for a red light. For blue light that is unavoidable blue-light filters may help.