By Hanne
Each of us experiences stress, but what is it? What are its effects on health? How can you control feelings of stress? In this post, I’ll go through the effects of stress and give you 5 simple tips to manage stress
Recognize stress
- and find 5 tips to manage stress
The word stress is familiar to us, but what does stress mean? Talking about stress indicates how the brain and body respond to our needs and life demands. The many challenges in life can be stressful, including stress from work and studies. Stress can be caused by various life changes, excessive and strenuous exercise, or eating too little. Often the latter are ignored, even though they stress our sensitive body just as much as other stressors.
Stress has a significant impact on our health, and therefore it is good to learn how you react to it and how it affects you.
1. Stress Affects us All
Each of us experiences stress from time to time. There are different types of stress, as already mentioned above. And it involves physical and mental health risks. Stress can be caused by a one-off event, a short-term event, or an event (series) that lasts for a longer time.
Regular stress can be caused by work, school, or other pressures related to daily life. Also, any sudden critical change in life, such as losing a job, ending a relationship, or illness, is stressful. Stress is also behind dramatic events in life; accidents or natural disasters.
2. Not all Stress Equals as Bad
Stress is needed in the right amount, and not all of it is automatically bad for us. When we face a dangerous situation, our bodies prepare to face it and escape to safety. In such cases, our heart rate rises, our breathing speeds up, our muscles tense up, and our brain uses more oxygen. All bodily functions aim at survival, and it is a stress response. Stress can also motivate people, for example, in a job interview, in which case the response is quick and alert in all respects.
3. Prolonged Stress can be Harmful to your Health
Prolonged chronic stress and coping with it can be challenging because the cause behind it is constant, unlike acute stress. As a result, our body never receives a clear signal to return to normal.
With chronic stress, activities that are activated to keep you alive can interfere with your immune system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, quality of sleep, and ability to reproduce. Symptoms of stress can range from digestive symptoms to headaches, insomnia, sadness, anger, or irritability. Of the digestive problems, the most typical stress-related problem is irritable bowel syndrome.
Over time, the constant force caused by stress can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other illnesses that include mental disorders such as depression or anxiety.
Because of all these factors, knowledge of our bodies is essential. For example, when sleeping problems or other symptoms appear, we can associate it with the root cause of prolonged stress.
The Habit of Stress
When the stress becomes chronic, it is a danger to us. The stress reaction is meant to keep us alive. When this reaction is triggered solely by driving to work, the irritation that comes with the stress reaction is constant and overwhelming. It breaks us down and burns us out.
So what exactly is going on then? The “fight or flight” reaction caused by stress contributes, among other things, to our blood clotting more quickly, our blood sugar rises, blood pressure and cholesterol are rising. The question then is whether heart disease is caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, or cholesterol, which are purely due to our lifestyle choices, or is the root cause actually chronic stress?
About 90% of diabetes and heart disease are preventable through lifestyle changes. And we often focus on diet and exercise, which is, of course, good for health, but in this context, we shouldn’t forget stress and its role. If stressors are ignored and unaddressed, we are still prone to chronic diseases. Prolonged stress negatively affects digestion, weakens our immune system, and leads to heart disease.
Balance of Stress and Rest
Our autonomic nervous system has two parts, consisting of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. The opposite of the “fight and flight” reaction in our body is “rest and digest.” And it works pretty much the opposite to the “fight and flight” reaction. Both reactions work in the same way, and they are automatic. However, functioning in today’s society “irritates” mostly the “fight and flight” reaction, and recovery, in turn, is often incomplete.
However, we desperately need to recover and rest. But the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system is generally relentlessly too little in our modern society. For many, moments of relaxation come only once or twice a week. In the worst case, our moments of relaxation wait for our annual vacation. Needless to say, “rest and digest,” i.e., activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, should be regular, and it should happen daily.
Tips to manage stress: Meditation
Meditation and different types of breathing exercises are powerful tools for stress management. Breathing exercises have been shown to reduce the stress response. Together, meditation and breathing exercises help increase the understanding that everything is well in the moment.
Stress is everyone’s unique experience of threat and the fact that we are in danger. And it is possible to influence such an understanding because it is not real. It is your view of your environment and the world. Meditation allows you to see the world differently than before. And this way, the world will no longer present itself to you in the same light. You will no longer experience stress in the same way.
The start of meditation practice involves taking distance from our thoughts. We are no longer part of our thoughts. We kind of look and observe everything from the outside. And it is very soothing at its best. Over time, meditation brings you closer to inherent peace within you. And it makes life less scary. When talking about meditation, we should note that there are different types of meditation. Sitting still and concentrating on breathing is ideal for some, while others can calm in a more active way through active concentration. To this need, I created the online course Meditation & Mandalas, which aims at focusing and calming the mind through activation. This technic I found helpful after facing the trauma of a natural disaster I was caught in. You can read more about the course content here.
Tips to manage stress: Moderate Exercise
Moderate exercise helps manage stress. Walking in the woods is a great way to calm your mind. And for a stressed body and mind, it’s a better form of exercise than running, for example. Going to a yoga class is also an excellent way to relieve and manage stress.
Yoga calms our bodies from head to toe. It helps us let go of the grip of chronic stress. Chronic stress causes muscle tension, thus blocking blood flow to muscles and tissues. And as a result, the removal of waste products from our tissues becomes more difficult. The unimpeded flow of energy into the tissues and the removal of waste products are the factors that keep it healthy.
Yoga increases our understanding that we exist for a reason. Therefore, when we face challenges, we no longer encounter them with the same fear as before because we believe the challenges are part of our yoga journey.
Short stress-relieving Yin yoga
Tips to manage stress: Calming down
In today’s world, it is “fashionable” to be active all the time. But did you know that multitasking is highly stressful for the brain? It’s better to focus on one thing at a time and take care of it from start to finish.
When it comes to stress management, the importance of sleep cannot be overemphasized. Shutting down your computer, TV, and cell phone an hour before going to bed and reducing coffee drinking will help maintain good sleep quality. Magnesium ingested in the evening is a good factor in supporting sleep quality.
Writing a gratitude journal is a great way to focus on the positive things in your life. Our brains cannot process positive and negative thoughts at the same time. So focus on the good and give positive things more space in your life.
Finding calm in the Chaos
Calming down and silencing all the noise is vital so you can take a closer look at your own body and its messages to you. The better you can interpret your body, the easier it becomes to manage stress.
In both stress management and keeping balance, it is good to remember that specific ways make permanent. So make a pleasant and lasting relationship with the tips above. Resting and recovery from the stressors in life should be a part of everyday life always.
PS. If you are new to meditation, you can head and start my free 3-day meditation course.
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Source: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress
Dr. Carrie Demers in Yoga International: Stress management through Yoga and Meditation -course
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Hanne Nousiainen
Yoga Teacher • Personal Trainer
Hanne Nousiainen
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