What Is Stress?
Stress may be described as a series of biological responses to a specific situation. These natural responses involve a notable distortion of our physical, mental, and behavioral wellbeing. It’s the 21 century, and nearly everyone is buckled down with life travails. Stress management becomes a worthy scheme to ward off the vagaries of stress on the body. Almost every day, we often engage in series of tasks and actions that expose us to physical, psychological, psychosocial, and sometimes Psycho-spiritual stress –the types of stress we hope to explain further in this piece.
It should be pointed out that not all stress is harmful, in fact, mild stress can stimulate our creativity and survival. We all feel stressed when we face difficulties, such as meeting a deadline or encountering evil creatures in the spooky forest. The body responds immediately to stress by producing chemicals that say you're up to the challenge. At this time, our heartbeat and brain power will speed up, and we will feel a sudden energy that gives us the courage to break through ourselves.
However, when stress eventually surpasses our ability to cope with it positively, it transcends into pressure. For stress to be considered normal, it must neither be recurring, unmanageable, or overwhelming; where stress crosses these thresholds, one becomes exposed to chronic and episodic tendencies of stress. If so, it is advisable to seek medical assistance quickly for adequate stress management.
Types of Stress and Their Causes
PHYSICAL STRESS: intense physical labour, environmental pollution, and food allergies are some causes of physical stress. A victim is most likely to experience fatigue characterized by illness and sometimes, hormonal or biochemical imbalances. Engaging in stannous physical acts may also cause musculoskeletal misalignments/imbalances, and factors such as age, pregnancy may contribute to an individual’s susceptibility.
PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS: It involves distortions in our mental health caused by an emotional series of resentments, fears, frustration, sadness, anger, and also bereavement. More so, the accelerated sense of time, worry, and feeling of unworkable perfectionism can shift concentration at work, thereby resulting in cognitive stress.
PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL STRESS: it mainly involves a clash of values and misalignment within one’s core spiritual beliefs. Psycho-spiritual stress is often marked by the expression of self-criticism, self-loathing, and anxiety over an unworkable perfectionism.
Psychological-mental stress: It mainly includes the conflict of values and the dislocation of core spiritual beliefs; psychological-mental pressure is usually manifested as self-criticism, self-loathing, and anxiety about unachievable perfectionism.
How Stress Affects the Body
When stress is not effectively relieved, it can take its toll on the body. Chronic stress levels over a long period of time can lead to psychological or psychiatric illness. These diseases affect vital systems of the body such as the cardiovascular system, nervous system, immune system, respiratory system and digestive system. Such as headache, palpitations, nausea, anxiety, insomnia, allergies, etc. Cardiovascular irritation and gastrointestinal distress are also common with stressful stimuli.
Chronic stress can cause material imbalances in the body. In the long term, this suppresses the body's healthy immune function while increasing the body's susceptibility to immune-related diseases.
How to Cope With Stress in Modern Life
1. Identify your Stress Triggers : the first step to beating stress is to identify the cause of the stress. Sometimes, a physical event may be responsible for your stress symptoms; otherwise, you may need the help of your primary care doctor or counselor to uncover the root cause of your stress.
Do not be embarrassed to ask for help. Remember that a “problem discussed is a problem half solved” besides, the sooner you get help, the sooner you will feel better. Always feel free to turn to friends, family, for stress management advice when you cannot cope with or cannot identify a source or solution for your stress.
2. Always Socialize: Stress and Anti-social tendencies annexed wracks you psychologically. A perfect way to alleviate yourself from the burden of anxiety, self-criticism, and self-loathing is to get social with friends and loved ones. Those giggles and chuckles are valuable circuit breakers to the flow of stress. Share a meal, a couch as well as your attention. Social moments rejuvenates your cognition and get your cardiovascular at ease again.
3. Avoid the Use of Stimulants: People often resort to alcohol, caffeine, and cocaine just to get their heads into the wind after a stressful event. The use of stimulants is not only ephemeral but detrimental to your nervous system. For effective stress management, try as much as possible to steer clear of drug abuse. If I may suggest, natural intakes such as a chilled smoothie are quite some shots to help you stay relaxed.
4. Get Enough Sleep and Exercise: An excellent way to get around stress is to sweat more or sleep more. Skimping sleep can affect your mood, comportment, and concentration. In place of exercise, set daily realistic goals for yourself or compose a checklist of chores and achieve them.
In addition, because the secretion of melatonin in the brain is affected, some stressful things tend to make us lose sleep. Melatonin is the body's natural clock. It helps achieve sleep rhythms by changing the body's response to darkness, allowing the body to fall asleep. Taking melatonin supplements is a natural way to improve insomnia for those whose body clock is out of balance.
5. Eat Sensibly: Your diet is you. Food intake influences your daily performance. Avoid eating junks, refined sugars, and also staving. During stress, Vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12 help support the healthy functioning of the nervous system. Since most sources of vitamin B12 are animal-based foods, vegan and vegetarian diets may use vitamin supplements to meet up their daily vitamin requirement.