Stress Management
When we are relaxed and our minds are at ease, it shows on our bodies. Our skin glows, our hair has bounce and body, and our smiles are radiant. A rested mind and a healthy body are important elements to creating a beautiful persona.
However, keeping ourselves relaxed and stress-free can be a day-to-day struggle. Rarely does each day pass without us having to face difficult tasks and daunting challenges. The stress these situations put on us disturbs our sense of balance and takes a toll on our bodies. So many illnesses are brought about by constant stress, because stress contributes a lot to the weakening of the body's immune system. Depression, anxiety, heart disease, eating disorders, and some forms of cancer are just some of the illnesses that can result from stress.
Being stressed out is unavoidable, and different factors can cause stress. Common stress factors are:
- Illnesses and allergies
- Changes in hormone levels brought about by changes in the body, such as puberty, pregnancy, pre-menstrual syndrome, or menopause
- Change in weather or climate, being in a high altitude, exposure to pollution and other environmental changes
- Emotional conflicts or anguish
- Worrying over situations beyond your control
- Pushing yourself too hard
It is impossible to avoid some stress factors that come to our lives. Whether we can avoid these factors or not is something that we cannot always control. What we can control, however, is how we react to and deal with these stress factors. Sadly, not all people handle stress well. They deal with it either by seeking comfort through food, by downing sorrows through drink, or taking drugs to relieve the pain.
But that is not the way to do it. These means of seeking comfort from stress only worsen the situation and eventually lead to addiction that will harm the body even more. To live a stress-free life, the first step we should take in dealing with stress is to identify the things and situations that cause us to feel stress. Once we have pinpointed whatever it is that stresses us, then we can effectively reduce, if not eliminate, the extent of how it affects us.
One way of reducing the levels of stress in our lives is to keep our lives as regular as possible. This involves sleeping a full eight hours a day and managing our time so that we do not overtire ourselves and so that we have time for some leisure and relaxation. A third of our time each day should be spent resting and relaxing. There are so many self-help books out there, offering advice on how to spend time wisely. The simplest way to do it is to make a list of the things you need to accomplish every day and to rest in between tasks. If you cannot finish everything you need to do within the day, then just leave it for the following day and think no more of it until that day.
Another way of keeping stress out of our systems is eating right and exercising right. We all should eat because we are hungry, not because we are not feeling good about ourselves at the moment. To prevent ourselves from bingeing on comfort food, we should rid our kitchen of the food we usually reach for when we are feeling down.
As for exercise, exercise is good because it rests our minds and keeps our focus away from whatever it is that worries us. Exercise also gives our bodies the energy and the rejuvenation that we need in order to face the challenges of our lives.
And last, but not the least, learn to say 'no.' Do not make a habit of shouldering other people's responsibility for them. Instead, learn to delegate tasks and leave things alone.
It is impossible to keep our lives totally stress-free. But what is important is to not let our minds and our bodies be affected too much with stress.
