Healthy Ways to Deal with Stress
Stress – the good, the bad and the ugly!
We are all challenged by stress. It’s been proven that stressful situations can cause physical, mental and emotional aches and pains. These aches and pains caused by stress is your body’s way of trying to protect itself from those stressors. Stress can cause your mind and body to overreact as they team up to send the message “Fight” or “Flight.” It’s telling you to either “get the heck out of dodge” or “hang in there and fight it out.” If you aren’t equipped to handle stressful situations, it can cause a series of health issues. Stress has been shown to cause issues such as weight gain, digestive problems, heart disease, and depression just to name a few.
How do we de-stress and learn how to deal with the triggers that illicit the stress response that we are trying to avoid?
Here are some of my favorite ways to de-stress and chill out!
- Exercise.
Exercise has proven to help combat stress. When you move, you give your body a mental break; and your body will in turn give you a pick me up by producing feel-good hormones called endorphins. Both the hormone response of the endorphin release and taking a break from whatever is stressing you out will give you a chance to regroup. So, get to the gym, get moving and de-stress. - Meditate.
It may sound far-fetched, but meditating can be a huge help in de-stressing. Meditation gives your brain the active workout it needs in order to let go of the negativity and be grateful for all of the good in your life. Grab 5 minutes a day to sit in silence and think of something you are grateful for in your life. This time spent will reverse the response your body may have to stress by erasing the fight-or-flight response we experience during highly stressful times. When done regularly, you’ll start to notice that you aren’t as stressed from the triggers you had before. - Eat well.
A healthy and nutrient-rich diet can really change your life. What you eat directly affects how your body responds to stress. Eating a healthy, well-rounded diet can give you the energy you need to tackle daily stressors head on. A wonderful added benefit of a healthy diet is that you’ll look and feel great! - Sleep.
When you lack the proper amount of restful sleep, you put your mind and body into a negative place. You’ll be less likely to think through a situation or keep a cool head when dealing with a stressful situation if you’re operating with a sleep deficit. Sleep is one of the most essential stages of life. It gives us time to restore our mind and body, and ready ourselves for the next day’s challenges. Don’t you always see things more clearly the next morning? They don’t get the phrase “sleep on it” from nothing. Give yourself a much needed break and get some rest – aim for 7 to 9 hours. - Smile.
It’s been proven that it takes more energy and more muscles to frown than it does to smile. So, do yourself a favor and smile big. Smiling induces a mind-body connection that can help you out of the dark cloud of stress. Even if the smile is fake, it will still impact that moment of stress. Don’t worry about looking silly, just give it a whirl.
