How Stress Can Affect Your Health
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Stress And Health Effects
Too much stress can make us sick. And it can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases, research shows. If you’re constantly under stress, you can have physical symptoms, such as headaches, an upset stomach, high blood pressure, chest pain, and problems with sex and sleep.
Fighting Stress And Turn Everything Around
Starting your day off on the right foot can help you battle stress throughout the day. When you begin your day in a relaxing way, it can help set the tone for the hours that follow.
But if you jump right into things that stress you, you can expect that stress to continue because you’ll get caught up in a cycle of stress. You’ll brace yourself against stressful things and develop that tension throughout your body.
But if you focus on beginning your day the right way, you can turn everything around and stop the stress before it takes hold. When you get up in the mornings, don’t immediately jump into doing things.
You need to give yourself time to wake up. You also want to create a mood for your day. The best way to do this is to start with something that either relaxes you or makes you feel like the day is going to be exciting and positive.
To do this, you can begin your day with music. Music has long been advised by medical professionals as a way to destress. Music can work in a variety of ways. It can soothe emotions.
It can also make you feel relaxed or create an environment of positivity, such as causing you to feel happy and uplifted. Give your body a good soak first thing in the morning. Taking a warm shower can help you relax your muscles.
It can also be a great place to think about the positives that you’re looking forward to for the day. This can be something as simple as drinking your favorite smoothie or enjoying some time to read during your lunch break.
Fight off stress by making sure you don’t begin your day on an empty stomach. Your body needs fuel in order to function well. If you start out your day by skipping breakfast, that can make stress worse because you won’t have the energy to deal with stressors.
Suffering nutritionally can also compound any ill effects caused to the body by stress. If you’re really not a breakfast eater, even just grabbing a piece of fruit can help gear you up to face the day and handle stress.
Begin with good thoughts. There’s a lot to be said about the power of positive thinking. Where your thoughts go, so goes your body, too. If you start by thinking about negative, stressful things, your body will immediately take cues from that.
Start by writing down three thoughts that you’re thankful for. Or, you can list three things you’re looking forward to for the day. You can also jot down three small things that make you happy – such as a cozy, rainy day or listening to your favorite podcast on the way to work.
Get moving first thing in the morning. If you can exercise when you get up, this can help set the stage for fighting off stress. This might
The Difference Between Acute and Chronic Stress
There are different kinds of stress that everyone faces in life. Sometimes it’s the source – such as your job, relationships, finances, and so on. Other times it’s the length of the stress affecting you.
Short-term stress is something everyone will encounter. This typically isn’t damaging to your mental and physical health, although it is annoying to have to deal with. Short-term stress is known as acute stress.
These are almost inconveniences, like getting stuck in a traffic jam on your way home or having to wait in a long line to pick up a prescription. Any time you’re temporarily flustered but it goes away once the situation resolves in a short period of time, it’s acute stress.
Chronic stress, which we’re seeing more and more of these days, is when that stress doesn’t go away in a short period of time. In fact, it hangs around indefinitely. This keeps your body on high alert, damaging both your mental and physical well-being.
Chronic stress dumps the stress hormone, Cortisol, into your body, which elevates your blood pressure and heart rate. This hormone is great when you’re dealing with an acute stress factor, like encountering an angry dog on a walk.
It allows you to have heightened reactions and know whether you should engage in flight or fight to survive. But with chronic stress issues, like caring for an elderly loved one while also raising your toddlers, it doesn’t do anything beneficial for you.
It merely keeps you in a state of exhaustion and tension because it makes you feel like you’re being bombarded with threatening situations that you need to react to in order to survive.
Sometimes, it’s merely a situation that won’t resolve itself quickly. Maybe it’s a long-term issue like needing to earn more money or a health problem that won’t be going away.
Having adrenaline coursing through your veins all the time is no way to live. You need to be relaxed and calm during these long-term stressors. Your stress hormones need to be in the normal range, not surging constantly to help you handle threats.
If you think you might be dealing with chronic stress, track it to see whether this is recurring acute stress (like traffic) or something you’re dealing with non-stop, like your mind plagued with worry about money woes.
Then, make a plan to reclaim the calm in your life and manage the issues that are contributing to this never-ending spike in Cortisol. Use meditation, deep breathing, or other relaxation techniques to focus on what’s going right in your life and how well you’re capable of handling it.
Acute and Chronic Stress.
Hair Loss Is a Problem for Those Experiencing Chronic Stress
Your appearance can be affected as a result of chronic stress. If you’re dealing with this type of stress and you’ve noticed hair loss, then stress may be the reason. The hair loss you’re experiencing is known as telogen effluvium.
Studies have shown that this type of hair loss is one of the symptoms of stress. Normally, your hair goes through stages known as the growth cycle. During this cycle, you have thousands of hair follicles that are busy growing.
When the hair is not growing, it’s entered into what’s known as its resting state. It’s during this stage that the hair falls out of the follicle. All of this is normal. Your hair doesn’t go through the same state of resting and growing all at the same time.
If it did, you’d quickly go bald. Instead, sections of your hair are in different states at varying times. However, the problem begins when stress enters the picture. When you’re dealing with chronic stress, that can throw off this natural balance and lead to excessive hair loss all at the same time.
You’re not going to realize that you’re under stress, and then suddenly notice bald patches on your head. The situation has to be a long-lasting one for it to reach the point where you notice something going on with your hair.
By the time the chronic stress has reached the point where it has affected your hair, you’ll notice that your once thick hair is definitely thinner. You may have areas on your head where you can see through the hair to your scalp.
Or you might be taking a shower and suddenly see a large amount of hair fall at your feet. This causes some people to get stressed, which of course only worsens the effects of chronic stress on the hair cycle.
They might worry that hair loss is going to continue at an alarming rate. The good news is that this kind of hair loss is completely reversible. But that’s only if you deal with the chronic stress so that it stops affecting the state of hair release.
You need to learn stress management. The bad news is that you can lose enough hair for it to be significantly noticed and that upsets people. But the good news is that this kind of stress-related hair loss doesn’t end up causing anyone to shed every hair on their head.
Since this reaction is a result of stress, once you deal with the chronic stress and learn ways to cope, you should begin to notice that your hair is growing back as healthy as it was before.
How Long-Term Stress Creates Harmful Inflammation In Your Body
Studies have shown that the effects of long-term stress can lead to harmful inflammation. When you get stressed, this inflammation is your body responding to that stress.
You may be faced with an emotionally challenging situation. Or, you may feel overwhelmed and this can cause stress. No matter what causes the stress, your body reacts to it the same way.
The problem is that the inflammation that results because of stress can lead to the development of certain diseases. Long-term stress forces you to experience fight or flight mode.
Your body gears up and gets ready to protect you. This is a natural occurrence. When it happens, your body begins pumping out cortisol. This hormone then gets to work focusing all of your body’s attention and energy on whatever the perceived threat is.
Everything in your body kicks into high gear as it prepares to save you. Your heart is going to beat faster, your adrenaline is at the max level and your pulse and blood pressure are elevated.
You start breathing faster and heavier. As all of this is going on, your body starts pouring out glucose as a way to get you ready to fight or run. While all this is a completely natural process, the fight or flight mode is meant to only occur when there’s a true emergency or threat to your safety.
But because your body can’t differentiate between everyday situational stress and the real deal, you end up with this unneeded reaction that leads to inflammation. The inflammation that develops as a response to the stress is felt in the body the same way you’d feel it if you were actually sick.
With a true illness, your body’s immune system gets busy producing markers to help you fight that sickness. These markers show up for work, then leave when you no longer need them.
But the problem is that stress causes these markers, known as pro-inflammatory cytokines, to stick around. These then begin to harm your body rather than help it. You enter a state of inflammation as a result.
Stress is known to cause inflammation-related diseases such as heart disease. That’s because long-term stress causes the heart to work harder than it’s supposed to for longer periods of time.
Any inflammatory disease can be caused by chronic stress. Another example is gastrointestinal conditions, such as IBS. But it’s also linked to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as well.
An inflammatory form of arthritis known as rheumatoid arthritis is linked to chronic stress. The inflammation can also worsen other conditions, such as diabetes and migraines. To improve inflammation, set up a strategy to lessen the stress in your life or find ways to deal with it so that your health isn’t affected.
Insomnia Is a Sign That Chronic Stress Has Taken Root in Your Life
Everyone has trouble sleeping every now and then. That’s considered transient insomnia, and it’s not something to be concerned about. What should be considered is chronic insomnia.
When you have chronic insomnia, it means that you’re struggling to fall asleep as well as stay asleep. You might drift off only to wake up throughout the night. You might end up waking up early, well before your alarm clock goes off.
It also means that the type of sleep you do get is poor. With this kind of insomnia, it can be difficult for your body to maintain good health. It can lead to all kinds of problems – including feeling drowsy during the day, feeling like you have no energy, poor work performance, and cognitive impairment.
You might have problems remembering things that go on during the day or conversations that you’ve had. You might develop anxiety or notice that you’ve become easily irritated.
If you’ve had trouble sleeping, it’s been ongoing for at least 30 days, and you’re showing symptoms, that’s a sign that you have chronic stress. When you have chronic stress, it means that there’s an underlying reason that is interfering with your sleep.
Many people develop insomnia from chronic stress because they’re worried about things in their lives. Sometimes this worry is because of career struggles. They might be facing a difficult boss or have trouble managing all of their responsibilities at work.
This stress can be linked to problems with finances. Money worries are one of the biggest causes of chronic stress that leads to insomnia. It can cause you to lie awake at night, while the worries plague your mind.
Those who have health problems also tend to develop chronic stress. People worry about becoming unable to work or continue their life as normal. They worry about health changes and what those changes are going to mean.
An example is someone who’s recently diagnosed with diabetes. It’s actually not the diagnosis that bothers people, but rather the unknown. The fear of the unknown about the condition leads to stress and then to insomnia.
Insomnia can develop from chronic stress that’s caused by habits that affect you emotionally. You might have bad habits that make you feel guilty. These can cause you to lose sleep.
An example might be drinking too much alcohol which interferes with your relationships, overeating and ignoring health concerns from your family or doctor, or blowing off project deadlines for work or school.
You can also have chronic stress as a result of trauma or depression, and this can be the cause of insomnia. Because insomnia can cause so many health problems and cognitive complications, it’s important that you seek ways to address the lack of sleep.
Stress Can Have a Negative Impact on Your Respiratory System
Leading a busy and hectic life can cause many people to live with chronic stress. No one reacts to stress the same. While some people might not have any long-lasting effects as a result, others will.
If you have chronic stress, it can impact your health from head to toe. One of the most common myths that are linked to stress is that it’s something that only your brain deals with.
But every organ in your body suffers when you’re stressed – and that includes your respiratory system. In fact, if you have untreated chronic stress, it can cause weakening lung function and adverse lung events.
It can also make any lung disease you may have, such as COPD, much worse. When you have long-term stress, as a result, your body is constantly pumping out hormones as a way of adjusting to the threat it perceives is occurring.
This elevated hormone release causes several chain reactions within the body. Your heart rate will speed up as it prepares for the stressor. So will your pulse. Your body gets tense as part of the preparation, so you feel that in your muscles.
But then you begin to breathe faster and may often take shallower breaths. This reaction in your body can lead to long-term respiratory problems. When you’re faced with ongoing stress, your body adapts by causing your adrenal glands to come up with more adrenaline.
While this is kicking your heart up a notch, it also forces your lungs to work harder with faster breathing. Your system is preparing you for a fight that you’re not facing as a result of the stress.
When the stress is chronic, this preparation doesn’t ease up so your body, including your lungs, remains in a state of hyperawareness or working harder. Your lungs can’t keep up the constant pressure of expanding during stress, which is what they’re forced to do.
They’re working overtime to try to draw in as much oxygen for you as possible. If you have a medical condition such as asthma, this can cause you to have a serious asthma attack because it elevates the body’s reaction to the environmental issues that cause an asthma event.
It can also create a cycle of increasing the number of asthma or other lung-related health issues. Another thing that can affect your respiratory system is histamine. When you’re under chronic stress, it can cause the body to boost the release of histamine.
Histamine then makes your bronchial tubes narrow. This can make it difficult for you to be able to breathe correctly. You won’t get the amount of oxygen that you need. This can have a noticeable effect on your breathing and causes many people to hyperventilate.
Stress That Won’t Go Away Can Lead to Less Protection and More Illness
No one escapes having to deal with stress. But most stress is here one minute and gone the next. As soon as whatever caused the stress is either handled or stress management is effectively used, life returns to normal.
The stress you face doesn’t have any lingering effects on your body. But stress that doesn’t go away can overwhelm you – not just emotionally and mentally, but it can also overwhelm your immune system.
Without a healthy immune system, you won’t have the protection that you need to stay safe. Your body just won’t have the defense in place, so as a result of that, you end up with more illness.
You’ll feel like you just can’t catch a break. As soon as you recover from one sickness, you get hit with something else. Your immune system was made to work to protect you inside and outside.
Everything within you – from your cells to your tissues – is designed to keep you safe and healthy. This system is on constant alert for anything that might come between you and your good health.
When a virus attacks your body, these are in the form of bad cells. They seek to overwhelm healthy cells. Normally, your immune system jumps right into fight mode and kicks those bad cells to the curb.
You then either don’t get sick or if you do, you bounce right back – all because your immune system is in good condition. Chronic stress is something that overloads your immune system.
Instead of using what’s designed to help you (and even save your life), which is your stress hormone, it’s used against your immune system. These hormones are triggered by stress.
You’re struggling to deal with chronic stress, and your body tries to help by removing you from the stressful event, which is why it engages the fight or flight mode. But since it’s not needed, those run or fight hormones instead start allowing inflammation to build up.
Normally, when the stress hormone is produced as it should be, it actually strengthens the immune system and puts up a wall against inflammation. However, when the stress hormone is allowed to remain high due to chronic stress, that wall or the level of protection is knocked aside.
Inflammation then begins to take over. Your immune system is then easily overcome because chronic stress has limited the number of white blood cells your body produces.
These white blood cells are necessary to fight illnesses and protect you against bacteria and viruses. Because your white blood cell count is lowered, you’ll get sick more often. The only way that you can break the cycle that leads to a weakened immune system is to end chronic stress.
Therapy Has Come a Long Way in Helping People Cope with Chronic Stress
Dealing with stress is something that many people have to do. When the stress lingers, though, it’s known as chronic stress. This is a more serious form of stress that can impact every area of your life – including your health.
That’s why it’s important that you seek help to learn how to deal with your stress. One way to do that is through therapy. The changes in therapeutic techniques have come a long way and are now even more effective at teaching people how to handle stress.
Stress is rarely stagnant. It can change depending on what you’re going through. But if you’ve been living feeling like you’re juggling glass balls and any second now they’re going to drop and shatter, it’s time to seek help.
If your stress is disrupting your personal or professional life, using therapy can help in this area. If you’ve been experiencing physical ailments as a result of your stress, therapy can also help you learn how to cope so that you break this cycle.
Therapy works by giving you the tools that you need to be able to effectively cope. One type of therapy that’s beneficial is known as cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT. The key behind this therapy is learning to understand that what you think can affect how you act.
This type of therapy looks at how you react to stress. It also lets you discover the root cause of your stress and gives you the strategies that you need to learn how to respond to the stress.
This type of therapy works well for those who struggle with chronic stress. It can help alleviate insomnia as well as teach you how to deal with side effects of stress, such as anxiety or irritability.
Along with CBT, another therapy that’s come a long way in helping people cope with stress is known as behavioral therapy. While it looks similar to CBT, it’s different. This therapy focuses on habits.
It gives people the skills to understand that if you do the same things that you always did, the results will never change. It teaches you how to change what you do so that you can establish new, healthier ways of dealing with life where you don’t have to live with chronic stress.
Immersion or exposure therapy is another type that can be helpful in dealing with stress. With this kind of therapy, the person is subjected to the situation, thoughts, or emotion that stresses them.
However, this type of therapy must be led by a therapist trained to handle your response to the stressor in the event that the stressor is related to something traumatic. You’ll want to look for the type of therapy that specializes in helping with the kind of triggers that identify as markers for your type of stress.
Aromatherapy Offers Stress-Relieving Benefits
Aromatherapy, like other stress management tools, is something that you can use to get relief from stress. The products that you can use in this form of treatment vary, but candles and essential oils have been shown in studies as offering benefits when dealing with stress.
During the studies, it was discovered that aromatherapy works by changing how the brain focuses on stressors. In addition to how it affects the brain, this type of therapy was also shown to lower the amount of cortisol produced in the body during times of stress.
At the same time, it can infuse users with a sense of calmness. One of the often complained-about side effects of stress is insomnia. Aromatherapy is known to boost sleep.
When used correctly, this form of stress therapy can also lower the anxiety caused by stress and boost your mood at the same time. It also works to benefit the body physically to counteract the effects of stress.
People who use aromatherapy often find that they’re not nearly as tired or don’t feel as worn out mentally after using the treatment. Unlike many medications that are often prescribed to treat symptoms of stress, aromatherapy is all-natural and there are no nasty or health concerning side effects from using it.
The treatment is also easy to use and affordable. One way that you can get started using aromatherapy to treat your stress is by using candles. You have to look for the ones that are specifically designed for aromatherapy use.
Not only do these help you to relax, but they also present a peaceful environment, too. These candles are made with essential oils and are plant-based. Look for fragrances that are designed to give stress relief.
Ones that contain jasmine or honeysuckle are known to help relieve stress. So are the ones that contain spearmint or eucalyptus. Peppermint and lavender are also effective aromatherapy candles for use in relieving stress.
Essential oils are another form of aromatherapy that can be used. These oils are natural and come from things like the petals of flowers, roots, and trees. When these natural items go through the extraction process, the oil can then be used.
There are different ways to use essential oils. For example, you can use them with a diffuser, or by soaking cotton balls in the oil. Some people apply the oil directly to their skin, but you do need to be careful doing this because if used incorrectly, it can irritate the skin.
When you use aromatherapy, you inhale the scent of the oil in whatever form it’s presented in. When the scent reaches the brain, it activates the portion that releases the chemicals that make you feel happy.
How Exercise Plays a Role in Limiting Your Chronic Stress Symptoms
Having chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms, none of which are fun to deal with. That’s why people who have this type of stress need to find an outlet. One of these beneficial outlets is exercise.
Not only can it reduce stress, but it can also help you to feel better physically. The stressors you have that cause chronic stress to develop can also cause anxiety. Exercise can help with the side effects of stress as well.
When you exercise, you get an immediate mood boost because exercise releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain. You’ll feel more positive and notice that you’re not as irritable or feeling as down as you were before exercising.
You’ll be aware that your muscle aches and the pains you may have had in your body feel better thanks to exercise. Exercise works to limit stress symptoms through the way that it aids the body.
When you exercise, another first thing that happens is the release of endorphins. This occurs in tandem with the dopamine boost. When you get this flood of endorphins, they work to ease pain in the body, so all those aches and pains feel better.
Then, as you exercise, your heart starts pumping a little faster, so you end up getting better blood flow than you had pre-exercise. You’ll notice that you have more energy. You’re able to think more clearly.
Exercise has an after-effect. Once you’re done with your exercise routine, the benefits don’t just stop. The boost you get mentally and physically lasts – even when the exercise is over.
As the days and weeks progress, thanks to your exercise routine, you’ll notice that you now feel less stressed than you were before. Another plus is that exercise helps you get in shape, keeps health issues at bay, and can help improve current health conditions.
This also lowers the symptoms associated with chronic stress. If you’re wondering if there’s a recommended amount of exercise you should get in order to help deal with stress, the answer is yes.
If time allows, you should exercise at least five days out of the week. The time that you should strive to exercise should be at least 30 minutes. But don’t stress if you don’t have that many days or that much time.
Even a little exercise is better than none when it comes to helping relieve stress. You can start by exercising 2 or 3 times a week for 15 minutes – or even just 10 minutes if that’s all the time you have.
Some exercises are better than others for relieving stress. One of these is swimming. Another is dancing. You can also walk or ride a bike. Activities that you can do outside in the fresh air, such as growing a flower garden, can also help limit stress symptoms.
Meditation Is a Tool You Can Use to Manage Chronic Stress
There are strategies and resources that you can turn to in order to manage chronic stress. One of these strategies is meditation. When you engage in this practice, it helps you relax both mentally and physically.
You find relief from the thoughts that might be contributing to the stress because they pull your attention away from the causes and change the direction of your thoughts. That’s the foundation of most meditation practices.
You learn to stop allowing your thoughts to stay on stressful things and instead, you focus elsewhere, such as on empowering or positive things. Meditation is a way to be in the moment and learn self-awareness.
You’ll learn how to concentrate as you learn how to cope. When you’re under stress, it leads to rising levels of cortisol. You can end up suffering from additional symptoms related to stress, such as inflammation.
The negative side effects linked to this inflammation can lead to things such as insomnia, mood swings, and cognitive issues. By practicing meditation, you can reduce stress and the inflammation side effects.
Meditation helps you manage chronic stress because it also helps to alleviate anxiety. Anxiety is a common side effect of stress. By using meditation, you learn how to react to the stress factors that can induce anxiety.
Regular practice of meditation can result in a mood boost as well as a more positive outlook concerning a stressful situation. It can also give you clarity, so you gain perspective on how to deal with your stressors.
By alleviating anxiety, meditation can lead to a positive boost to battle your other stress-related emotional symptoms, too. Many people who experience anxiety associated with stress also struggle with depression.
When you practice meditation, it relieves depression. Living with chronic stress causes many people to turn to unhealthy habits to attempt to find relief. Meditation can help you overcome bad habits or behaviors, such as drinking or smoking, which only makes stress worse.
When you meditate, it can give you insight into why you’re feeling stressed. By locating the root of your stress, you’ll be able to cut it out of your life. You’ll notice when you start meditating that some of the symptoms associated with stress get better.
For example, if you’ve had trouble sleeping because of your stress, meditation can help restore that area of your life. It works because insomnia is often caused by emotions and thoughts associated with stressors.
Meditation gives you the skills to be able to get those thoughts under control so you stop the flow of negative thinking when you’re trying to fall asleep. Once you learn how to engage in meditation, you’ll experience many health benefits, such as a reduction in blood pressure and fewer muscle aches.
Pick a Journaling Method to Get Stress Out of Your Head
Coping strategies can help you deal with stress. If you use journaling, it can help you get the stress out of your head. This method can be extremely beneficial in allowing people to see what their stress is and they can journal their way toward lessening it.
When you journal, it means you’re taking what you’re thinking and feeling and jotting it down. Whatever you want to write about can go in your journal. Studies have shown that journaling is a method of releasing stress and boosting positive emotions.
There are plenty of benefits associated with journaling that help get stress out of your head. One of these benefits is that journaling allows you to better cope with anxiety. It lets you see what’s really going on inside your mind and gives you an outlet so you can deal with whatever’s bothering you.
You can use a journal to write down what you’re dealing with and this can allow you to see what things are going on in your life that cause you to stress. This can show you where the patterns are and help you change actions that may be contributing to the stress you have.
There are no rules about how to keep a journal. You can do whatever’s helpful to you. But if you keep a journal, you can better track your stress if you have a set time that you write in it.
Some people journal once a day. Others once a week. The more often you journal, the more insight you’ll gain from it because you’ll be able to transfer the stress within you to the pages of your journal and get to the root of your most pressing problems.
Or, you can use a digital journal. You don’t have to worry about getting it right when you journal. You don’t have to fret about your writing style. Typos and grammar don’t matter when you’re journaling as a stress relief tool.
Keeping a journal may be eye-opening. You may write about something and not even realize that you had that in your head. You may not have known that you felt a certain way about an issue.
There are different types of journaling methods you can follow. One of these is mental writing or stream of consciousness. You just write whatever comes to your head. These thoughts may or may not be connected.
The key is to write freely, without self-criticism. When you write in this style, it can often help you discover what’s at the true root of your stress when you thought it was something else.
Another journaling method is to use journal scripts. These can be words or sentences that lead you to write about a specific topic. For example, one script might instruct you to write what went on in your day. Or you might be prompted to write what you would say to your former or future self.
Make Deep Breathing a Permanent Part of Your Life to Manage Chronic Stress
Chronic stress can be managed. It doesn’t have to rule your life and ruin your health. One of the options you have for managing it is to use deep breathing. If you pause right now take a deep breath and let it out, you’ll notice that you feel better.
That’s because the act of breathing deeply acts as a relaxant. While you’re deep breathing, your body is letting go of stress. The process involved in this works in the brain.
Deep breathing triggers a response within the brain to tell it to stop the physical reactions associated with stress. For example, deep breathing slows your pulse rate.
It also lowers your blood pressure and causes your heart to slow down. You’ll notice that the tension is leaving your shoulders and the muscle aches you’ve had will diminish through deep breathing.
Chronic stress can easily keep your brain and your body focused on the stressor. By practicing deep breathing, you take back control over your body. The exercises can help prevent the damage that chronic stress can do to your health.
Deep breathing can free you from stress while giving you health benefits at the same time. When you do the exercises, you give more oxygen to your body. Though there are several different types of deep breathing, there are two more commonly used ones.
One of them is using the diaphragm to breathe deeply. The other is using the chest muscles. Both are effective and this type of stress management is something that you can do anywhere.
All you have to do is practice your deep breathing sessions. It doesn’t matter if you’re alone or in the middle of a crowd. You can even use deep breathing during a stressful situation to gain immediate calm.
You have to make sure that you take deep breaths. If you take shallow breaths, you can end up hyperventilating. Draw in a breath through your nose and let it fill your lungs. Then slowly exhale the breath through your mouth.
Start by taking three to full breaths at a time. In the middle of this type of breathing, you’ll want to choose a focus. Some people combine deep breathing with meditation. Others practice visualization or use breathing along with a mantra.
There’s no set time limit on deep breathing exercises. You can do them for a couple of minutes or for longer if you choose to. Deep breathing exercises can also alleviate the side effects of chronic stress, such as anxiety and emotional upheaval.
For best results using deep breathing to manage your chronic stress, you can practice the habit at set times during the day, such as once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and again in the evening.
Thank you for reading
Michael
Comments are welcome
I have always had a great amount of stress in my life. Whether it is from work, school, or bills it has impacted my life in a very negative way. After reading “Stress And Health Effects”, this helped open my eyes to all of the effects that stress causes in your everyday life and long term.
Hi Devon,
Thank you for your comments. Please do not let stress get the better of you. I have several articles related to stress relief. I try to stay from prescription medications even though in some cases they may be required. I believe in the natural ways of treating stress. I hope you will be able to reduce your stress levels.
All the best,
Michael
I truly enjoyed reading your article- Stress and Health Effects. Stress affects all of us, what i did not know is that stress strengthens your immune system however we should not allow it to linger, at that point it becomes detrimental to your well-being. There are several methods to control we should just figure out which one will best help us.
Hi Diana,
Thank you for your comments. I have several topics on stress as I do feel it may cause a lot of health problems. Also ways of relieving stress. You are absolutely right when you say there are several methods and we figure out what works best for us.
All the best,
Michael