Stress is something we all go through, from the moment we are born till we die stress is something we can not run from but how is that stress can both be good and bad for us?
Hi and welcome to the blog this Mental Monday as we look towards getting a hang of all our stress and being healthy both mentally and physically. More than simply looking out for our healthy may we be beacons as we share love everywhere we go.
Stress can be useful as it can sharpen your concentration for the match winning shot or can make you choose to study instead of watching TV. However, beyond a certain point it stops being helpful and starts causing major problems both physically and mentally.
When stress kicks in we usually go straight into flight or fight response, which is essentially our body getting flooded with stress hormones. These are adrenaline and cortisol rousing the body for emergency action.
If we do not act right, we can find ourselves feeling the effects of chronic stress. An arguement with a friend can make our bodies react as if we are facing a life or death situation. Chronic stress can disrupt every system in our bodies even rewiring the way our brain works to such extremes that our body can begin attacking itself.
We can get depression and anxiety, get mystery pains and even digestive problems. We can have cognitive symptoms such as memory problems. Emotional symptoms such as feeling overwhelmed or loneliness and isolation. Physical symptoms like aches and pains and even affecting our behavioural symptoms like eating more or less and having too much or too little sleep.
Most of us wonder what causes our stress, according to a widely validated Holmes and Rahe stress scale these are the top five stressful life events for adults that can contribute to illness:
1. Death of spouse
2. Divorce
3. Marriage separation
4. Imprisonment
5. Death of a close family member.
Somethings that can affect our stress tolerance levels include: Support network- a strong network of supportive friends and family creates an enormous buffer against stress. Attitude and outlook the way we view our life and inevitable challenges makes a huge difference in our ability to handle stress.
How can we improve our ability to handle stress well firstly we need to understand that life is constantly changing and as such we need to Get moving this simply means we need to increase our activity level. This can be through exercise as regular exercise can lift our mood and serve as a distraction from worries.
Connecting to others is also absolutely beneficial but by connecting I don’t mean over phone or social but it has to be face to face which triggers hormones that help relieve stress when we feel agitated or insecure.
Eating healthy believe it or not can improve or worsen our mood affecting our ability to cope with life’s stressors.
If you feel overwhelmed today you’re not alone but we are together in this feel free to talk to someone and relieve yourself of the burden of the stresses that negatively impact us as a community.
More important may we spread and share love everywhere we go and be inclined to get better from all that stresses us going forward in our lives.
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