Wellness Wednesday – Managing Stress In Life
Stress is a universal part of life, a shared experience that we all grapple with at some point, even when we strive to eliminate stressors. It’s akin to the game of Whac-A-Mole. Just when you think you’ve dealt with one stressor, another can unexpectedly pop up in a different area of your life.
Stress can, to a point, actually be a motivator when it comes to our performance, personally or professionally, pushing us to achieve more than we would normally. The problem comes when we move beyond moderate stress, which stretches us to high or very high stress, which strains us or leads to burnout. The duration of stress can also become problematic, leading us to experience chronic stress over long periods of time, which can become very detrimental to our emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health.
Under the best of circumstances, high levels of stress can lead to the following symptoms:
- You can become irritable, angry, impatient, and wound up.
- You feel overburdened or overwhelmed.
- You become anxious, nervous, or afraid.
- Your thoughts are racing, and you can’t switch them off.
- You have difficulty sleeping.
- You have difficulty concentrating, negatively impacting our productivity
- You are unable to enjoy yourself.
When stress becomes chronic in our lives, it can lead to burnout, depression, and serious health issues. 75-90% of medical visits can be traced back to being stress-related. Chronic stress can lead to the following health issues:
- High blood pressure which can lead to heart disease
- Increased stress hormones related to anxiety, insomnia, and weight gain.
- Increased sticky blood, which leads to heart disease.
- Decreased effectiveness in our digestive system, which can cause gastrointestinal issues.
- Decrease in our immune system, leading to difficulty fighting infections and some forms of cancer.
- Decrease in growth and sex hormones, leading to premature aging.
In short, stress can make us sick, can age us, and ultimately, if left unchecked, can kill us. So, what are the keys to managing stress? First, you must begin to understand it, especially when it comes to discerning harnessing healthy stress and recognizing when it becomes unhealthy. Second, you have to get proactive about stress, for stress very often will manage you unless you manage it. And finally, you have to create a toolbelt to manage stress effectively when it pops up in your life.
Over the next few Wellness Wednesdays, we will reflect on better understanding stress, empower you to take proactive steps to address stress, and offer you some helpful tools to manage stress better in your life. And if you are at that point where you are experiencing chronic stress in your life, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for coaching – you don’t have to try to manage stress on your own.
