Manage Stress

Everyone feels stressed at one time or another, through work constraints, demanding relationships, health, and so on, and how you manage that stress is important for your overall wellbeing.

Stress can affect us in lots of ways, including: emotionally, through anxiety or tension; behaviourally, through excessive smoking and drinking, being overweight, nervousness; and how we think, causing apathy, forgetfulness, and indecisiveness.

If stress is not nipped in the bud fast, it can lead to all sorts of mental and even physical illnesses. Immense pressure is placed on the body through how we think, leading to an increase in heartbeat, breathing rate and blood pressure, and the longer this goes on, the greater are the demands we place on our bodies.

Common side effects from continued stress include cardiovascular disease (affecting heart and blood vessels), high blood pressure, and an acute proneness to infection. Chronic fatigue is also common and can last for years if complete rest is not initiated. As you can see, the way we think can have profound effects on our whole system.

Luckily there are methods for managing stress and offices set up to help. It is important to visit your doctor or community health center if you often feel stressed, anxious or depressed, and if you think you cannot deal with your reactions to stress. Psychologists and counsellors are specialists trained to deal with stress in individuals.

There are also basic things you can for yourself to help cope with and manage stress. One of the most important aspects for starters is to make sure you are well nourished and drink plenty of water, as lack of one or both can bring on or exacerbate stress in itself. Maintaining a certain level of fitness is also fundamental in dealing with stress for similar reasons to being undernourished.

In addition, you should also try to understand situations that make you feel stressed and try to avoid them; be it people, events or places. Also understand what situations are within your control, prepare yourself for stressful events by thinking about the future and do things that make you happy.