Stress is a very misunderstood concept, it is such a generic yet personal thing that it is hard to define in words what exactly is stress, but as per Mayo Clinic, stress is when your body and mind gets overwhelmed with a change in the situation.
But there are ways to manage stress and anxiety and today we will tell you everything about it.
In today’s day and age, life has become so fast-paced that you are often left searching for ways to balance between work and personal life, and to add to this and further make it complicated we are so deeply surrounded by technology which also takes away a lot of our time. With all these distractions and work and so little time to spend doing what you love, it is easy to get overwhelmed and stressed.
Even after knowing this, some people may still not be sure whether what they are suffering from is stress or something else, so for all of you, here are the symptoms you will see as a common reaction to a stressful event that occurs in your life.
- Increased use of tobacco, alcohol and other substance to reduce the feeling of stress.
- Worseninng of mental well-being, you will stay more irritated and lack of relief in your head with increased negativity.
- Worsening of chronic health problems
- Physical reaction to a stressful situation such as headache, stomach problems, body ache, skin rashes
- Nightmares along with difficulty in sleeping, concentrating and making decisions
- Changes in energy, appetite, desire and interests
- Constant feelings of fear, shock, anger, sadness, worry, disbelief and frustration
Remember that it is natural to feel stress anxiety when you are dealing with an overwhelming situation, but our ability to manage and control our surroundings is what makes us so unique so here are 5 tips to manage stress and anxiety
- Practise the technique of deep breathing: Your body has a natural response of fight or flight to a particular situation and your sympathetic nerve system controls that. By practising deep breathing you can control this triggering of response from your nerve system control, thus reducing the workload on your brain. When you take a breath in for 5 continuous seconds, hold it for 2 seconds and then release it for 5 seconds it helps your parasympathetic nervous system to rest and analyze the situation in front and cause an immediate overload on your nervous system, thus saving you from stress and anxiety.
- Frequent exercising and good nutrition: These are two important components that play a huge role in how your body will react to stress. Your body and mind are in complete sync, if one is healthy the other one is healthy too and the same if it is the opposite of that. For ages, physical exercise has proven to be a brilliant way of releasing stress and even today it continues to do so, while on the other hand nutrition also plays a critical role because if your body is lacking certain vitamins such as Vitamin A, B complex, C and E. When your body has a healthy amount of nutrition, it not only makes your body feel healthy but it works great on your mind too and when the mind and body are in sync, you know you will be in a better position to counter stress.
- Keep a check on the number of hours you spend on Social Media: Often times we end up spending more time on social media than we ideally should which results in not only a feeling of dullness and anxiety but also if you look at it, you could spend that time in so many better ways or with your friends and family having a good time so what you lose out on is also significant. Social media can be a place full of negativity because by sharing something you get likes which releases dopamine and if you stop getting these dopamine hits, you will be more likely to suffer from stress and anxiety.
- Communicate with others: Humans are social animals and by that what we mean is that oftentimes you will get positive energy by meeting new people and sharing ideas and listening to ideas. Having a community around with whom you can communicate is really helpful because it lets to share what is going on inside you and therefore you get an outlet for all your negative emotions. You could find a community anywhere, be it work, spiritual or religious organization, organized sports etc. When you share an activity with people who you find to be supportive it takes you a long way in your journey of battling stress and anxiety.
- Eliminate your triggers: In most cases, your stress and anxiety get triggered by a particular thing. Identify that, whether it is your boss, office politics, commute to work whatever else. Identify that and then develop a defence mechanism around it so that it can’t get to your head and you are able to minimize the level of stress in your life.
We hope that these 5 simple tips to manage your stress and anxiety will be helpful for you in your journey to conquer your stress and anxiety but honestly keep finding your own ways, maybe something as simple as going for an immersive movie experience is something that works for you, we are all unique and we all have our own unique solutions.
