Note: This is a guest post by Sophia Smith. She submitted this brilliant article to me and I had to share it. Hope you enjoy.
– Stevie P
More often than not, the modern tempo of life makes us feel drained and exhausted despite our best efforts.
No matter how much you try to schedule your sleep, you wake up more tired than you fall asleep, and no matter how hard you try to work out, the belly fat won’t go away.
However, it’s never too late to start noticing the early signs of too much stress in your life and taking steps to mitigate those effects.
Battling Immune Imbalances
Even when we’re inherently healthy, tackling everyday stress can cause regular headaches, sleep issues, or an upset stomach.
However, prolonged exposure to stress can affect how well your body protects itself from intruders such as viruses and bacteria.
Stress wreaks havoc on our hormones, our gut flora, and ultimately leads to a lowered ability to prevent intestinal troubles such as diarrhea, constipation, or even the common cold.
If you’re getting sick too often, it’s time to introduce some immunity-boosting strategies to help keep your body as strong and resilient as possible through all the hardships.
Ditch those habits that tend to exasperate your cortisol production, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and too much sugar in your diet. Instead, opt for herbs such as echinacea or ginseng and herbal teas instead of too much caffeine.
Hindering Weight Management
Stress affects both the way we make everyday choices and how our metabolism processes fats and sugars.
The two effects combined ensure that your weight-loss efforts will be futile when you are under too much stress, as you will be much more likely to go on a food binge and your body will have trouble metabolizing carbs to burn off the belly flab.
In addition to building a strong support system to help you through the rough patches, you can try the no carb diet plan. With this plan, you will reduce your caloric intake and enhance fat loss by opting for healthier macronutrients.
Much More Than Skin-Deep Issues
Another side-effect of your hormonal imbalances due to stress is linked to poor skin health.
For some, that might mean experiencing random rashes, eczema or psoriasis symptoms getting worse, or a case of flared up acne. With your immune system compromised, this also makes you more prone to infections that affect the skin, as well.
These issues can only become worse with poor dietary choices, so it’s essential to pay more attention to your nutrition and use skincare products that mitigate the symptoms. Much like all other stress-related problems, these can only create a vicious cycle that causes you to feel even more stressed, making it important to help your body heal inside and out.
Chronic Pain
Studies have shown that chronic stress often leads to painful manifestations that have a tendency to also become chronic – which is precisely why we so often hear people say that they are in more pain when they are under more stress.
Our bodies tend to manifest psychological angst in the form of back or neck pain, among other forms, and they tend to develop into more severe muscular and skeletal imbalances.
Much like with many other stress-caused issues, tackling the symptom itself often means tackling the underlying source of stress. Instead of “muscling through” the pain, it’s best to find techniques such as massage, myofascial release or self-massaging, as well as exercises such as yoga that target those tense spots in order to help your body heal.
Cardiovascular Resilience
The immediate response to stress is increased in a faster heart rate and higher blood pressure, which makes us more alert in situations of danger.
However, prolonged exposure and too much stress on your heart and blood vessels can lead to chronic heart conditions, hypertension, and abnormal heartbeat among so many cardiovascular diseases linked to stress.
Certain techniques that are often underestimated in managing your heart health include getting enough sleep every night and doing your best to lead an active life.
That means that you should opt for walking instead of taking the bus, and stand instead of sit in meetings, in addition to your regular cardiovascular workout routine.
Striking The Right Balance
When stress is the underlying issue of your health troubles, no matter how hard you try to keep your health in check, you also need to go straight to the source.
Just like with any health issue, prevention is the best healing method for your stress, hence the need to adjust your entire lifestyle to reduce your exposure to stress and cultivate your resilience to it.
Since all of us are different, you can try several methods before you find the one that suits you best.
Whether it’s learning how to meditate, joining a dance class, learning how to do origami, or scheduling an appointment with your psychologist, you should listen to your body and reshape your life to make more time for stress-reducing techniques.
Sophia Smith is beauty and style blogger, an eco-lifestyle lover and a food enthusiast. She is very passionate about natural skincare, minimalist wardrobe, yoga and mindful living. Sophia writes mostly about beauty-related topics in her blogs and articles. She has contributed to a number of publications including: Eco Warrior Princess, Viva Glam Magazine, Just Haves, How to Simplify and Carousel.
You can find out more about her writing by following her on: Facebook, Twitter and Google +
