Stress affects the body in many ways. You may feel the immediate reaction of your stress by an elevated heart rate, fast pulse, stomach pain or the need to eat high fat or high calorie foods. This immediate reaction is the body's way of telling you that something is happening to the normal balance in your environment and it must react to protect itself. Often referred to the "flight or fight" reaction.
Stress is a normal reaction to change. Change happens everyday. You are faced with many obstacles in your path that will ultimately challenge your plans on a daily basis and this is life. How you deal with these quick and unplanned changes is the key to a healthy balance between things you can control and things that are beyond your control.
It is important to remember during times of stress that this too shall pass. Your time should be focused on dealing with the obstacle and trying to remove it from your path rather than what you cannot control. Living in the world of "what if" will ultimately only add more stress to your life. Developing a plan to deal with stressful times is an important first step in removing some of the harmful long term effects.
*Identify time or circumstances that cause you to feel a loss of control in your life.
*Write down how you tend to cope with these types of situations (ie. eat more, exercise less, lose sleep etc.)
*Develop a plan to cope with the stressful times. Talking to someone you trust, exercise, treating yourself to a massage or time alone may be some answers that relieve the tension at the time.
*Always refer back to your list and methods of coping to assist you in remaining calm and in control.
The long term effects of stress can be chronic and even deadly. It has been known to lead to cardiovascular complications such as high blood pressure, stroke, headaches, joint pain, back and neck discomfort and stomach ulcers. These conditions over time can lead the body into a state of disease and ultimately have consequences that you cannot control. So do yourself and your body a favor and deal with your stress in a productive and healthy way...your health is the most important thing you have!
