Why is it important to know how to manage stress properly? Because stress that is left alone can be acute and eventually have a bad impact on us. Not only the psychological impact, but we can also feel the physical impact on the body.
Stress is a condition where we feel overwhelmed, lose control to deal with pressure. Anyone can experience stress because this condition is the body’s response when we face unexpected and even threatening situations or crises.
Impact of Stress on the Body
When stress is not managed properly, our bodies will also feel the effects. Here are some of the effects of stress on the body.
- The muscles of the body tense up when we are stressed. Chronic stress can even trigger long-term tense muscles that can cause other stress symptoms such as headaches or migraines.
- Stress can trigger narrowing of the airways between the nose and lungs. This makes us feel tight, breath also feels short, and fast. Chronic stress conditions can even trigger asthma attacks to hyperventilate.
- Experiencing stress for a long time can also trigger long-term problems in the heart and blood vessels. The risk of having hypertension, heart attack, or stroke is also higher.
- Increased cortisol hormone which is also known as the stress hormone in the long term. This risks decreasing physical and mental health in the future, including excessive fatigue, metabolic disorders, depression, and immune system disorders.
- Stress can disrupt the relationship between the brain and intestines which influence each other. Stress can trigger stomach pain, bloating, and indigestion. This can affect mood swings.
- Changes in lifestyle and eating patterns occur which can trigger symptoms of acid reflux, difficulty swallowing food, and an increase in the amount of gas in the body (marked by belching and bloating).
- More severe stress conditions can make us vomit and reduce appetite. This can lead to malnutrition and disease risk.
- Stress can affect the fertility of both men and women. That is difficult to do fertilization. Stress can also affect health during and after pregnancy. In addition, cycles and pain during menstruation can also be affected.
Because of the serious impact, we are advised to start learning to manage stress. Here are some ways we can try.
Easy Ways to Manage Stress
1. Take Time Off
Having a solid routine can make us bored. Coupled with the problems we face, it is not impossible for a feeling of stress to arise. That’s why one way to manage stress is to rest.
We can do this by inserting rest periods on the sidelines of the routine. Simple practices like stopping work when it’s time for lunch, or trying to get enough sleep at least 7 hours a day.
Taking a break not only gives the body time to relax, but our minds and minds can also relax for a while.
Another way we can try is to reduce habits that have the potential to overstimulate our brains (over-stimulated), as well as habits that can trigger negative thoughts. For example taking a break from social media, to reduce time screening TV or gadgets.
2. Doing Fun Activities
There are lots of fun things to do. But it’s better to choose a useful one. Some activities that we can try are taking pictures, cooking, or doing recreational sports like cycling for example.
In essence, try to choose activities that are more physically involved. Activities that require us to move. Light but still able to make the body feel fit.
3. Communicate Head Contents
Don’t hold back. It’s a good idea to try to communicate or express what is in our heads and hearts regarding things that worry us, have a lot of thoughts, or fear.
There are at least two simple ways we can try. First, chat. Talk to the closest person we can trust. It can be with a partner, parent, child, or friend. Simple, but can help us to feel relieved.
The second way is writing. Not everyone can talk about problems easily. Writing can be a kind of intermediary for us to channel our own thoughts.
4. Take care and take care of ourselves
How to manage stress we can start with taking care of yourself. There are many things we can do. Here are some examples.
- Eat healthy. Reduce processed foods, switch to eating whole foods. Balance your intake to be more nutritious.
- Be active and exercise. You don’t have to leave the house or spend a lot of money. We can exercise at home with the resistance exercise program from GGL for example.
- Try to quit smoking and drinking alcohol.
- Drink plenty of water every day.
- Enough sleep.
These are actually the basic things we can do every day and are part of our lifestyle. It’s not expensive and it’s not complicated, but it has an impact on the health of our bodies as well as our minds. The body becomes fitter, and our minds become more happy.
5. Get Professional Help
Stress can grow to the point where you need professional help.
Some signs that we need consultation; overthinkingfeeling depressed, excessive anxiety, fear, our relationships with those closest to us are disturbed, so that unhealthy habits and addictions emerge.
When experiencing the things above, don’t delay getting professional help. Because a stable mental condition is also part of good health and quality of life.
In addition, another way to manage stress that is no less important and we must remember is, don’t hesitate to communicate and take steps to deal with stress earlier. For example, by starting simple steps to take care of yourself to feel better every day.
