Whether you’re a desperate housewife with a 8 kids or a salesman working for a paper company, stress can and will affect anyone with a busy lifestyle; even a bum seeking food stamps. Stress is no laughing matter and in this article I will stress (sorry) the importance of understanding stress. Stress can’t kill you, but it can make anything that does much faster; Stress doesn’t cause any type of disease, it does however make most diseases significantly worse. Therefore chronic stress is an extremely dangerous condition that can affect a person in diverse ways and includes everything from lower back pain, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and heart attack, Stress is also said to trigger adult-onset diabetes and is the leading cause of male impotence, That’s when the jimmy won’t work.

Before we continue with the subject of stress, it’s important that we know what causes stress. Stress can be caused by a number of things, good or bad. Having a (anticipated) baby is wonderful! but it can cause stress; no sleep, more expenses, and adjusting to a new lifestyle. Stress can be anything or anyone it’s up to you to decide whether or not something will stress your life out. Your physical state is strongly linked to your emotional state. I think it’s safe to say stress sucks, and although we have no quick pill or vaccination to avoid stress in our lives there are ways to reduce stress, here are seven!

Meditate

sit back, meditate like a Buddhist! several studies have shown that even a short session in meditation can dramatically reduce levels of stress and anxiety, meditating is said to relieve the negative and stressful thoughts, thus freeing the brain up with… well anything’s better then negative thoughts. Don’t know how to meditate? sit down, close your eyes, relax, ease your muscles in your entire body, focus on happy thoughts. Simple but effective crash course for beginners.

Socialize

Facebook it up! or better yet (much better) literally go out and make friends, or improve current friendships! Social relationships are great way to reduce stress keep it drama free of course! Why is socializing good for relieving stress? Studies show that loneliness can cause severe stress a study was done to monkeys where socially isolated monkeys have higher levels of stress hormones, a reduced immune response, and higher mortality rate. So basically, make friends and live longer!

Drink Up

Have you ever seen a stressed out alcoholic? I think not! it’s important however to drink in moderation; don’t drink to get drunk. Alcohol is an anxiolytic, it melts away anxieties by dampening the response of the sympathetic nervous system and reducing the release of those darn stress hormones. That’s why a beer taste so good after a long days of hard work!

Sleep

Don’t stay up chatting or playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Super Nintendo! Get your well deserved 8 hours of shut eye. Sleep deprivation is not just about feeling tired. Recent studies have found that even a single night of insufficient sleep triggers an automatic spike in stress hormones. The stress response then makes it harder to fall asleep when you actually want to, since your sympathetic nervous system is revving at a higher rate. The result is more stress and more insomnia. Which helps explain why sleep problems are such an important risk factor for depression.

Don’t fight

Non- violence is the answer! Gandhi had it right, nothing good can come out of fighting verbally or physically with someone. A Stanford study of baboons from biologist Robert Sapolsky found there was a set of personality traits linked reliably with lower levels of stress hormones. One of these was the ability to walk away from provocations that might send a normal baboon into a snarling hissy fit. Interestingly, the less aggressive personality turned out to be exceedingly effective; The nice baboons remained near the top of the troop hierarchy about three times longer than the baboons who were easily provoked into a fight. They also had a lot more sex, which is another great stress reliever.

Exercise, or don’t

While exercise is a remarkably effective at blunting the stress response, at least for a few hours, this effect  exists only if you want to exercise in the first place. After all, a big reason working out relieves stress is that it elevates your mood. When mice are forced to run in the lab, their levels of stress hormones spike. So when you force yourself to go to the gym and then struggle through 30 minutes on the tread mill, you don’t reduce your stress levels. In fact, you might be making things worse.

Confront your fears

“John from HR, I just don’t like you.” It’s important to note that stress comes from things that we usually try to avoid and that scare us. Avoiding “John” everyday in the office causes stress! Being scared of the wasps outside your house also causes stress! Confronting your fears will diminish the stress you have for that something or someone. Only you can cause yourself stress, and only you can relieve yourself of stress by taking action.

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