4 ways to de-stress your life
We all know what it’s like to feel stressed. It happens when everything gets too much and we feel overloaded and overburdened. And when we start feeling this way we start to doubt whether we can cope with the amount of pressure being placed upon us.
Stress is the body’s natural reaction to pressure. Some of us experience physical effects, like a rise in body temperature, a churning stomach, sweaty palms and a dry mouth, others experience emotional effects, like worry, sadness or anxiety, and others are affected mentally, losing concentration and focus. All are normal and let you know us that our bodies are working exactly as they should be.
Sometimes a little bit of stress (what experts call acute stress) that you feel “in the moment” can be good. It’s a kind of fight or flight response that you have when you give a presentation, give your best performance in sport, or meet a deadline. This type of ‘stress’ is defined by the fact that it’s immediate and short term. In most cases, once the cause of your stress has been removed, your body and mind return to a normal state.
Chronic stress however, is entirely different, and it can be detrimental to your health. This type of stress is the kind that you experience every day with no reprieve because there’s no escape from the things that are making you feel stressed.
Whatever the cause of your stress, The Mayo Clinic suggests using ‘The Four As’ to help you deal with it in a healthy way… (more…)
