What is stress?
Stress is nothing more than an outside impact or force that causes you to react in different ways. Both your reactions and the outside forces can either be psychological or physical. For instance, If you get knocked on the head, the outside force is physical, and your reaction to it, which is a swollen bump, is the physical reaction. The same goes to the thing when you get a news that your loved one was injured. Your intangible or psychological outside force will cause you to have a psychological reaction, such as anxiety and feeling of sadness.
In order to deal with psychological stress, it is essential that you realize how it can affect you. Stress is neutral of and in itself. This means that how you deal with the stressor has just much of a bearing on how it is affecting you. This is a very significant concept to grasp and taken to the heart. Your selections regarding the way you deal with stress habitually are a key factor in how it will be affecting your health.
How does stress affect your health?
Stress is able to affect your health in many different ways. Psychologically, anxiety and stress can make you feel angry, frustrated, fatigued, fearful, apathetic, and depressed. On the other hand, physically, anxiety and stress can be a great contributor to chest pain, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, difficulty of breathing, hair loss, and immune system related disease. It is important to understand that we are talking about prolonged exposure to high levels of stress. You need to also understand that various types of people have various types of stress thresholds. The levels of stress that are severe enough to make someone ill, is somewhat bearable for another individual. Because the health effects of stress are depending strongly on the psychological and physical make up of people, it is essential to learn to monitor yourself for the symptoms of stress
What can you do?
No matter what your stress threshold is, it is best to keep your stress levels below that particular threshold in the long run. You should monitor yourself for the symptoms of stress and be ready to take action when they are detected. Do some research and start practicing stress management methods that suit your lifestyle and personality. Regardless if you choose to take meditation, yoga, knitting, running, or singing to relieve your stress, it is essential that you realize that stress is more than just an annoying inconvenience. The great news is that there are effective methods that you can use to manage stress and avoid the negative health effects.