What Stress Does to Your Body & How to Manage it

Stress has a bigger impact on your health than you might think.

We all experience overwhelming and sometimes unimaginable pressures that lead to us feeling like we are unable to cope or manage what is on our plate. This is called stress.

Stress is one of those emotions that can really do a number on all aspects of your health and wellness: mind, body, and soul.

However, not all stress is bad. When you experience a minor amount of stress that doesn’t affect your body it can motivate you in positive ways. Examples of positive stress might take place in a marriage or any intimate relationship, when you are interviewing for a job, or taking a test.

When you experience a significant amount of long-term stress from a sudden negative life change (divorce, illness, losing a job), a traumatic event, or from routine (work, school, family) that is when your stress may become unhealthy.

Stress in relation to your mind can affect your memory, mood, increase anxiety, and in severe cases contribute to depression and other mental health illnesses.

Additionally, during chronic stress or intense acute stress, your mind will automatically sense the distress you are going through. Your amygdala, the area of the brain that processes emotions, sends a distress signal to your hypothalamus. The hypothalamus will then signal the rest of your body to react to the perceived threat (stress). This reaction is called the fight-or-flight response.

The fight-or-flight response is responsible for the physical reactions that your body produces in response to stress or fear. In terms of stress, if you have ever had to give a presentation at school or work and your heartbeat suddenly starts racing and your palms get sweaty you are experiencing that fight-or-flight response.

Therefore, the physical signs you experience from the fight-or-flight response are also the same indicators for stress. These signs include rapid heartbeat and breathing, pale or flushed skin, dilated pupils, and trembling. Additional physical effects of chronic stress include disturbances in the immune, digestive, cardiovascular, sleep, and reproductive systems, and headaches.

When you don’t take steps to manage your stress in a healthy way you are more likely to manifest serious health problems that make managing stress even more difficult. These health problems include heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, mental illnesses, and more.

Now, the good news is that there are many healthy and effective ways that you can manage your stress to help reduce your chances of manifesting negative health effects.

Here are some tips that the National Institute of Mental Health recommends:

1. Be observant: We all react to stress differently so work on recognizing how you personally react to stress. Do you sleep more or less? Drink more? Have low energy? Become more irritated? (I become more irritated hah)
2. Talk to your health care provider or mental health professional: Don’t wait for your stress to become so unbearable that you have to take more aggressive steps to help yourself. You can reach out even when you have minor stress because even then it can affect your life.
3. Get regular exercise: The NIMH recommends at least 30 minutes a day! Just this small amount can increase your mood and improve overall health.
4. Try a relaxing activity: meditation, yoga, muscle relaxation, breathing exercises. Try to schedule regular times for one of these activities to reset your mind and body.
5. Set goals and priorities: Decide what you have to get done now and what can wait, learn to say “no” to something new if you are feeling overwhelmed with what you already have to do, and at the end of the day focus on what you have accomplished not what you haven’t.
6. Stay connected: You are not alone! Reach out to friends and family who you can go to for emotional and practical help when coping with stress.

Extra tips that I recommend to help manage your stress:

1. Do something you love every day: Whether it be drinking your favorite cup of tea, watching an episode of your favorite show, or doing a hobby for 30 minutes, find a way to fit it into your day and be PRESENT with it.
2. Time management: Make sure you aren’t sitting on your phone for hours a day distracting yourself from what you need to get done. Plan it out so you have time to work and relax.
3. Be gentle with yourself: This is a really important one! it’s okay if you don’t finish exactly what you need to all in one day, you aren’t superhuman. Even if you have a lot to do and you are stressed don’t forget to give yourself love while you are doing it. You can give yourself that love with daily affirmations.
4. Make a self-care routine: Even on the most stressful days having a self-care routine at the end of the day can help ease the draining day you had. It is important to find time to care for your mind, body, and soul.
5. Take a break: At least one break in the day is necessary to let your mind reset. A break as little as 5 minutes can help. You can sit and do nothing, take some cleansing breaths, meditate, take a nap, or whatever you like to do on breaks!
6. Sleep: Another important one! Getting a good amount of sleep each night will help to keep you energized for your next day, stressful or not. You won’t be able to do any productive work when you are tired so give yourself the gift of sleep and come back to your work when you can think clearly.

Stress is stressful, but it can be managed! Use the above tips to help you cope with your stress when it starts and to help prevent it from getting worse and manifesting into something physical.

And remember your stress is not forever. If you work on managing it, with time, it will decrease and you will feel more at ease. However, if you feel stressed on daily basis it may take more time for it to go away. As long as you take daily steps to help manage your stress you are moving in the right direction even if it doesn’t feel like it at first!

If it chronic stress you may need to reach out to a professional to help you figure out which steps are best for you to take to decrease your stress. This is not shameful! Take the steps that you feel will be best for your mental health because it matters more than other opinions. :)

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to reach out by leaving a private or public comment on here or you can message me on my Instagram @skylarraeblog. Make sure to follow my Instagram too!

If you liked this article, clap, comment, and follow my blog! Plus check out my other articles on being alone, negative emotions, being present, and more.

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Skylar Rae

Resources:

5 Things You Should Know About Stress

How the Fight or Flight Response Works

The Mind and Mental Health: How Stress Affects the Brain