Stress Awareness Month

April marked stress awareness month! Unfortunately, I wrote this blog on 4/23, but due to traveling to Europe it never made an April Publish date! However I felt like it was important to continue with this topic since stress has become a very prominent issue that many women suffer from. (practically all of us if we are being honest). Continue reading to see how you can better manage YOUR stress!

Stress has really stepped into the spotlight over the past 5 years with the increased awareness of mental health disorders. What many people do not know, or do not correlate is the connection of stress with physical ailments in the body. Stress can manifest itself physically in the human body whenever we stay in a stressed state for either an excessive duration, or we reach high peaks of stress very frequently. 

When our bodies reach a state of unregulated and high stress on the nervous system it causes physical signs such as elevated blood pressure or heart rate, poor sleep quality, slow healing, and other more random symptoms such as cold sores, ulcers, acne, or stress tension headaches. 

For the month of April I wanted to include this blog in order to bring to light that we do need to be aware of the stress levels of our daily lives, our jobs, and even in our relationships. There is evidence to support that stress encourages the development of disease and inhibits the body’s ability to heal. This overall contributes to shorter lifespans. 

Unfortunately for many of us, stress is not so easily avoidable. An average life in this day and time has so much natural stress of just trying to pay the bills, keep the marriage alive, raise and nurture children… let alone if you have family issues or health problems. Life is not stress-free so it’s unrealistic to think that you can avoid it 100%.  

I think that it’s more realistic to try and be good at managing your stress! Thankfully there are many different ways to manage stress and help mitigate the symptoms that it can cause physically on the human body. The key is finding the right stress management tool that works for you! Some of my absolute top recommendations are the following:

1. Meditation- definitely guided is the easiest to start with if you have never done this before
2. Yoga – this is especially good for people who enjoy physical movement in coordination with breath
3. Exercise in general- increasing your endorphin release can help manage stress in a pinch
4. Running – this one is not for everyone, but most runners will tell you that they do it because it provides significant stress relief
5. Journaling – this is a great exercise if you need to get some thoughts out on paper so help clear your mind 
6. Counseling

Those are my Top 6 Tips for Stress Management! I highly recommend trying a mixture of these in order to find the one that best suits you and your needs!