Get A Hug From A Loved One
Physical touch can do a lot to relieve your stress. Hugging a loved one can be especially beneficial.
When you hug someone, oxytocin is released. Oxytocin is associated with higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress.
Oxytocin also causes a reduction in blood pressure. It reduces the stress hormone norepinephrine and can produce a sense of relaxation.
So don’t be afraid to ask a loved one for a hug if you need it. It’s good for both of you and it can be one of the simplest forms of stress relief available.
Helping Children And Youth Cope With Stress
Children and youth often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic eventlike a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents, caregivers, and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.
A Note On Nixing Negative Self
One phenomenon that contributes to stress is what is known as negative self-talk. You might not have heard of the technical term before. But you may be familiar with that nagging voice inside your head that always seems to put you down, aggravating an already toxic situation or contributing to negative feelings.
The voice that blames you for perceived failures, those thoughts that center around you not being good enough or doomed to fail, and those ideas that negate you and erode your self-esteem these are all markers of negative self-talk.
When you give in to it, this type of self-talk can impact your coping abilities when it comes to a stressful situation.13 Experts suggest trying to reframe this toxic way of thinking by talking to yourself and becoming more goal-directed instead challenge these thoughts that bring you down and instead use them to push you to become better.14
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How Can You Tell If You Are Stressed
The first step to managing stress is knowing that you are stressed. This can mean different things to different people. Often, many people mistake the symptoms of being stressed for symptoms associated with an illness. For example, you might feel like that persistent headache youve had for the past 24 hours is a result of a disease, which may not be so. Stress is either short-term or long-term and depending on the type of stress you are experiencing, your symptoms may vary.
Some of the common symptoms you can experience due to stress may include:
- Inability to sleep
- A massive drain in energy
- Headache and body pain
- Depression
Here Are Some Stress Relievers:
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How To Cope With Stress: 10 Coping Strategies
In the present times, stress is one of the major causes of mental and physical illnesses. Thus, coping with stress is essential to remain healthy. But how to cope with stress? Some people resort to bad ways of dealing with stress and harm themselves. So, here is a brief explanation of what stress is, how it happens, and the stress coping strategies that you can use to be stress-free and happy. ~ Ed.
Stress is no stranger to us. Everybody has met and experienced it. It lives in our homes, workplaces, and even follows us wherever we go, in some form or the other.
Thus, we should know how to cope with stress at home, school, or work at all the times.
But do we really understand stress. Well firstly, do we know what stress is and what are its causes?
Ive written in detail about stress in one of my earlier posts, and I mentioned its causes too.
You know that we cannot help ourselves get rid of bad stress unless we know the right ways to cope with it.
I say bad stress because there is also something called good stress. The bad stress impedes our progress and causes problems.
Whereas, the good stress, in fact, helps propel us further and pushes us to work harder.
Once you know why stress develops and what its stimulating factors are, it becomes easy to develop a strategy and employ techniques to handle it.
The efficacy of any stress coping strategy would depend on your understanding of stress.
Ways To Deal With Omicron Anxiety And Become Mentally Tough
- 3days ago
Viruses such as Corona can mutate multiple times in their lifetime. Some mutated viruses can become dysfunctional with time, while some evolve to be super powerful. It can cause infections and dangerous consequences more lethal than their predecessors. It has been nearly two years since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Now its variant called Omicron is raising concerns all over the world. Compared to the previous variants of Corona, Omicron comes with several mutations. The Omicron variant has been consistently spreading across more than fifty countries.
Let us learn everything about Omicron and how it can affect us.
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When Does Stress Become Chronic
Stress that lasts for weeks or months indicate chronic stress.
Chronic stress can impact your overall health. One risk is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. For example, studies have shown that chronic stress is associated with a hypertension . Furthermore, some risks can snowball into others: Hypertension, for example, can raise your risk for other health problems, such as heart attack or stroke.
Similarly, the hormone cortisolwhich gets released during chronic stressmay also lead to cravings of sweets and fats. As we all know, unhealthy eating can also raise your risk for obesity or other chronic diseases.
But the consequences of chronic stress dont stop with the physical effects. Stress can affect your emotional or mental health toonot just making you more prone to nervous or anxious feelings, but also more depressed. Recently, the American Medical Association acknowledged how anxiety and depression can be connected, as well as how the isolation of COVID-19 may exacerbate problems.
What Are Some Common Coping Strategies
Some common coping mechanisms may challenge you to:
- Lower your expectations.
- Ask others to help or assist you.
- Take responsibility for the situation.
- Engage in problem solving.
- Maintain emotional composure or, alternatively, expressing distressing emotions.
- Challenge previously held beliefs that are no longer adaptive.
- Directly attempt to change the source of stress.
- Distance yourself from the source of stress.
- View the problem through a religious perspective.
Experts agree that coping is a process rather than an event. You may alternate between several of the above coping strategies in order to cope with a stressful event.
People differ in particular styles of coping or prefer to use certain coping strategies over others. These differences in coping styles usually reflect differences in personality. Rigidity in coping is less likely to help than is flexibility in coping being able to fit the most appropriate coping strategy to the demands of different situations.
However, some situations that require coping are likely to elicit similar coping responses from most people. For example, work-related stressors are more likely to elicit problem-solving strategies. Stressors that are perceived to be changeable are more likely to elicit problem-solving strategies while stressors perceived to be unchangeable are more likely to elicit social support seeking and emotion-focused strategies.
- Get enough good quality sleep.
- Eat a well-balanced diet.
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Turn Your Stress Into Success
These tips and ideas are all healthy habits to either form or relearn. Theres much to be gained from stress management by giving your body the nutrition and rest it requires and the chance to move, plus implementing positive strategies like self-care, adequate social support, and simply being kinder to yourself.
If you still find it difficult to manage your stress levels or if your stress is affecting your quality of life, seek professional help. Your doctor may have additional recommendations to get you back to feeling like yourself again.
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Adopt The 4 As: Avoid Adapt Alter Or Accept
Sometimes stress comes to us and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Some stressors arise as a result of your environment, nature of work or internal conditioning. That means the only option is to change either your reaction or the situation. It is important to apply the 4 As: avoid, adopt, alter or accept.
If you have tried these tips and still nothing seems to be changing, perhaps it is time to take it up a notch higher and see a mental health professional. Remember no one is entirely stress-free. It is how you deal with it that matters.
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Cut Out Things That Add To Your Stress
Sometimes, the best way to reduce your stress is to cut something out of your life. Get rid of the things that are adding to your stress so you can experience more peace.
Watching the news, being constantly connected to your digital devices, drinking alcohol, and consuming too much caffeine are just a few of the things that may add more stress to your life. Making some changes to your daily habits could be instrumental in helping you feel better.
Dealing With Stress: Diet Exercise Routine And Sleeping Habits
It may be possible to better manage stress by eating a well-balanced diet, exercising more, and getting quality sleep.5
Eat A Healthy, Well-Balanced Diet
While its all too easy to resort to snacking and stress eating, experts recommend sustaining a consistent and balanced diet to help see you through the blood sugar spikes and dips brought about by stress hormone surges. You may be able to do this by:
- Preparing a healthy breakfast, incorporating protein, fruit, and vegetables
- Having wholesome snacks on hand to beat cravings in between meals
- Cut back or eliminate caffeine and alcohol from your diet6
There is also a suggestion to increase your intake of foods rich in B vitamins, which may get depleted in times of stress. B vitamins help keep your energy and immune system up. These foods include salmon, broccoli, whole grains, nuts, eggs, and barley.7
Get Regular Exercise
As for exercise, there is a whole body of research showing how physical activity could positively impact stress reduction. Regular exercise may help you:
- Regain focus and sharpen problem-solving skills
- Improve sleep, which may help you deal with stress as well
- Stabilize mood8
Even with limited time to hit the gym or work out, you can still get your body moving in simple ways. Here are a few ideas:
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Connect With Your Spiritual Side
For centuries, religious groups and native tribes worldwide have used prayer beads to guide their spiritual practice, and research shows that spirituality might boost happiness in times of stress. Buy a set of prayer beads or make your own, suggests Hall, and then create a positive affirmation or mantra that resonates with you. Then, next time stress hits, repeat your affirmation as you work your way around and touch each bead. “The more you go around, the more you’ll experience a sense of power and detachment from the source of anxiety as your brain switches into a meditative cadence,” explains Hall.
What Happens To My Body When I Experience Stress
People react differently to stress. Some common symptoms of stress include sleeping problems, sweating or a change in appetite.6,7
Symptoms like these are triggered by a rush of stress hormones in your body which, when released, allow you to deal with pressures or threats. This is known as the ‘fight or flight’ response.
Hormones called adrenaline and noradrenaline raise your blood pressure, increase your heart rate and increase the rate at which you perspire. This prepares your body for an emergency response.8 These hormones can also reduce blood flow to your skin and reduce your stomach activity. Cortisol, another stress hormone, releases fat and sugar into your system to boost your energy.9
As a result, you may experience headaches, muscle tension, pain, nausea, indigestion and dizziness. You may also breathe more quickly, have palpitations or suffer from various aches and pains. In the long-term, you may be putting yourself at risk from heart attacks and stroke.10
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Look After Yourself Physically
When you are physically fit and well, it is much easier to cope with stress.
When you become stressed, it is harder to motivate yourself to care about what you eat, or whether you exercise. However, not doing so can also make you more stressed. Get into good habits while your stress levels are fairly low, and you may find that they never go up again. These good habits include:
-
Taking regular exercise
Stressful situations increase the level of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol in your body.
These are the fight or flight hormones that evolution has hard-wired into our brains and which are designed to protect us from immediate bodily harm when we are under threat. However, stress in the modern age is rarely remedied by a fight or flight response. Physical exercise can be used as a surrogate to metabolise the excessive stress hormones and restore your body and mind to a calmer, more relaxed state.
Try to incorporate some physical activity into your daily routine on a regular basis, either before or after work, or at lunchtime. Regular physical activity will also improve the quality of your sleep.
-
There is more about this in our pages What is Sleep? and How to Sleep – The Importance of Sleep.
You can assess your levels of daytime sleepiness with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.
Make Gratitude A Regular Practice
Several studies have revealed the positive effects of expressing gratitude. While studying brain activity, National Institutes of Health researchers found subjects who showed more gratitude had higher levels of activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that has a huge influence on our stress levels. Plus, gratefulness also activated the regions associated with dopamine, one of those feel-good neurotransmitters. To reap these stress-reducing benefits, write down your feelings of gratitude daily in a journal, or by sending little notes to friends or family letting them know how much you appreciate them.
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Focus On Your Breathing
During the tense moments, try to observe your breathing with all your attention.
Your breathing gets heavy and fast when youre angry or stressed. Try to reset it in its normal mode by consciously observing it. It will also help you calm your mind.
Your neurons and hormones will send a message all over the body and mind to retract from the state of emergency and return to the state of normalcy.
Youll feel in better control of yourself and will be able to cope with stress.
What Are Coping Skills For Teens
We all use various types of coping skills to deal with various trials and tribulations in our lives.
In fact, its not only negative things that need to be coped with. Think about someone who wins the lottery and kind of loses their mind, they arent coping very well with something that happened to them, even thought it was a positive thing that happened.
Coping skills for teens apply uniquely to the types of things that teens tend to have to deal with, that younger or older age groups my not face in the same way.
Here are just some of the things that can cause teenagers to feel stressed out, drained, anxious, and down.
There are a number of ways to cope with these, which is the next thing well be going over in just a moment.
This isnt a scientific textbook coping skills definition, but I hope it made sense and helped to explain what were going to be talking about.
The following list has been adapted based on research by the AACAP :
- Stress from the obligations of school, being overworked
- Feeling down about themselves, negative self-image
- Changes to the body
- Health issues for themselves or family members, friends
- The loss of a loved one or a family pet
- Moving to a new neighborhood
- Changing to a new school
- Biting off more than they can chew
- Money struggles in the family
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Sexual And Reproductive System
Stress affects both the body and mind. Its not strange to lose interest in things when youre stressed out. While short-term stress may help men to produce more testosterone, chronic stress causes testosterone levels to drop. This can affect the production of spermatozoa, cause erectile dysfunction or impotence. Chronic stress also results in a fluctuation in womens menstrual cycles as it may result in more irregular periods, heavy bleeding, and even more painful periods
