Stop Stressing, or One Day it May Kill You!

Stress greatly affects the physical body. Studies have indicated that more than majority of illnesses are stress-related. As with all things stress has a good side and a bad side. To be somewhere right in between those is the best place to be. Now, you may ask how stress affects the body. To answer that question just take a look at the stresses in your everyday life.

Stress in your life is more likely different than stress and someone else's life. And stress in the life of someone living in a Third World country is different than the stress of someone living in a more advanced country. Stress causes us to have a reaction which prompts us to act in a certain way. The two reactions to stress or a stress situation are known as fight for flight. To fight is to deal with the situation at hand. To flight, is to flee or not deal with the situation at all. Either way, these reactions cause our physical body to tense up.

Have you ever heard the term, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger? Well that is one way we can look at stress. Longer-term stress will lead to negative effects on the body. The most common are mental stresses such as pressure, worry, and fear. These stresses, if continuous and long-term can devastate the body in different ways. For example, one can possibly develop cardiovascular disease or experience hair loss. Some people deal with their stress by smoking which we all know is bad for the body. Other people deal with their stress by over eating, abusing alcohol, or abusing drugs. Other long-term stress reactions can include high blood pressure, acne, headaches, depression, a lower immunity, or fatigue. It can effect pregnant women also. Long-term stress in pregnant women can lead to problems such as premature delivery, birth defects, or miscarriage. These are all due to long-term stress which is obviously bad stress. Short-term stress is different.

Stress that offers no continuous threat is called short-term or acute stress. This kind of stress promotes more positive effects such as confidence, motivation, alertness, and increased strength. An example of this would be exercise, which stresses our muscles and causes them to build up and get stronger. Another example would be competitive stress, which can motivate one to perform at higher levels. There are even rare situations where short-term stress can help us to save someone's life. Most of us have heard, about the mom that was able to lift a car with her bare hands, when her children were trapped under it. Stress definitely had a good effect on her body in that situation.

Now that we have identified the effect stress can have on the body, there are ways we can decrease stress. The most common is exercise. Not everyone likes to exercise but it can be a great counter punch against stress. Another good way to deal with stress is to practice thinking positive. People who have a constant negative mindset will have a harder time thinking positive, but they can still do it. They key is to guard your eyes, years, and mouth. Basically this means, not to listen to negative words such as negative lyrics in music, not just watch negative things such as negative movies or TV shows, and not to speak negative words. Doing these things can help decrease stress and will give stress less of a chance to have any negative effects on your physical body.