Stressed? This is How it Affects Your Life
Jun 11th 2021
Stress is an inevitable part of our lives. The degree may vary from time to time, but we all know that it’s there – when tasks seem to pile up, when you can’t find an item that you so badly need, when you deal with very difficult individuals, or when you don’t know anymore how to balance your body ph. While stress is a natural reaction to situations that we can’t seem to change, when the occurrence becomes long-term, this may drastically strain or influence our mental health.1
If the stress response of your body can’t cope with the potential serious situations, this may take a toll on your health and put a strain on your life. This can further affect the many aspects of your life including your emotions, cognitive ability, and your physical health. To avoid this from happening, it is best to take note of the different symptoms of stress.
How Do I Know if I’m Stressed?
Controlling your stress is easier said than done. Even its symptoms are quite difficult to recognize – as most of us are actually used to being stressed that we often don’t know that we are stressed until we reach the breaking point.
How have you been dealing with life lately? Let’s go over the following symptoms of stress2 to find out if you are stressed or not:
- easily gets agitated, frustrated, and moody;
- constantly feels like you are losing control;
- finds difficulty relaxing and quieting one’s mind;
- low self-esteem;
- tends to avoid other people;
- low energy;
- often experiences headache, upset stomach, tense muscles, dry mouth, and nervousness;
- change in appetite;
- inability to focus and poor judgment.
How Does Stress Strain Your Life?
Being stressed from time to time is not something to actually get worried about. Again, that’s a natural reaction to your body. But if it becomes chronic, then you have to start taking it seriously because:
1. Stress can result in serious sickness.
Who wouldn’t? If you have been experiencing the aforementioned symptoms of stress for a long time, your body will eventually wear down. Studies have found out how stress is correlated with sick building syndrome3 and how chronic stressors actually affect the immunity of an individual which may eventually lead to vulnerability to numerous diseases.4
Therefore, if you want to stay healthy, learning how to handle pressure at work (and even at home) is a must.
2. Stress greatly impacts your mind.
Aside from the damaging effects of stress on your physical health, it can also strain your mental health. According to studies, people who are stressed tend to experience evening mind wandering, feel more rejected, and less engaged to people around them.5 People who are stressed also feel a mix of emotions which include anxiety, anger, fear, extreme sadness, and frustration – all at the same time. When not addressed immediately, this could then lead to insomnia, irritability, severe headaches, and other worse cases.
3. Stress contributes to heart disease.
Stress may increase heart disease risks as some people may opt to stress eat or drink too much alcohol or smoke cigarettes to “manage” the stress that they are feeling. This can, later on, affect their blood pressure and cholesterol level. According to the Vice-Chair of Research for the Department of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, excessive stress can greatly contribute to hypertension, asthma, ulcer, and even irritable bowel syndrome.6
How Can I Manage Stress?
Now that we’ve seen how stress puts a strain on our lives, we look at possible ways on how we can at least manage the stress that we are feeling. To reduce the impacts of stress, we can learn to recognize the signs of stress, exercise regularly, do some self-care activities, practice mindfulness, and eat healthy food.
While stress is inevitable, we can learn to incorporate healthy practices into our routine to strengthen our immune system and naturally promote stress relief. To avoid the stress and hassles of food preparation but still get the recommended 5 – 9 serving of fruits and vegetables daily (as advised by the USDA), you may opt for green powder superfoods like pHresh Superblends™ and PHresh Greens®. In just a teaspoon, you can conveniently get the right greens superfood to keep you up for the tasks that you have to accomplish for the whole day.
Learn more about how to balance your ph level in your body and avoid stress with pHresh products here!
References:
1 Reza Khosrowabadi. Stress and Perception of Emotional Stimuli: Long-term Stress Rewiring the Brain. DOI: 10.29252. PMID: 29967670
2 Reviewed by Jennifer Casarella, MD. Stress Symptoms. webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body
3 J.O. Crawford, S.M. Bolas. Sick building syndrome, work factors and occupational stress. DOI: 10.5271. PMID: 8881012
4 Suzanne C. Segerstrom and Gregory E. Miller. Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.4.601. PMID: 15250815
5 Alexandra D. Crosswell, Michael Coccia, and Elissa Epel. Mind wandering and stress: When you don’t like the present moment. doi: 10.1037/emo0000548. PMID: 30714780
6 https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/stress-and-heart-health#:~:text=A%20stressful%20situation%20sets%20off,%22fight%20or%20flight%22%20response.