Stress, Stress and More Stress!!
Stress, it is one of those things that we as humans tend to pride ourselves on. But why? Stress can be good sometimes, like if we are exercising, or have a test. But most of the time we stress too much and it can be detrimental for our health. As a chiropractor and yoga teacher I am passionate about stress, and educating you on how to counteract too much stress in your life.
Stress can be broken down into 3 main elements – physical, emotional and chemical. Each of these factors can cause stress that is either beneficial or detrimental. Examples of physical stress can include the exercise we do, injuries we sustain and our posture. Emotional influences being the way we think about ourselves, how we handle situations, or how people treat us. And chemical stressors include the foods we eat and the products we put on our skin. Stress doesn’t just manifest as a ‘feeling’. It could be something under the surface that has not yet made an appearance as a feeling or emotion. It is important we manage our physical, emotional and chemical wellbeing to reduce stress and prevent any long term burden.
Long term stress can lead to a number of issues including depression, anxiety, weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease, reproductive and fertility issues, acne, headaches and many more. It is therefore important to work out what stressor is not working and find ways to fix this.
It is important to first identify the cause of the stress, remove it if you can and then work to reduce its impact.
Some ways to reduce the impact of stress on your system may include:
- Eating a well balanced whole food diet, and limit processed food intake.
- Exercising regularly, making sure you include both high intensity and low intensity exercise into your regime.
- Meditate or practice breathing techniques.
- Set your phone to night mode, or download f.lux on your laptop or computer to reduce the impact of blue light.
- Use a posture pole for 15 minutes every day.
- Limit the chemicals you put on your body, and try change your cleaning and body products to more natural brands.
- Supplementation may help decrease the stress on your body. It is important to seek professional advice on what supplements may be beneficial to you.
These are just a few of the many tips you can start today to help reduce stress or the impact of stress in your life. It is important you address the factors that are causing stress in the first place, and then implement strategies to keep these stressors at bay. We all have stress, and sometimes it can be unavoidable, but incorporating these tips into your life can certainly help decrease the impact this stress may be having.
If you are having trouble working out which part/s of your life are causing you stress, or how to help target certain aspects of stress in your life we are always happy to help you work through it.
Have a lovely stress free day!
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