You get a flat tire on your way to work and miss an important meeting. Once you finally start getting caught up on emails, the phone rings. It’s your son’s school. He’s sick and you need to go pick him up. As the day goes from bad to worse, the stress you’re feeling starts causing your body to send out distress signals. You get irritable, your head starts throbbing, and all you want to do is curl up and eat a box of donuts.
We all feel stress at some point in our lives, but the way it manifests in our body, mind, behavior and emotions can vary greatly from person to person. Some people are more reactive to stress than others. Some react quickly and it takes them hours to calm down after a stress trigger. Others may barely get their feathers ruffled or calm down immediately. Many people experience a constant state of chronic stress lurking in the background of their daily lives.
It can be harder than it seems to recognize the ways that stress expresses itself in our life. Often people will get caught in a vicious cycle health symptoms and not realize that the root of their problems is stress. For example, someone may have ongoing digestive issues and look for ways to soothe their gut - not realizing the true culprit may be chronic stress. Another person may continuously feel sick, get frequent colds and not realize the negative effect stress is having on their immune system.
Recognizing how stress manifests in us allows us to take appropriate steps to mitigate it. To that end, here are some common ways our body cries out for attention and tells us it needs some extra TLC.
Common Physical Effects Of Stress:
- Tense muscles
- Lack of energy and fatigue
- Headaches
- Sleep problems
- Susceptibility to seasonal symptoms
- Low libido
- Stomach upset and gut problems
Common Emotional Effects Of Stress:
- Lack of focus or concentration
- Irritability or short temper
- Feeling overwhelmed or anxious
- Difficulty to relax or quiet the mind
Common Behavioral Effects Of Stress:
- Overeating “comfort foods” or loss of appetite
- Lack of motivation to exercise
- Tobacco or alcohol use
- Social withdrawal
Once you nail down how stress may be affecting you, you can create lifestyle choices that work best for you to relieve it. You can start by checking out 8 Ways To Naturally Reduce Stress. You might also want to try Stress Remedy®, a synergy of nine of the world’s most powerful stress-busting herbal extracts, as part of your holistic strategy to help you maintain balance and calm in our often crazy world.
