Stress- Ways to Manage Stress for Your Good Health and Well-being

Picture this:

You have an important meeting and are already late for the office. On reaching your car park, you must return to your room where you left your keys. Every thought of your boss and his reactions to your failing to make it on time drives you crazy. Trying to avoid the traffic, you cross the speed limit and get a ticket. You somehow manage to reach the office to be welcomed by your teammates' cold looks and piercing eyes. You are late there. Though obvious and justifiable, your boss's reaction takes over your confidence and self-worth. You are handed a request, and you know you cannot afford to lose the job with those EMIs screening at the back of your mind that need to be honored regularly. Feeling down and low, you skip your lunch. By evening, you experience a headache, making you irritable and angry. Suddenly, there is a call reminder from your wife about your friend's evening party. You make her your sounding board and vent your anger and frustration on her. On reaching home, you realize how your anger had made your situation worse.

Yes, this may sound hypothetical, but these instances resonate with many of us, though not all. Let us take whatever resonates and leave that does not. 

In this scenario, these are unexpected circumstances beyond our control or, though within our control, lack proper dealing and management. They are events that trigger stress. 

What is Stress?

Stress is normal but could be a silent killer that crosses its threshold limit. Stress is the body's physical and emotional response to unexpected, unknown events not under one's control or, though under control, lacking proper dealing. Stress is only a problem if it affects your physical and emotional well-being. Some stress is necessary to enhance an individual's capabilities and push their boundaries for better performance. Stress triggers a fight and flight response in the body, enabling individuals to deal with the situation by facing it or running away from it. This response results from specific stress hormones the body secretes during stress. These stress hormones return to normalcy once the stress situation has passed. But constant indulgence in stress increases these hormones in the body, which impairs one's health and well-being in the long run.

The symptoms of stress could be physical, emotional, and behavioral. They include headaches and bodily pain, sweating, palpitations, anxiety, nausea, food cravings, irritability, lack of concentration, anger, depression, loss of appetite, sleep disorder, low self-esteem, mood swings, and social withdrawal, to name a few. 

Stress is daily, but how one manages and deals with it matters. Constant stress harms health and is the cause of various health issues, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high sugar levels, heart problems, and many more. Managing your stress through lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, alternate stress reduction modalities, and self-care is essential to keep health problems at arm's length.