Most individuals realize that stress has a negative effect in their lives. A good deal of us make a excellent effort at dismissing negative consequences (although we know better) and claim to “thrive” on anxiety. We might even assert that we do not have plenty of stress or it does not affect us. It can look like anxiety doesn’t affect us that we have a lot of it in our own lives, but that might be because it is so persistent in our everyday lives that we hardly even notice it’s there anymore.

About stress

It’s not until we have a fantastic vacation (even a 3 day weekend off from work) that we realize how much stress we are under on a daily basis. More people than ever are working at home and when that occurs the natural barrier between home life and work life gets lean to the point of transparency. The pressure to make ends meet financially while keeping something resembling a lifetime, and doing it all over the same living/workign area, is a totally new sort of stress for most people who previously only shopkeepers who lived over their shop have had to take care of. These are a few of the contemporary sources of stress.

What impact does it have?

Especially in the scenario above, the anxiety can manifest itself in social situation by “snapping” at relatives, having a quick temper, and generally not being a nice person to spend some time with. On a biological level, the stress reaction, particularly chronic stress – the kind we do not appear to notice as much – has long term impacts like the inability to drop weight, headaches, body aches, muscle aches, and getting sick more frequently.

Among the best ways to alleviate chronic stress that’s caused by work, extended family, or other social situations is merely to get away for some time. Have a friend or relative take the kids for a night or 2 and go into another city and rent a room in a wonderful hotel. Go out for a nice dinner. Watch TV, go to a movie, see a play, or do something else that you like that you don’t normally have to do.

Even only a night or two away can make a major difference in your outlook and help you understand how much stress you’re in fact under on daily basis. This may even be a catalyst that will help you find ways to reduce that stress level. Needless to say, the advantages of this sort of short term stress relief are also just short term. For more term stress relief, try eating a healthy diet (which may be tricky to do under stress), exercise on a regular basis, assign work and home tasks to other people where possible and take on fewer jobs where possible. The benefits will be many. Those extra pounds may come off a bit easier. You’ll be in a much better mood, which will cause people to respond differently to you. You’ll also begin to get the physiological advantages.

Conclusion

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the confidence in your immune system to understand that you would not come down with each insect that happens to be moving around? Having a more powerful immune system may also eliminate low level illness that you might have on your system and not even recognize it. What if there are cells in your body which are pre-cancerous and a powerful immune system would kill them off before you even knew they were there? Coversely, is the weakened immune system allowing such cells to remain around and possibly even start to multiply? Take a check on yourself and your stress levels. Take care of yourself and enjoy life!