The common health problems associated with chronic stress are numerous. These include diabetes, headaches, depression, anxiety, heart disease, and cognitive degeneration. How can you help yourself deal with stress? Although there will always be different forms of stressors in your life, you can learn some simple stress reduction techniques to help you relieve stress. Try them out now and reclaim your emotional and physical wellness.
Practice Mindfulness
The concept of mindfulness can go a long way in achieving a stress-free life. Meditation is one of the ways you can reduce stress by connecting with your inner spirit to calm a restless or busy mind. Rooting yourself in the present moment and learning how to enjoy the little things that make you happy can greatly reduce your anxiety both in the short and long term. Even if you have to force yourself to listen to your body and your feelings, take a baby step and try practicing mindfulness today!
Exercise
None of us are strangers to the benefits of exercising. When you exercise diligently, you can reap limitless physical benefits. Your lung capacity will expand, heart health will improve, and in many studies that have been conducted, overall longevity of life has been observed. Furthermore, exercise can improve your brain health tremendously. Even a simple aerobic exercise that is done regularly can improve our overall cognitive health. Taking a walk every day can do wonders for your memory retention, and improve your alertness and mental capacity to learn. Other low-impact physical activities you can try include tai chi, yoga, pilates, and even massage!
A Sense of Community
Growing older may be a fearful experience for some of us. Sometimes, when we begin to lose mobility or realize that our vision, hearing, and memory are failing, we may choose to isolate ourselves and go through these struggles alone. However, what we should be doing is the exact opposite! Having a supportive network of loved ones and experiencing a sense of community is critical for our emotional wellness and mental health. This is especially so for loved ones who find themselves confronted with scary medical challenges. Being part of a community can increase our serotonin levels and happiness, both of which have direct impacts on our stress levels.
Eat Nutritionally Dense Foods and Avoid Sugar
Sugary, highly-processed, and artificially-refined foods are strict nonos. Your poor diet can have serious repercussions on the amount of stress you are feeling, especially if it is causing weight gain, acne, or chronic problems that affect your appearance and self-confidence.
You don’t have to change your diet radically. What you can do for a start is cut out sugar, as much as possible, from your diet. While sugar gives you energy, it can also cause adverse effects on your body. Overconsumption of sugary products is directly correlated to obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, and high mortality rates. Your psychological well-being may also be at risk as sugar increases the likelihood of mood disorders and clinical depression. Sugar’s long-term impact has also been well-documented: neural plasticity that occurs as a result of long-term sugar consumption can hamper impulse control and effectively lower one’s ability to resist the high fat, sugar foods that feed the obesity epidemic. Thus, the best thing you can do for yourself is to remove sugar from your diet and make wise food choices.
