Monday, November 16, 2009

Stressed Out?

I have to admit that my stress level since we moved is VERY LOW. It's been WON-DER-FUL! One of my biggest stressors has always been financial; BUT we've worked really hard and made some tough choices but they've paid off {thank you Dave Ramsey}. So aspects of that are no longer an issue, HOWEVER, now we've got the luxury/chore {depending on how I'm looking at it that day} of making some new very difficult decisions. I won't bore you with the details but they are pretty monumental decisions; that have a HUGE affect on my family, especially my four little sprouts.

I get HEADACHES. My neck muscles and shoulders get tense, which I think is what causes MORE headaches! I get an upset stomach when the stress gets really bad and I get SUPER CRANKY!! I get that pin-&-needles feeling in my stomach, hands and feet. I EAT, a lot! When I PHYSICALLY feel the stress, I know it's getting out of hand!

So I got looking into what effect stress can have on our health {whether emotional, physcial or mental}. Web MD had this insight:

*Stress can weaken your IMMUNE SYSTEM! I sure as heck don't like being sick so this could be reason enough!

*Stress had a HUGE impact on your heart! It can cause hight blood pressure, blood clots, abnormal heartbeat, coronary artery disease, heart attack and heart failure. YIKES!

* Stress leads to tense muscles {I know that one first hand}. It can lead to neck, shoulder and lower back pain. AND it will make rhumatoid arthritis worse!

*Stress can make the symptoms worse for all kinds of stomach problems like Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease and the like.

*Stress effects your reproductive health!! It has been linked to low fertility, erection problems, pregnancy issues and can make mestrual periods more painful.

*Stress can make asthmatic symptoms worse

*Stress even effects your SKIN! Acne and Psoriasis can be worse due to stress.

WOAH! On top of all of those physical effects, stress gets to us emotionally too right?! Things like: *irritablility or crankiness *jumpiness {is that a word} *restlessnes *lethargy or tiredness *difficulty focusing *unable to deal with small problems *get upset over "little" things.

There is much more to stress that this too. There are different KIND of stress {I'll go into all THAT another time}. But I wanted to end with a few stress coping strategies that I USE.

*Talk about it. I am a firm believer that bottling it up will do NO good for anybody! So confide in someone you trust.
*EXERCISE!!! I couldn't possibly leave this off the list. It's far too important and it works GREAT! Get off your butt and do SOMETHING. It will help! I PROMISE!
*Breathe. Yep. Deep slow breaths will work wonders. Find someplace quiet and just breathe; you'll feel like a million bucks!
*Don't sweat the small stuff. If you're freaking out about the little things you'll really flip when something big comes along!

What works for YOU?

1 comments:

Tiffany said...

Exercise, exercise, exercise :) Great post! I have an award for you over at my blog....come on over and check it out.

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