Did you know that being optimistic is just as important as what you eat and how much you exercise? Yes, that’s right! Your thoughts and feelings can affect the entire well-being of your body. In particular, emotions such as sadness, anger, and worry cause spikes in the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is secreted when your body is overworked and overstressed. This, brings your body out of balance, wreaks havoc on your immune system, and creates the perfect environment for illness to occur whether it be frequent colds, or more serious autoimmune conditions such as lupus or cancer.
The physical symptoms of stress are often mistaken for an unrelated illness, such as daily headaches, fatigue, and/or stomach problems. A nagging sense of uneasiness or sadness may indicate you’re overwhelmed by the stress in your life, while binge eating, alcohol or drug use, and avoiding social interaction may all be a reaction to these stress symptoms.
While stress can be psychological in terms of daily and emotional stressors, it can also present itself in terms of over-exercising or too rigorous exercise, lack of sleep, and not feeding the body enough good quality nutrient dense foods can present itself as a stressor.
Symptoms of Stress
Here is a list of symptoms that may be directly related to stress and feelings of overwhelm:
- How stress affects your body:
- Headache
- Muscle tension or pain
- Chest pain
- Fatigue
- Change in sex drive
- Stomach upset
- Sleep problems
- How stress affects your mood
- Anxiety
- Restlessness
- Lack of motivation or focus
- Irritability or anger
- Sadness or depression
- How stress affects your behavior
- Overeating or undereating
- Angry outbursts
- Drug or alcohol abuse
- Tobacco use
- Social withdrawal
The most important thing to remember about the list above is this – when these symptoms persist without a direct physical cause being apparent, you are very likely experiencing one of these common effects of stress. Then, it’s time to begin working on new strategies for coping with stress and overwhelm.
How to Cope with Stress
Coping with stress can be a real challenge but, if you develop a strategy you can take better care of yourself regardless of the stressors in your life. Of course, how you respond to the stress you feel in a given situation, and where you are in the moment, will often determine the technique you choose to help you cope.
Among some of the most effective methods for coping with stress are:
- Deep breathing
- Meditation or Visualization
- Practice Gratitude
- Surround yourself with positive people via family and friends
- Stay connected with your interests
- Eat a more nutrient dense diet and don’t skip meals!
- Limit strenuous exercise such as high intensity cardio workouts
- Practice self-care and a relaxing unwinding bedtime routine that limits technological devices
While not every technique will work for every person in a stressful situation, if you experiment a bit, you’re sure to find three or more that will help you cope more effectively.
Stress Management Exercises
Further, every situation may require a different approach. Here are a few examples of stress coping exercises that work very well in a given situation:
- Check in with yourself after exercising. Ask yourself how you are feeling. Are you fatigued after performing the exercise? If the answer is yes, then cut back on the amount of time or choose a lower intensity form of physical exercise such as moderate walking
- Get out in nature. Take note of the colors and sounds and beauty that surrounds you
- Make sure you eat 3 meals a day to ensure your blood sugar doesn’t drop. Make sure to include the ratio of healthy fat, protein and fiber when planning your meals. Keeping your blood sugar stable reduces the amount of stress your body is under.
- Deep breathing – try Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 deep breathing exercise to relax your mind and body and induce sleep
- Create a bedtime routine for yourself whether it be a warm relaxing bath followed by a cup of tea and some magazines to read in bed
- Create a gratitude list at the end of the day of three things that happened during the day that gave you joy or happiness.
- Visualize any negative emotions, thoughts or feelings that you might be holding onto and release them. One thing I love to do is go by a pond or body of water and imagine myself releasing these emotions and thoughts into the water.
Stress levels are rising because of the fast-paced, constantly-connected world in which we live in today. developing a stress coping strategy using the techniques described above will go a very long way toward reducing and/or managing the stress in your life.
How I Learned to Cope with Stress
Negative emotions are in fact toxic to one’s body. I, myself, wasn’t aware that this piece is so instrumental in achieving optimum health and healing one’s self, until I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I have since graduated and become a Certified Health Coach.
Up until that point, I was doing my best to be the healthiest I could be, by eating organic whole foods, avoiding processed foods and sugars, as well as exercising. Despite all my efforts, I was always fatigued and wasn’t making much progress in trying to help heal my body of an autoimmune condition. My journey to become an integrative health coach helped me realize the missing link that I had been overlooking. I began to dip deeper for myself into the role of how one’s emotions can affect their health, since I have always had a lot of negative emotions running through me.
As an experiment one weekend, I checked in with myself several times to track how many times I was feeling angry, sad and /or worried. It seemed astonishingly way too much. I was more miserable than happy. How could I expect myself to feel good if I was sending myself negative messages all day and night? I mean, after all, emotions are energy and I began to realize the effect on my body was overwhelmingly draining.
Not long after my experiment was over, did I begin my daily practice of trying to visualize my feelings and imagine a place to let them go. For example, if I was doing a “check in” with myself and I am feeling angry I will visualize something like a lake or ocean and pretend to throw my anger into the water and let the waves carry it out. I thereby am releasing this negative emotion that I would have normally harbored. Alternately, I could also choose to dwell on something positive that was happening in my life when I am feeling a negative emotion.
After a short while of letting go of my emotions daily, I noticed my body felt more lively and energetic. It also got easier and easier to catch myself as a negative emotion tried to creep up on me. So, next time when you feel sad or angry stop and ask yourself if this is the type of energy that you want to be feeding yourself? In the end, realize that it is you who is in the driver’s seat when it comes to your emotions. So, which will you choose…?
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