Feeling Physical Symptoms of Stress? Here’s How to Deal with It
Stress can even cause heart palpitations. Less common physical symptoms of stress can include elevated blood pressure, rapid breathing, eyesight difficulty, thirst/hunger, dizziness, nausea, excessive sweating, weakness, fainting, and chills. Additionally, stress can also lead to mouth and jaw pain, especially for people with a tenancy to clench or grind their teeth.
To combat stress, there are many things you can do. The following are some ideas to help you better cope with stress and reduce the negative impact it can have on your body.
Get Enough Exercise
Yes, it’s true, exercise is the answer to many physical problems affecting women. In order to combat stress symptoms, aim for at least 20 minutes of continuous exercise per day, though 30 minutes is better. If you are busy after work with a family, consider re-purposing your lunchtime for a walk. If the weather is nice, get outside. Fresh air and sunlight can also help reduce overall stress symptoms. Ideal exercises will include walking, jogging, swimming, biking, and yoga, which release endorphins and increase your mood.
Learn to Meditate
Make time each day for meditation and breathing exercises. Yoga is an ideal way to blend exercise and meditation together. Through focusing on syncing breath and movement, yoga helps your brain release stressful thoughts. Additionally, yoga can be practiced at home on a variety of apps and YouTube channels. All you need is a yoga mat and comfy clothes. If yoga isn’t your thing, consider more stationary breathing or guided meditation practices. There are plenty of guided meditations available through apps or YouTube. Breathing exercises help your brain release stressful thoughts by switching your focus and concentration to breathing. Short three to five minutes deep breathing exercises can help relieve stress. If you have trouble turning off your brain for sleep, consider guided meditations designed for sleep.
Maintain a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet doesn’t mean you have to be on a “diet,” it means you have to make mindful choices every day. Choose whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, yogurt, and nuts instead of processed foods loaded with sugar. Sugar and caffeine both aggregate stress. While quitting cold turkey won’t work for everyone, consider limiting sugar and caffeine intake. Also, be mindful of the time of day you are ingesting sugar or caffeine. Eating dessert right before bed may lead to sleep issues because your body doesn’t have time to digest the food. If you rely on morning coffee, try to cut back on the amount of flavored syrup or added sugar over time.
Strive to Achieve a Work-life Balance
Look for small ways to find a better balance between your work and at-home life. For some women, these sectors of life may overlap due to working from home or owning your own business; however, finding ways to separate and compartmentalize these areas can reduce stress overall. Make a schedule and stick to it. Limit work to certain hours of the day, making time for your loved ones.
Limit Technology Use
As a society, we are connected to our phones, computers and tablets. Similar to defining a work-life balance, also work on developing a technology-life balance. Limit emails and calls to predetermined hours. Look for ways to incorporate and stick to technology-free periods. While texts and emails may appear to be of paramount importance, take a step back and examine what really matters in life. Spending time with loved ones will help reduce stress.
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