Stress and How to Reduce its Effects

Stress is a response that includes both physical and mental responses to what we experience in our day to day life. In this context, stress may be defined as the collective physical and mental responses to an unacceptable disparity between personal expectations and actual physical and/or imaginary personal experiences. Although stress has been around us since the very beginning of our existence on planet earth, there is probably more stress today than there has ever been in human history. Stress is America's number one health problem and job stress in particular is widely believed to be the major culprit.

In spite of all the aggravating different disorders caused by stress, it looks like stress is somehow an unavoidable consequence of life and a life without stress is probably not worth living. As long as some stress can be a major cause of disease, the good news is that there are many types of good stresses that may promote wellness. Stress triggers different biological responses from individual to individual. Winning a football match or a race can be just as stressful as losing one. In spite of the different stress triggers from one person to another, there are some common warning signs of stress that are shared between many. These may include headache, stomach ache, difficulty concentrating, cold sleep disorders, clammy hands, shaky and strained voice, fatigue, anxiety or panic, hyperactivity, Increased perspiration, difficulty in falling asleep or frequent nightmares as well as others.

Reducing stress levels is generally advantageous to one's emotional and probably physical stability and it is advisable to know how one can reduce one's stress level. Some tips for reducing stress levels include being more organized, planning time well, listing the "to do things" and prioritizing them, deciding about the time we need for completing each job and finally sticking to the plan, which is the most decisive and crucial step of all.

While these tips are general, it is important to be realistic about judging our abilities while planning our time and setting our goals. Realistic expectations based on our actual abilities are key for avoiding depression due to unexpected shortcomings, which leads to stress. A wise decision is always an informed decision, so getting all relevant information is equally important for a stress-free outcome.

In many cases, when we look at what someone is depressed about, we think that it is not really worth the stress and panic he or she is making out of it. That is because we all have different approaches to the same conflicts of life. The approach largely depends on our accumulated experiences and what we actually have in our subconscious. That, to reasonably good extent, determines how we react to the world events around us.

Recent research has shown that stress can have serious effects on our bodies and lead to devastating long term and short term consequences. It can worsen the situation we are in and make us more likely to fall sick. Thinking positively, sharing our problems, learning to like ourselves, building happy families, making friends and giving ourselves some breaks are just a few of the other stress reducers that we can actually exercise and achieve in a reasonably short period of time. It might not be easy for some, but it is definitely something that is worth the effort.

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Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Stress

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