I need to say a few words about stress and how it affects your body, mind, and overall health. First of all, stress is not bad in and of itself. In fact, stress is a necessary part of life and every living creature on earth is designed to undergo stress - periodically. That is the key and it is why stress is so harmful to so many people. There is good stress and bad stress and even if the stress is due to something positive, it should not affect you in a negative way.
Our bodies are designed to undergo stress, have a period of rest and relaxation in order to recuperate from that stress, and then undergo stress again. This is the normal cycle of life. The problems begin when we experience stress for prolonged periods of time or when we experience one stress after another with little or no time to recuperate between each occurrence.
When we are under stress, we experience the fight- or-flight syndrome. During periods of stress, our body prepares to deal with the stress. The pupils dilate to increase vision, the body produces sweat in order to keep itself cool, the liver releases some of its glucose storage to increase energy levels, and the blood vessels widen to increase the flow of blood to the muscles.
In addition to this, hormones come into play. In periods of stress, the body releases adrenaline and cortisol into the blood stream in order to increase heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. Essentially, the body is preparing for an onslaught. It is preparing to handle whatever comes its way.
Stressors can be small, such as getting through rush hour traffic, or they can be big. If you are going on the Abs on the Go diet in order to get in shape for your wedding day, then you know about stress. Getting married is wonderful but it is also stressful. It is a big one. Adjusting to a new life takes time and this can turn into a prolonged stress. Having children can also be a prolonged stress (I see you parents nodding your heads) as wonderful as it is.
When your body is under stress, even low-level stress, for an extended period of time, this puts the entire body under a lot of pressure. The body will continue to produce the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol and this will eventually deplete the body's reserves and tire it out. The immune system will become compromised and health problems can arise.
When it comes to stress, it is important to have coping skills and mechanisms in place to ensure you can effectively deal with and relieve the impact of stress on your body. Your daily workout might definitely be one way to relieve stress, but here are a few other suggestions that might help as well.
Deep Breathing
There are many deep breathing techniques that are helpful to relieve stress and they also help keep the body at an optimum level of health. After all, the more oxygenated you body is, the better it will function and your cardiovascular health is important too.
Meditation
Meditation has been shown to have amazing effects on the mind and on the physical body. Here are just a few of the benefits of meditation:
Lowers blood pressure
Slows and deepens breathing
Helps to relax the muscles and reduce tension
Allows the body to have time to get rid of waste
products and lactic acid
Helps eliminate stressful thoughts
Improves focus and concentration
Enhances the immune system
Reduces the effects of viruses and bacteria on the body
A Positive Mindset
Aside from the physical coping techniques mentioned above, stress can be managed and avoided simply in the way you think and perceive life. When you think positive thoughts, you create positive energy in your life. Negative thinking is your enemy and it drains your energy dramatically.
The first thing to do is to be aware of your thoughts and thought patterns. Once you are aware of them, you can begin to make changes. Our thoughts lead to emotions, which in turn lead to action. If our thoughts are negative, then our emotions will lead us to actions that might not be healthy.
It is all about how we perceive the world around us. We all have a different map of the world and sometimes this map of the world might not be very rational. When we can challenge the way we see things around us and restructure our interpretation of our environment, we can turn a negative assumption or experience into a positive one.
It is important to stay positive and to think in a positive manner at all times because negative thinking does two things:
It drains our energy
Our emotions are our gauge so you must always be in touch with your emotions. When they do not feel good, it is time to analyze them and connect them with the thoughts they are associated with. Once you know what the thought is, you can work to change that thought.
You can tell an emotion from a thought easily because an emotion can usually be described in one word, whereas thoughts generally take many words to describe. You might be experiencing many emotions at once so you will need to identify each of them. Then you can identify each thought that you experience immediately with that emotion.
It is a good idea to write these thoughts down and then you can go through them and pick out the particularly negative or disruptive ones. Next, you can write down any subjective evidence that supports the thought. If you can't find any, then you know the thought has no validity. Then, you can identify the evidence that does not support the thought.
From here, you can balance the thoughts you have with the evidence you have to support or not support them. You should then be able to write a new list of thoughts that might be more reasonable. You can do this with any uncomfortable emotions and negative thoughts and you will probably find that when you are finished, you will feel much better.
The above stress management techniques, coupled with your Abs on the Go diet and your level of exercise, will ensure that your body and mind are running at peak efficiency.