What Is Stress And How You Can Manage It

How We Naturally Relieve Stress

Exercise has often been touted—accurately, we might add— as an extremely effective means of relieving stress. And small wonder!

Thousands of years of evolution have conditioned our bodies to respond to stress with action. This is so because the earliest human beings lived in a hazardous, terrifying world—one in which only those who reacted swiftly and decisively to the threats around them survived to pass on their genes to later generations.

Can you imagine, for example, how stressful your life would be if, like a primitive hunter, you had to take down a huge, aggressive animal with a slender wooden spear or a stone-tipped arrow, face the prospect of starvation if you failed? Or if your only refuge from the winter cold was a dark, dank cave, which other predators such as bears and wolves might also wish to inhabit?

Well, our distant biological ancestors faced these kinds of challenges every day; and from them, we have inherited an elaborate internal alarm system that not only alerts us to menacing situations but also physically prepares us to respond by either combating or fleeing the perceived threat, this is called the fight or flight response.

When You Cannot Reduce Stress

These days our stress tends to become internalized. We keep things inside, and lacking an acceptable means of relief, often find that the symptoms of stress not only fail to subside but actually feed on themselves and build.

To your left are just some of the ways your body and skin react to a build up of stress.

Though the skin problems associated with severe or unrelenting stress can be significant, the damage to your overall health can be far greater.

In fact, the ailments linked to excessive stress range in gravity from disrupted sleep patterns, indigestion, and diarrhea, on the one hand, to serious emotional disturbances, chronic digestive disorders, high blood pressure, and heart disease, on the other.

People under heavy stress are also prone to suffer from chest pains, backaches, headaches, and shortness of breath, and often find it difficult to think clearly, act decisively, or control their moods.

Avoiding Stress

Tips To Help You Avoid Stress

Use these useful tips now to learn ways to avoid stress and stressful situations. Avoid Stress Tips

Stress Articles And Information

Too Much Stress

Do you have any of these signs of having too much physical stress or too much psychological stress? Learn why you should seek professional treatment if you do. Too Much Stress

The Fight or Flight Response

What is the fight or flight response? Do you stay and fight or take flight when under stress or in a stressful situation? Fight Or Flight Response

Stress Symptoms

Stress Treatments