Stress: What Is It & How Can We Manage It?

Stress is a natural response to our bodies in which it prepares us for certain situations that allow us to have alertness & readiness. Without it, we wouldn't have these feelings of being anxious before a big test that we need to study for, being able to rush out the door in a brisk manner hoping you wouldn't be late to work, or having the ability to be on your A-game in your sport.

However, a ton of research explains that stress is relatively a 'bad' thing because of what it does to our bodies - physically, mentally, emotionally, & psychologically. But on the bright side, there are ways to mitigate it so that we can live a little better each day.

With this week's newsletter, we are going to dive deep into what kinds of stress we go thrrough and how we can take the appropriate steps to eventually have control of it.

There are 3 forms of stress and they include:

Acute stress
Episodic acute stress
Chronic stress

Acute Stress

This kind of stress comes in short bouts that you deal with every day. This can be moments where you're driving on the road and some other driver in another lane cuts you off out of nowhere or when you're cooking and you accidentally are on your phone for too long and the food starts to burn where you run to save it. These come normally and everyone commonly experiences them.

Episodic Acute Stress

This kind of stress is when you experience acute stress more often. Your body isn't given enough time to get you back to a homeostatic, relaxed state. This can pertain to first responders who have to attend to emergencies that are frequent throughout the day.

Chronic Stress

This kind of stress refers to the long term bouts of stress and these can last for months or, in worse cases, years. A good example can be where you find that your finances aren't in the best position of where you want it to be and you worry about it constantly such as accumulated debt over the years from unpaid credit cards or you get in a constant fights with a loved one or significant other.

Ways to Manage Stress

Fortunately, there are several ways to manage our stress and what's important is that we have to think stress ties into our mental, emotional, and our physical well being.

Here are a few things that I like to manage stress:

Move, and move often. Notice I didn't mention train or workout? Studies have shown that movement in any way, shape, or form can activate different parts of our brain compared to sitting and remaining sedentary. Additionally, if you don't push your body in a sense where it is challenged from occasionally in a controlled state, this can tend to have your brain think the hardest thing to do IS the stuff you do for work or doing activities that shouldn't be as strenuous such as walking uphill or going up stairs. So go out and take a walk, touch grass, and move.
Time block your 'Me' time. I know it may sound weird but I bet you've heard of the term 'me' time. If you haven't, think of it like this, your 'me' time is doing things that you like/love to do during your pastimes. For example, my 'me' time has been reading a book for 20 minutes a day and going out on long distant runs. These activities and hobbies help me de-stress and recharge my battery to keep me productive and happy. Without it, I'd go fucking crazy. So the next time you're creating your schedule for the day or week, find those slots where you can do you. This should be done regularly every day.
Eat healthfully. What you eat can affect your mood and your stress levels. Imagine if you eat ONLY fast food and how often you feel after eating fast food; trust me, it's the worst because I was there. I've been where most Americans would eat most processed foods and fast foods and it always made me feel like shit. Now I enjoy making food at home and eating vegetables full of color, an abundance and variety of fruits, and sprinkle a few snacks that I enjoy. When you start to eat healthfully and well, your body does the job and cleans out the waste and toxins in your body and this is all involuntarily so eat well and that's that.
Breathe. I know we obviously breathe everyday but most of the time its never in our control. If you're always stressed and your body is technically in it's 'fight or flight' response, your body is always going to be on high alert and anything that may annoy you can add up and bottle up over time until the last straw. Then, all hell will break loose. So what I would recommend is that there are many ways to breathe. Look at these breathing techniques to put into practice or subscribe to a meditation app (not sponsored but Headspace works wonders).
Practice gratitude. Being grateful for the things that's already in front of you and stopping to appreciate the things that are in your life (good friends, family, loved ones, your pet, etc.). Life can get hectic at times but if you consistently remind yourself of what you have, sometimes things are as good as they are. Don't let time pass and enjoy the moment. A way to practice this is to use a journal. I know some people don't like journalling but I highly suggest to journal. It has done wonders for me for the past 2 years and I don't think I would ever take it out of my routine.