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Having stress affect your overall health today is a widespread concern. While, the signs of stress are numerous and worth discussing, of more importance is learning the best ways to relieve stress. This article answers the question, “How does stress affect health?” as well as describes one of the best ways to relieve stress permanently and decrease aging.

SIGNS OF STRESS: At first glance, you may think that having stress affect your overall health is solely limited to your physical body. But it goes deeper than just the physical plane. It also affects our mental, emotional, behavioral and spiritual levels as well. Let’s take a look at answering the question, “How does stress affect health on all levels?”

PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF STRESS: Our bodies are “prisoners” of our minds. So, when our minds perceive danger and signal red alert, our bodies produce stress hormones or chemicals in response to that red alert that make our hearts pound faster, blood pressure rise, breathing quicken and overall prepare us to fight or run!

In today’s society, this physical state of producing stress hormones typically becomes chronic, which in turn produces a chemical addiction inside your body to always wanting and creating the stress hormones, which accelerates having stress affect your overall health.

Having these stress hormones then continually “running rampant” inside your body slowly wears out the internal mechanisms or organs so that diseases such as high blood pressure or heart disease can take hold as well as “keeps your body too busy” for daily immune functions that keep your body overall healthy. This is where the commonly known physical effects of stress come into play such as fatigue, digestive problems, insomnia, muscle aches and pains, including the chest pain stress we feel when we’re under pressure.

In fact, there is a significant correlation between stress and hair loss. Why? Because your body literally sheds everything that isn’t vital to survival when it is kept in a chemically stressful state.

MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL EFFECTS OF STRESS: When coping with stress, it is important to remember that our minds are also affected by the chemicals in our bodies. So, it is reasonable to expect such mental symptoms of anxiety, low motivation, inability to focus or restlessness to show up because our minds are not chemically functioning at their best.

The mental symptoms of stress then lead to behavioral symptoms such as overeating, violent episodes of anger or frequent bouts of escapism through drugs and alcohol because of the body and mind’s inability to cope with the constant bombardment of stress hormones.

Letting stress affect your overall health constantly through too much stress hormone release also takes away your inner peace and trust that there is any spiritual side of life.

WAYS TO RELIEVE STRESS: Once you decide that you want to learn how to reduce stress, there are a few simple things you can do:

TIP #1: GET PHYSICAL: Walk, run, bike, swim, dance or jump up and down at your desk for a few minutes. When you start feeling stressed, do anything that will loosen up your body and break the stress hormone cycle.

TIP #2: GET “MINDFULLY” PHYSICAL: Combining physical stress management and relaxation techniques for the mind together works wonders. Examples of this would be doing mindful exercises such as yoga, Pilates, Tai chi or other mind-body practices.

TIP #3: BREATHE: Our bodies need air, yet the simple act of breathing is forgotten when the body becomes stressed. Become conscious of your breathing all day, regardless of what you are doing otherwise.

TIP #4: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MIND: In learning how to manage stress, one aspect is simply to take control of your thoughts. While this is easier said than done, by continually doing this you can create a chemical addiction to positive thoughts, which in turn makes it easier to handle stressful situations.

TIP #5: TAKE TIME OUT: Taking a weekend off or finding a creative outlet can break the cycle of negative hormones. If you can consistently find a way to “forget your worries,” you will soon create an addiction to the peaceful feeling you have when taking time out for yourself.

TIP #6: ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR POWER: Everyone has a significant reserve of internal power. Once this power is found and tapped into, you move from being a victim to being in charge of your life. This toggles your mind’s perspective from “Things are not alright, we have to fight or run” to “Things are okay,” which stops the stress hormone flow.

TIP #7: BRAINWAVE MEDITATION: One of the best ways to relieve stress is to use something called a brainwave meditation audio. It uses electronic frequencies to safely put the mind into a relaxed and calm state within minutes while all you do is relax. It has also been proven to significantly reduce the stress hormones that cause anxiety and aging while at the same time increase the “good” chemicals that counteract stress and anxiety as well as promote youthfulness.

SUMMARY: So, how does stress affect health? It affects every facet of our existence, which in turns affects our health. Identifying exactly what makes stress affect your overall health is second to finding ways to relieve stress. Combine these stress reliefs tips for a balance approach to overcoming stress and aging.