STRESS and LIFESTYLE

Healthy lifestyle can protect you from stress and stress-related diseases. You are permanently under pressure? You have no time to perform perfectly at office and at home? You are experiencing on-going stress? Lifestyle changes could create natural defenses against stress-related backache, headache, irritability, tiredness, itching, mood swings, depression and other unpleasant stress symptoms.

Healthy eating style

First of all, never miss your breakfast and don’t forget your lunch – eat few times a day every 4-5 hours but in small or normal portions. Morning food is very important - it can improve concentration and boost your energy and it takes very little effort on your part. If you eat right, you would not have to worry about your image or about food calories.

Healthy diet can reduce stress risks – don’t drink coffee for just keeping going, don’t eat more than you need, never miss breakfast, avoid fast food and always check harmful chemicals in food products.

Under stress our body becomes more prone to digestive problems, our nervous system and adrenal glands work on overdrive, using more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than in normal situation. Stress could trigger overeating, binge eating and food addiction – comforting your body during stress.

Healthy eating style include the following - eat little and often, always choose fresh food, use more fibre products, avoid refined sugar, chew food properly, take enough time for eating, be relaxed during eating, don’t eat late (at least 3-4 hours before bedtime), reduce the proportion of caffeine products (coffee, tea, coca-cola), avoiding food allergies, reduce the proportion of red meat, fat food and salt.

Enough restful sleep

According to medical professionals, adults need at least 7-9 hours of sleep for maintaining normal health indicators and carry daily normal activities (different for each person).

Teenagers need longer sleep – about 10-11 hours per day – for insuring normal grow, development and for “covering” teenagers increased activities.

Many women complain about inadequate and unsatisfying sleep. Unfortunately women experience sleep difficulties more frequently than men and as a result women experience stress more often. It is well known that while women “tend to sleep” more than men, they also “tend to sleep” more lightly – it could be a reason for more frequent stress situations in women. If you sleep less and/or if you sleep light, it means you did not have “quality” restful sleep.

Sleep disorders in women can cause lack of energy, fatigue, exhaustion, difficulties with concentration and/or memory, morning headaches. Lack of restful sleep can keep women in stress with all consequences.

Physical activities

Physical exercises should be a part of healthy lifestyle – they improve your body stamina. For many women physical exercises could be a great way to relieve stress as exercising gives general strength, energy and natural high happy feeling.

Regular exercises are vital element of stress control because originally human body is designed for a primitive lifestyle – for hunting, fighting and keeping warm. Modern life is full of sophisticated technologies and machines which are making our life pretty passive (not physically active) and it could be a reason for body stress. If we do not provide our body with necessary physical exercises, then our muscles and subsequently our mind could deteriorate.

It is well known that insufficient physical activities may not affect our body in short-term but without exercises our body became weaker and stress could affect us easier. Without necessary physical activities stress body responses could be weak and/or inadequate.

Physical exercises reduce adrenaline levels and trigger the release of endorphins – hormones which kill pain, lift spirits, and help our body to get back to normal after stress threats and/or stress attacks.

Addictions

Some women “treat” their stress with caffeine or nicotine or alcohol without even knowing that addictive substances are stressful themselves.

If you wish to reduce your risks for stress – just cut down caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.

Excessive alcohol increases stress. You could feel that moderate drinking offers solutions for stress and stressful situations but in reality, alcohol just masking your problems (often setting up a vicious cycle which can be hard to break). Better control your drinking before it starts controlling you and remember that alcohol is a potential depressant.

Alcohol during stress can reduce your body abilities to cope with stress and/or response adequately to stress. Alcohol can also disrupt your mental performance and reduce your work effectiveness.

The beneficial effects of alcohol can be only for short time and it is fine if the stress is a temporary condition. But long-term on-going stress accompanied by on-going drinking habits, in the end, only exacerbates your problems and this can have disastrous consequences on many areas of your life.

Smoking can also seriously damage your health. Some women always smoke during stress. Why? – because smoking keep hands busy and those long deep draws on a cigarette seem to have a steadying effect on our shaky nerves.

It is important to mention that smoking (very similar to alcohol) depletes body’s store of vital nutrients and it can seriously damage your health.

Rest and Relaxation

Rest and relaxation should be very important part of healthy lifestyle. Sometimes we just need a break. Our body cannot take too much pressure for long period of time – our body has its limits.

Rest and relaxation can prevent several stresses. Different women enjoy different types of rest and relaxation – it could be meditation, swimming, listening music, travelling, going out for shopping or restaurant or movie, enjoying hobbies, visiting fitness centers, reading, singing, playing games, etc. The key is to have rest and relaxation regularly – every day, every week, every month or every 10 days. You should do something that gives you a break from your normal routine. Take vacations regularly!

Internet is full of relaxation techniques and all can be used for stress prevention.

Social support

It is important to have friends and/or relatives whom you can trust and whom with you can discuss your problems and share worries. Try to build a circle of friends for social support. In general, social support can make you stronger. At the same time, socializing can serve as important networking, and you may find solutions to issues you are having through the experiences of other people (friends, colleagues, relatives, neighbors).

Some women deal with their stress alone but some women need social support and/or support from close friends – both versions are OK but social support during stress is healthier.

Time management

Well organized women and women with well managed time have less risk for stress. If you feel overloaded, cannot meet your deadlines and cannot do your job in time, most probably you did not manage your time properly or it also could be you planned things which you are not able to do. Bad time management is a risk for having stress.

It is also very important to have for yourself – for pleasure, relaxation and rest. If you find yourself spending too much time doing things for others, you need to take some time for yourself. During your personal exclusive time you should be able to enjoy your “freedom”, to do exactly what you want without any interference and without feeling guilty.

Manage your time properly for whole 24 hours. Time management has several benefits including reduced frequency of stress.

Personal relations

Women usually like having friends and sharing problems with friends and loved once - it is important to get the balance right between the time you spend with acquaintances, family, and intimate friends (husband, boyfriend). Positive personal relations can strengthen you and negative personal relations can ruin you and make you a weak target for several types of stress.

If your husband or boyfriend does not respect you and treats you like crap – just run away because that kind of people are not worth your time or your tears. If they look good, it doesn't mean they are good. Long-term complicated negative relations could be very stressful and not good for your health and wellbeing.

Self expression

If you are stressed, your body needs self expression – let it out! Don’t keep all worries and pain inside of your body. Tell people about your thoughts, reply to mean behaviors, stop negative “attacks” and you will feel released.

Love yourself

Accept and love yourself as you are, because if you would not like yourself, others also would not. If you have problems accepting yourself, just change everything you don’t like – change your image, change your behavior, changer your weight, change your profession, etc. and start loving changed yourself.

Ignore people who don’t like you – build relations with people who accept you and love you. Surround yourself with love (personal love and love of people).

Don't take things personally because very often people are joking. But if you meet mean people – just ignore them.

Your work

Always remember that too much work and too much challenge or too much involvement at work can turn you into a workaholic. If you know that your workload is too heavy, try to find reasonable solutions (time management, reduced plans, discussion with your boss, etc.).
Do you need extra working hours? Do you need to compete with colleagues? Do you need always to be first? Every woman needs a challenge and work can provide it but too much work could ruin your private and/or family life, it could limit your rest and relaxation, it could make your alone and unhappy. Life of unhappy women is full of stress!

Leisure

Did you even ask yourself – “How to spend free time?” Do you know that you should spend the effort to plan your weekends and evenings as carefully as your workdays and work hours? In long-term well organized leisure time is stress-relieving.

Don’t underestimate and don’t ignore the positive potential of hobbies, relaxations, holidays and occasional breaks as these give you the opportunity to wind down negative feelings and wind up positive ones. And remember that leisure activities should be well planned in advance – it will prevent useless stress, tension and worries.

	STRESS and LIFESTYLE
Laugh	Maintain your sense of humor. Laugh at yourself everyday. Comedian D.L. Hughley once said “You have to laugh to keep from crying.” So true. Just smile and laugh.
Spend more time in your life to do what you enjoy	There are so many things you like but you did not have enough time to do. Just do it! Do anything you like! Any hobby, anything relaxing and enjoyable. Do something you enjoy like read a book, take a bath, or both! Spend time with your family, ride a bike... figure out what you have wanted to do and find time to do it.
Slow your life down	Stop always trying to be everything to everyone. Do everything slower – cook slower, drive slower, eat slower, etc. It will carry over into everything else in your life and you will feel less flustered.
Have enough sleep	Good sleep is very important. Your body needs time to heal and regenerate and lack of sleep will only make stress worse.
Eat properly	Proper nutrition can have a profound effect on stress reduction and how you feel. It also has a big effect on how well your body heals after a stressful event.
Be a little bit selfish	It is OK to be selfish and take some time for no one but you. If you take care of yourself, you will be better able to take care of all other responsibilities in your life.
Check your priorities	Try to priorities your activities. Are you focused on the right things in life? The things that really matter? Be honest with yourself. First do what is most important for you.
Listen to music	Music has fantastic influence at people and mood. This can be done whenever. Put music on and listen while cleaning the house. It helps tune out the rest of the world while getting something done. Listen your favorite music.
Reduce/eliminate sugar, caffeine, alcohol and drugs	You have heard this before, but it is true that these are bad for you. They make your stress worse. Healthy lifestyle is very important for stress reduction.
Change your outlook on life	One of the most drastic changes that can actually change your life is how you view things. In the bigger scheme this one stressful situation is meaningless. One year from now you will not even remember that deadline you failed to meet or the fight you got in with your friend. You are alive and well and can still go and do things you enjoy.
Adopt a pet	Studies have shown that owning a pet can help reduce stress and provide many other health benefits. Pets can give a lot of love and positive emotions.

10 Days to Stress Free Life The Art of Stress Free Life Discover how you can get rid of the pent up stress in your mind & body and finally take positive steps towards a stress free life...all within 10 days!