Stress management is extremely important to wellness. Of course, stress is everywhere in your everyday life. From your job to your personal life, it is extremely easy to acquire stress.
Now, you may be asking: why is stress management important to wellness?
Well, the simple answer is: stress is unhealthy. It wreaks all sorts of damage to your body. And, if it is not managed efficiently, you’re at risk for many health issues.
So, this brings up multiple questions about stress management in relation to wellness. Let’s dive in and take a deeper look!
How is stress unhealthy?
Here’s the deal, stress can cause many unpleasant symptoms.
In fact, stress is a rather fickle thing that can disguise itself as many things, such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Anger
- Etc
In the long term, stress can cause more serious physical detriments.
These stress induced physical detriments include, but are not limited to:
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- Fatigue
- Alcoholism
- Etc
Of course, sometimes stress can be a good thing. Stress can be a great motivator. Stress can help with things like motivating you get a project done on time, or even prepare you for a job interview. Stress is also a huge part of your survival in life-threatening situations. It helps signal you to get out of a situation that your brain perceives as dangerous.
Stress over long periods of time, is not healthy though. Knowing the difference between healthy stress and harmful stress is of great importance to your health.
What is stress management?
Stress management is how you might go about handling any pent up stress you have from living your day-to-day life.
Just like stress, there are two main types of stress management:
Healthy
Healthy stress management comes in many forms. It can come in the shape of yoga in the morning, or a hot cup of tea at the end of your day. Healthy stress management isn’t shoved into your day as an inconvenience.
This type of stress management can also help improve your overall mood and keep you happier overall. Healthy stress management can also make you physically healthier. Because you can pick up new, healthy habits that will help you in the long term. Healthy stress management isn’t harmful to you. Unlike unhealthy stress management.
Unhealthy
Unfortunately, unhealthy stress management also comes in many forms. Unhealthy stress management is something that causes harm to your body. Whether this harm comes in the long term, or the short term.
Unhealthy stress management can look like:
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Doing drugs
- Smoking
- Drinking too many caffeinated drinks
- Eating too much
- Not eating enough
- Overworking yourself
- Not sleeping enough
How does stress management work?
Look, stress management takes time. It also comes in many different forms depending on how and when you’re getting stressed. Your stress management technique while driving may look different than your stress management while you’re working to achieve your goals at your high-stress job.
Successful stress management includes a multitude of things….
Research
Researching stress management techniques is vital to finding a method of management that works well for you. There are tons of books and websites on the topics of stress and stress management that are available to you if you choose to take advantage of them.
Guess and Check
The way I handle my stress could be completely different than the way you handle your stress. You may choose to exercise while I choose to meal prep for the week. I may read while you go spend time with your friends. Everyone is different and you must remember that if you want to understand healthy stress management.
If you don’t let yourself find what works for you, as an individual, you’re opening the door to having more stress thrust upon you. There’s no pressure in trying out multiple things to see what you enjoy. And what helps you “unwind” when you’re stressed.
Use your schedule to plan out your stress management
As I previously mentioned, you are an individual person who has individual likes and dislikes than I might. With this individuality, comes a unique schedule.
Stress management is made so you aren’t more stressed when you’re managing your stress. Do you normally have a jam-packed day? Try finding quick stress management techniques to release some of the pent up stress that comes with your schedule.
You can do things like: taking deep, centering breaths when you’re alone. You can also try listening to your favorite song or playlist a few times through. Don’t try to pack more things onto your day, rather, integrate your stress management with your daily activities.
In Conclusion
Stress management is very important to your overall wellness. Knowing the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress, and stress management, is also extremely important to your overall health.
Through research, guess and check, and proper scheduling, healthy stress management can improve your life overall. Proper stress management can also improve your relationships with friends and family. If you’re happy, those that love and support you will be happier too.
