How to stop stress

I talked about anxiety quite often on this channel, but what about stress? Are they the same thing? Did you know that the stress that you have actually affects your life greatly and can even make you sick. Stress is reaction either in our brain for our body that says there is a threat whether some type of challenge that you're about to face.

We often feel stressed when we don't actually need to be. We've learned that stress affects us physically. Our metabolism, our memory, and our immune system. About yourself and all the times you been stressed. After a really stressful day or week or month. Did you come down with some type of sickness. Maybe it was a cold. If your body felt very tense and is now sore. Stress is affecting your body.

In most cases, after the stressful situations happened our body will return to normal. Some see that stress can be a positive thing. They say it helps them perform better, it keeps them motivated, without it they would have done their homework, they would not have done as well in the performance.

Prolonged Stress makes us sick

While stress can remind us of important things in our life, prolonged stress is where the problem really lies. Times it takes this natural stress response and exacerbates it. It blows it up into so many different particles that are even related to the original stressor. For instance, I am stressed about what my boss is going to say to me tomorrow. There's a level of normal stress because it's uncertain. But when it goes into the realm of problem-solving, what will happen if I lose my job? What will happen if they put me next to Sally? What happens if I did something wrong? I would have to look for new job, maybe I'll have to move, I mean if you and my family.

You see the stress needs to only stay in the realm of the first uncertainty of what we know. I am talking to my boss tomorrow and that is all I know, the rest needs to stay uncertain. I do not engage with those what-ifs.

The stress response basically is an alarm system the release of certain hormones that help your body prepare for this fight or flight moment. But how can it prepare you when you've made up all the catastrophes. They can't, this keeps the stress cycling.

Stress vs anxiety

This is how I see the difference between stress and anxiety.

Stress is typically tied to a specific situation. Once the situation resolves, so does the stress. Anxiety on the other hand doesn't always have to have a specific stressor. It could take the current stress that all these popcorn ideas about it. Anxiety is a spider web of fears and what-ifs and uncertainty whereas stress hyper focuses on specific ideas but are often common fears.

The most common stressful moments tend to be related to finances. It could be losing a job. It could be death of a loved one. Situations that are out of our control such as car accidents or disasters. Could be a problem at work and even relationships.

Acute stress short-term. The body often returns to its normal state. The stress of the deadline and is often not harmful. It's that feeling you get that says turn the wheel, you're about to hit a car.

Episodic Acute Stress

Episodic acute stress
more on a frequent basis. I see this most with healthcare workers and individuals who have jobs that have lots of deadlines. Individuals often feel like they are moving from one crisis to another. They have to work a little bit harder to find that relaxed state.

In chronic stress, this is when the stress lasts for a longer period of time. You could be consistent fights with your partner it almost feels like the stress is never ending. Individuals often don't feel comfortable not having stress. It's almost as if something is wrong if they don't.

Here's the problem, stress makes us sick. When her body is in this fight or flight mode quite often, it starts affecting the way we think, the way we act, and the way our body functions. I will successfully think I'm going to be at my job when my heart rate continues to increase. I body is not getting enough oxygen, and my emotions are going up and down because of the stress. I'm probably not going to have as well of the performance.

When somebody is not willing to take care of their stress or is having a difficult time doing so, their body finally tells them.... Okay man. Let me shut down some of your functioning because I can tell you how serious this is, maybe I'll do something about. I've seen individuals with so much stress that is because their bodies become dizzy, have a hard time walking, some on oxygen, different body pains.

You're probably like, Cool Nate, thanks for tell me all about the stress. I've never experienced it before... Just kidding I know you have... But I want to tell you what to do about it.

Focus on what you have control over

You are only going to focus on what you have control over. We have to learn to stop catastrohizing. Seriously. Focus on what you know not on what you don't know. When your brain wants to go into possibilities, you give it an answer like sure, that could happen but also could not happen.

Thanks for the thought but I'm just in a focus on the test that I have. I could do well, I could do poorly. The only way to know what happened after. Some individuals choose to write down the stresses and put them in different categories, this is what I have control over and this is what I do not. The items they do not have any control over our things they are no longer putting any energy to. You can use a phrase like, that is not my thing.

Treatment for stress

Here's a few strategies that also work. Exercise. No Nate didn't just tell me to exercise. Yes I did. You aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise five times a week. Drink water, our brain shrinks when we don't drink enough water. Change your sleeping habits, sleep earlier, change routines. You can start using mindfulness and meditation. Being in the present moment. Stress is often are not in the present moment it's about the future about things that happened in the past. You can use your five senses to help remind you that you are in the present moment. Obviously therapy can help. Challenging your thoughts and feelings through cognitive behavioral therapy.

Change of your routines, spend more time in nature, do your homework outside, no social media today, call a friend you haven't talked to in a long time, trying not to problem solve.

Eat healthy, it seems like what we eat affects the way that we think and feel. Some say our brain shrinks when we don’t drink enough water. If our brain shrinks, I wonder how well those neurons are going to be firing.

Ultimately, the ideas is to control what we actually have control over. Which sometimes is not a lot. I say, make it a priority to schedule out your day. I exercise at this time and this is what I’m going to do. I am going to eat these meals, I will go shopping.

Some people choose to write down all the things that make them feel stress and put them in categories of, “I can control this” and “I have no control” — what I find most of the time is that the stress is mostly related to those things you cannot control. So we choose to let them be.

Stress and anxiety are obviously related and there are warning signs. Go see my video on the 15 most common warning signs of anxiety to see if you can slow it in its tracks.