What is stress and how can we copewith it?
What is stress?
Stress is defined as the body's reaction to a trigger stimulus and is a short-lived experience, being a response to a threat in a given situation. Stress can be positive or negative. A positive stress is, for example, the situation in which we manage to complete a project with a deadline that we consider a lost cause. Instead, when stress generates insomnia, poor concentration and decreased ability to solve tasks, it becomes negative stress. A high level of stress affects both the mind and the physical body. Stress can also lead to various emotional or physical disorders such as depression, anxiety, stroke, heart attacks, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems or obesity.
Symptoms of stress
Stress can manifest in a wide variety of forms and that is why it is important to know what are the most common symptoms of stress. There are psychological symptoms associated with stress, symptoms such as sleep disorders, irritability, excessive and unwarranted anxiety, overwhelming feelings, poor concentration, thoughts that do not provide peace and quiet, and memory lapses. To these psychological symptoms are added a series of physical symptoms caused by stress, symptoms such as frequent headaches, back and / or sore throats, dizziness or fainting, sweating of the hands and feet, difficulty swallowing, illness. common, gastrointestinal problems, alert heart rate, muscle tension, decreased physical energy or even loss of sexual desire. These symptoms of stress can vary and change over time. To avoid the repercussions of long-term stress, it is recommended to use techniques to reduce stress at the first signs of its appearance in our lives.
Methods of coping with stress
There are several ways to deal with stress. Each of these methods works according to each person and that is why everyone must choose the most effective tools to reduce stress for their own person.
- Deep breathing is the best option for periods of stress. It is recommended to practice deep breathing in calm conditions to know how to apply it when you are under pressure. Count to four for inspiration, hold the air in your chest four times and then exhale until you count to four. Repeat!
- Mindfulness techniques represent disconnecting from the digital world and reconnecting to the natural world daily for a certain period of time.
- Exercise helps reduce stress by releasing chemicals into the brain so that negative reactions to stressful events are reduced.
- The journal method involves noting in a journal the best and worst events of each day. In this way we learn to overcome obstacles and focus on our daily successes.
- Do creative things whether we are talking about coloring books or writing poems. Creative activities bring mental relaxation and reduce stress.
- Listen to relaxing and slow music to reduce your stress response.
Treating and relieving stress
If there are problems with stress management and stress affects the performance of daily tasks, and methods of coping with stress do not provide sufficient solutions for stress management, then psychotherapy offered by specialists is recommended. There are different methods of psychotherapy today.
