As college students all we do is stress. Stress about our grades, our social life, job interviews or what even to major in. Having a lot of stress can cause an individual to shut down. A lot of the time all you can do is think about why you are stressed or how you can fix the problem that is causing the stress. However, what many people do not know that stress doesn’t just effect you mentally it can stress you physically. Here are just three of things that stress can do to you.
- Weaken your immune system
- It can make you fat and shorten your life span
- It can cause sexual dysfunction for women and men
After years of constant stress your brain is most likely to become wired for tension. Stress can hurt your relationship with other and decrease your ability to make rational decision in a work environment. Many people think that a day off or a week long vacation can help them cope with a stressful environment but that is only making it worse. Doing this can cause people to have nervous break downs and act out towards others.
One thing people need to understand about stress is that it is an irrational feeling. It only get worse until you learn how to manage and prevent stress. “Stress is the disruption of homeostasis — the balance and order in your body” (David Asprey). Not all disruption of homeostasis is bad like, exercising and learning new information, it actually strengthens it and helps keep it functioning.
Chronic stress, however, is when it starts to take a negative toll on your body. There are four symptoms to stress cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral. Here is a list of of various symptoms. Like all issues with the body, the first thing you need to do is identify the problem. Why are you feeling stressed, How do I respond to the stress and How can I fix it.
Here are six way to hack your stress.
- Have Fun- find something you enjoy to do and do it often to keep your mind off of stress factors
- Synchronize Your Heart and Brain with Heart Math – “technology for reliably training your heart and brain to work together”
- Meditation
- Pranayama Yoga – helps you relax and control your heart rate
- Improve your sleep – It is recommended to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night
- EEG Neurofeedback – “the process of understanding how your brain responds to certain emotions”
Stress is commonly over looked by many people because it is such a common thing in a persons life. A good diet and weekly exercise can help an individual lower the chances of being stressed.
This blog really hit home with me. I have experienced first hand the negatives effects stress can have on the body. With college starting I feel like many students can relate to this topic and many people will find your resources on how to reduce stress helpful. I personally use the gym and friends as my outlet whenever I’m feeling a little stressed out, but I will definitely give the methods you listed a try in the future.
I love this post because it really relates to my life. Right before I came to college I developed really bad symptoms of stress. I would have headaches right above my eyes and my heart would race and my chest would be pounding. And now my symptoms have continued on in to college because I am over stressed with my classes. It’s not a good feeling to every day want to break down and cry and lay down because you do not know how to take care of yourself. The tips you listed are really helpful and I am definitely going to try them now.
This blog immediately grabbed my attention as over the past few years I have been trying to cut down on stress! I have found myself becoming sick in the past after stressful periods of time. I never considered that stress could ruin relationships and friendships so I found that especially interesting. It is interesting to consider though if stress could be a positive thing in certain situations? I know personally stress can motivate and drive me to get my work done rather than not caring about it.
YES, totally relevant I am beyond stressed and it’s only the 4th week of college , but I am also one of those people that let little things stress me out … which is bad… However
acute stress is actually good for the body it releases adrenaline and cortisol hormones… it’s when you over do it that’s when it gets bad.
I found this post so relevant to my own life. Stress is overwhelming and sometimes can be unbearable. It is not just stress though, anger, sadness, and even just confusion can be mentally draining. My way to cope with such experiences is just to go to sleep. Whether it is going to bed an hour or two earlier than I normally would, or just getting into bed and taking a nap no matter what the time, sleeping is my go to. I find that it relaxes my body a tremendous amount, especially mentally. Most of the time, I wake up feeling much better than I had before I took the nap. I find this interesting because it is not like i actually did anything to help the stress or other feeling. I still the same things to do or the same feeling on my mind, I am just much more relaxed about it and I am not sure why.