Do Yourself A Favor – Stop Stressing

I don’t always take my own advice…I have stressed myself out to the max at times but I wanted to share some things that I personally found out are true when you allow stress to take over.  And stress can certainly take over without you even realizing it.

There is a reason it’s called a silent killer.

Stress can be caused by so many factors in life and it’s not like we will ever be able to run from it.  I’ve tried…or shall I say, I’m trying to rely on other ways to relax when I know I’m stressing myself out.

Stress can be caused by divorce, your job, a death in the family, arguments with loved ones, car problems, home repairs, deadlines, kids….I can go on and on but I think you know what I’m saying here.

It’s not about “if” stress will happen, it’s about “when” it happens.  Because it’s inevitable.  And when you allow yourself to stress out, let me tell you what it does to your body.  Some of these things I can tell you from personal experience that it’s very real…and sometimes scary.

Stress can cause unnecessary arguments at home.  You’re stressed out…you bark at the ones closest to you…or sometimes closest proximity to you.  Whichever comes first and whoever becomes the lucky contestant.  I joke about this but it’s truly not funny.  Those around us don’t deserve the backlash of whatever is causing your stress.  But this is reality.  It happens.

Stress can cause depression.  When we are stressed out sometimes we can isolate because we become drained from all of the pressures of life.  Isolation can then bring on depression.  And depression is a whole other topic that we can get into…another topic for another post and another day.  But if you aren’t careful, you can find yourself curled up in bed not wanting to get out because you don’t want to deal with life and the enormity of any given situation that seems too much to bear.

Stress can cause your hair to fall out.  Yeah!  No kidding on that one!  I personally have experienced this with stressful times in my life.  You know something is up when the normal amount of hair in your brush on a daily basis is increasing in volume.  An even greater validation of this is your own hairstylist telling you that you’re “shedding” more and you see a bunch of hair in the comb she just ran through your hair a few times.  You can try to tell yourself it’s not that bad.  But let me be the voice of reality here…it is a factor of stress and for a woman it can be rather scary.

Stress can bring on anxiety.  Much like depression, stress has a huge impact on our mental health.  Anxiety can then cause a myriad of other issues.  Which then leads me to the next item.

Stress can bring on anxiety which can bring on a panic attack which in turn, feels identical to a heart attack.  Again, something I can say I’ve experienced and that is the scariest of them all.  I’ve found myself allowing stress to control my life to the point that I have had a panic/anxiety attack.  You feel chest pains, you can be short of breath, feeling nauseous, headaches, and a lot of other symptoms that have you convinced you’re having a heart attack.  I’ve had an emergency EKG done because I had worked myself up so badly that I had to get checked out medically.  At the end of the day, I’m grateful it wasn’t worse than an anxiety attack but I’m still glad I got it checked out in order to give me peace of mind.

But stress CAN cause heart attacks.  It’s one of the biggest reasons for a heart attack.

So stress is really not to be taken lightly.

I know we talk about how stressed out we are at work, at home, the deadlines, our bosses, etc. but when it comes down to it, if we let stress truly get out of control it can wreak so much havoc on our body.

Stress.  A six letter word.  A one syllable word.  But a word that compared to what it can really do to us is so much bigger than that.

So, in light of all of what I just laid out before you, let’s talk about ways to combat our stress.  Ways to treat ourselves with gentleness and grace.

Again, let me reiterate, I’m not a pro at this but I know I need to be more cognizant of it.  Here we go:

Leave work at work!  Some of you will shake your head and say to yourself “no way”.  I have to work to get all this done (whatever “this” may be).  Let me tell you that I read somewhere recently that working beyond 8 hours…you really aren’t as sharp as you were that morning.  You aren’t as productive as you can be after working a full day.  Your brain needs rest.  Your body needs rest.  This is easier said than done…yes, I know.

Exercise.  Please don’t ask me to share my workout regimen with you because, well…I don’t have one.   I will say this, however.  A long walk can do you so much good.  Especially if it’s outside and not on a treadmill.  Being outside is a plus because you’re getting fresh air and some vitamin D.

Sleep. Now I am one that can function on 4 hours.  It has been debate between Gary and I about how much sleep a person needs.  Even though I can get by on 4 hours, he is essentially correct when he says 7-8 hours of sleep is ideal for being productive the next day.

Do something for you.  Maybe that means taking a hot bubble bath.  Maybe that means shutting your phone off and watching a good movie in your pajamas.  Maybe it means getting together with friends and enjoying yourself.  Laughter is good for the soul so be around people that make you smile and make you happy.  When you face stressful times in your life, you need positive people to keep you uplifted.

Life is short.  We only get one go at this.  Let’s do ourselves a favor and be gentle with ourselves, be kind to ourselves, give ourselves grace.

If you don’t do it for yourself, no one else will.

Your life depends on it.