Beat STRESS for a healthier you

Beat STRESS for a healthier you

Ongoing stress can have a detrimental effect on your health - but there are ways to reduce the potential damage.

Recent reports have shown that Malaysians, on average, have stress levels as high as 63 percent compared to the global average of 53 percent, citing a stressful office life as the main contributor! Here we show you how stress manifests itself in our minds and bodies, along with some things we can do to reduce its harmful effects.

The Stress That Never Stops
Recent studies have found that long-term stress has serious effect on your health as well as ageing you before your time. If you want to look and feel younger, stress has to go, says Dr Craig Hassed, author of The Essence of Health. Chronic stress is also associated with physiological wear and tear on our system caused partly by our incapacity to stop fretting. This wear and tear is associated with depression, decreased immunity, increased inflammation, metabolic syndrome, atrophy of parts of the brain, osteoporosis and hardening of the arteries, which leads to heart attacks and stroke.

Relieving Stress
It's not all bad news. "The positive message is the whatever we do to improve our stress levels, including psychological strategies and behavioural approaches, can over time reverse these potential effects on health,," says Dr Craig.

Be a One-task Women
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in the present moment" and multi-tasking is one of the greatest enemies of mindfulness. The problem with multi-tasking is that we're doing one things while worrying about half a dozen other things. Focusing on the one thing that needs our attention not only helps reduce stress, but also improves our efficiency and effectiveness. US researchers agree, finding that employees who went without email for five days were not only less stressed, they reported feeling more adept and focused at work. To help you to focus better at one task at a time, use our smartphone to your advantage. Figure out how much time you'd like spend on a task and set a timer. For iPhone users, try the app 30/30 from the iOS App Store - you can set recurring time blocks for everyday usage.

Don't Skimp On Sleep
Just like too much stress, not getting enough sleep or not sleeping well will affect your long-term health, and your capacity to cope. Older adults who slept poorly reacted to acute stress with significantly higher levels of diseases causing inflammation in their bodies compared to those that slept well. If you have trouble sleeping at night, avoid easing into bad with your electronic devices in hand. The blue light from the devices can trick your body to thinking it's day time thus keeping you awake!

Know Your Limits
Whatever it's work or social commitments, pay attention to what seems to  be the maximum you can handle. Some people have a tremendous capacity to cope with a lot of things, while others have a lesser capacity to do that, so we all have to learn when to say 'no'. Its like putting so much on our plate and eating past the point of enjoying the meal to the point where we consume too much and it starts to be unhealthy for us. Knocking back requests when you need to put your well being first isn't an easy skill to learn, but allowing yourself to do without self-judgement will de-stress you instantly.

Go With The Flow
If you can't change what's stressing you out, change your reaction to it. When we become reactive to a stressful or anxious through or feeling, what we tend to do is fixate on it. For instance, someone who is anxious about having to make a speech hates feeling anxious, tires to get rid of the point of having a panic attack. Learn to feel the anxiety and be comfortable with it, This way you don't escalate the intrusiveness of that thought or feeling, so it ebbs and flows like a wave without you getting swept by it.

Do Exercise You Enjoy
Doing the exercise you love successfully combats stress because you are present in the moment. When a person is exercising in a way that they're attentive, engaged and focused, it's not only good for their physical health, it's a great way to clear the mind as well.give an upbeat Zumba class a try or jump on massive trampolines with the kids at Jump Street Asia in Petaling Jaya. A good 30 minutes of jumping around can melt away 160 calories.

Carry On Self-Caring
Often, when we're under too much pressure, nurturing ourselves or doing activities we enjoy is put to one side. But it's when we're stressed that we have to be extra vigilant about maintaining a self-care routine. Self-care is the foundation upon which we can build a productive and useful life.

Keep Smile
The old adage ' fake it till you make it' seems to apply to stress as well. Keeping a smile on your face when you are under pressure can actually help calm you, says University of Kansas researchers. In the study, people who smiled, whether they were happy or not reported lower heart-rate levels after recording from a taxing situation. Plus positivity begets positivity, so put a grin on your face!

Hopefully you guys enjoy reading this article and it can help you in your daily life start from today. So, don't be STRESS, it may effect your HEALTH and surrounding. Keep your SMILE and stay in healthy everyday. From us #teamfphp

Tips : Watch funny viral video when you stress, its really help! 

I'm done, how about you guys?

Enjoy the video.

Reference

1.The Malaysian Women's Weekly - April 2015