Okay, we’ve talked about stress in our External and Internal Environments and we know that the effects of stress on your health can be life altering. Today we’ll move to Emotional and Psychological stresses that we face and how you can handle those NOW!

What do I mean by Emotional and Psychological stress?

Now we get into some gray areas and I’ll tell you why…

When we talk about the quality of the air you breathe or what foods you put into your body, we are talking about completely definable elements of stress.

When we talk about emotional and psychological stress we get into personal interpretation, fear, self-judgment, lack of objectivity etc.

Everyone experiences emotional and psychological stress…

There are many ways emotional and psychological stress can find us:

1. Pressures at work
2. Pressures at home
3. Negative News Stories
4. Negative People
5. Complicated personal relationships

Etc. etc. etc.

It is almost impossible to define, but we need some way to know when we are under emotional and psychological stress or we won’t have any tools to handle this stress and its effects on our health.

So let’s put it this way…

Any experience or interaction you have that leaves you feeling badly has put you under emotional and psychological stress.

The hardest thing about minimizing this type of stress in our lives is to identify when and why it happens. And the hard thing about that is that most people are so used to this type of stress that they accept the residual effects of it as normal and so they don’t notice it.

There are 3 steps you can take right now to handle emotional and psychological stress and the effects it has on your health:

PAY ATTENTION TO HOW YOU ARE FEELING!

Maximize the time you spend doing things that leave you feeling good

When possible minimize the time you spend doing things that don’t leave you feeling good.

When you are doing something that doesn’t typically leave you feeling good, actively look for a something you can focus on during that time that DOES make you feel good.

Let me help you with some optimum times to really pay attention to how you are feeling since that is the most essential part of this equation.

Pay attention to how you feel…

1. When you wake up in the morning: What’s your first thought or feeling?
2. Right before you go to bed.
3. When you get to work.
4. Any time you are out with friends, family or colleagues.
5. After you watch the news.
6. When you get home from work before another day of work.
7. When you get home from work before a day off.
8. The evening before you go back to work after a day or week off.
9. After you exercise.
10. After you partake in a hobby or something you are passionate about.
11. After you spend time alone.

The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

I’m not telling you to quite your job and avoid everything that makes you feel terrible. I am telling you to maximize the time you spend on things that make you feel good, stop doing unnecessary things that make you feel depleted, stressed and bad AND find something to feel good about in the areas that you can’t get rid of that typically make you feel negative.

I know this may seem like a lot, but if you start to really focus on how you feel in certain situations, exchanges and times of day, you will be able to make some strong, informed choices to actively reduce emotional and psychological stress and the effects it has on your health.

Next time we’ll talk about habits and how we can use our habits to minimize stress and the negative effects it has on your health.

This kind of stress is a hot topic and I would love to hear your thoughts on it…leave a comment to let me know your ideas and together we’ll continue to reduce the effects of stress on your health.

=========================================================================

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We’ve talked about External Environmental stress and the effects of stress on your health. Today we’ll move to Internal Environmental stress and what you can do to minimize or avoid Internal Environmental stress NOW!

What do I mean by internal environmental stress?

This one is pretty easy…

Anything you put into your body through food, drinks, prescriptions etc. is an internal environmental stress.

You have MUCH MORE CONTROL over internal environmental stress and the effects they have on your health than you do over external environmental stress.

Once again, what we need to focus on right now is what realistic and immediate choices you can make to help decrease or eliminate some of the internal environmental stress from your life. Let’s not go crazy with this…simple changes will make a world of difference.

Here are some suggestions:

• Use ‘Chlorine Free’ Household Products: Coffee Filters, Toilet Paper, Paper Towels etc.
• Buy Organic: Most people aren’t going to go completely organic, so here’s the best rule of thumb: Veggies and Fruit and whatever foods you eat the most of should be organic. (You’ll be amazed at how many companies are coming out with organic versions of their foods, so look for them!)
• Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup at all costs!!
• Limit yourself to 2 cups of caffeine a day.
• Limit yourself to 1 alcohol drink per day.
• DRINK WATER!!!
• DRINK WATER!!!
• DRINK WATER!!!
• Filter all the water you drink.

I gave ‘DRINK WATER’ 3 spots on the list because it is that important. You need water to flush out your system and remove toxins from your body. You need water to hydrate, I’ve hear that 80% of the population is dehydrated and doesn’t even know it…dehydration is an extreme stress on your system.

You can easily reduce internal stress and the effects of stress on your health and system now by following the steps above. We started with your external environment and now we’ve covered your internal environment. In the next post we’ll talk about the Emotional and Psychological stresses and the effects that they have on your health.

Have other suggestions on how to minimize internal environmental stress? I’d love for you to share it…leave a comment to let me know your ideas and together we’ll reduce the effects of stress on your health.

=========================================================================

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We talked about stress and the effects of stress on your health last time, now it’s time to talk about what you can do about it.

Remember, prevention is the best medicine, so even if you don’t feel like your health is suffering because of stress; it is time to take some action to prevent and minimize stress now so you avoid having health problems later.

Typically stress shows up in these 4 ways:

1. External Environment
2. Internal Environment
3. Emotional/Psychological
4. Habits

Today we’ll talk about external environmental stress and the ways you can minimize or avoid stress completely starting NOW!

What do I mean by external environmental stress?

To be honest, this is the most encompassing area of stress because it includes your entire physical environment which can be as broad as Planet Earth (or more likely the city you live in) all the way down to the smallest room in your house or even the clothes you have on your back.

Let’s look at it this way, anything that physically touches you in any way shape or form is an external environmental stress.

Because of the broad scope of this stress category, I’ll primarily focus on the most immediate and direct decisions you can make to lower the negative effects of stress on your health.

Meaning, I’m not going to suggest you move away from Los Angeles because of the smog or Boston because the extreme cold puts stress on your system…I’ll assume you live where you do because you have chosen to.

I’m also not going to get stuck on how you can save the environment and make it better on a global scale…I absolutely believe that the more you conserve water, recycle, bring your own bag to the grocery store etc. etc. etc. the better it is for the world and therefore for you and everyone that comes after you, but that isn’t what this is about.

What we need to focus on right now is what realistic and immediate choices you can make to help decrease or eliminate some of the external environmental stress from your life. Let’s not go crazy with this…simple changes will make a world of difference.

Here are some suggestions:

• Have live plants in your home – More oxygen mean less stress on your system, it’s as simple as that.
• Create a perfect sleeping environment: Block out the light, block out external noise and make sure the temperature is comfortable. The better the quality of your sleep, the better equipped you are to handle the effects of stress on your health.
• Get your 20 minutes of Vitamin D
• Protect yourself from the Sun – Protect your skin and eyes: hats, SPF clothing, sunglasses and sunscreen go a long way.
• Control your audio stimulus – too much audio stimulus at one time is extremely stressful for your system.
• Be aware of your lighting – Harsh lighting can take its toll, but so can too little lighting, make sure you adapt how much light you need for what you are doing.

You can immediately reduce the negative effects of stress on your health. Start with your external environment and in the next post we’ll talk about the stresses of your internal environment.

I would love to hear any other suggestions on how to minimize external environmental stress…leave a comment to let me know your ideas and together we’ll reduce the effects of stress on your health.

=========================================================================

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let’s face it; if you are a human, participating in life on this earth, you are going to have to deal with stress and a lot of it.

We are built to deal with a certain amount of stress, but these days it has gotten out of hand. We are bombarded with stressful experiences, expectations, jobs…even when we aren’t in personally in a state of stress; we are met with the stress of the world at large; the economy, murder, unemployment rates, health care issues, abducted children…

Combine all of this with longer work hours, lack of sleep, driving in traffic, juggling family and work etc. etc. etc.

WOW…that’s a lot of stress!

The problem has become that we accept it as a way of life, so we aren’t really doing anything about it.

No, let me rephrase that…

We may be doing things to try to manage our stress, BUT we aren’t doing anything to change the cause of the stress. And what you absolutely NEED TO KNOW about the effects of stress on your health, is that your life is in danger.

I’m not kidding…I know it seems severe, and if you have just started experiencing stress you are probably thinking, “Ah, I’m ok, I can handle this.”

Sure…you can handle it…

My car can handle driving with its wheels out of alignment too…

But over time the stress on the tires will cause them to wear down and blow out…I bet you would agree with me on that without the slightest hesitation.

How are we any different?

Why are we religious about getting our cars serviced on a regular basis but we put off taking care of ourselves?

Here’s what I promise you…

If you burn out and get sick, it’s not going to matter how well your car runs!

The effects of stress on your health and body over time can be absolutely devastating.

The effects of stress on your health on your life can take away everything you have ever worked for and achieved.

The effects of stress on your mind can be completely altering.

There are things we can do to minimize the stress in our lives and there are also many things we can do to manage the stress that is a part of life no matter what.

The first step is deciding you are ready to stop accepting that all of this stress has to be there and to commit to changing some things and managing where things can’t be changed.

Don’t you think it’s time to take inspired action to minimize and manage the effects of stress on your health?

Next post we’ll talk about some great things you can do right now to do just that…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.