Emotional Stress: What Is It And How To Deal With It

Dealing with stress is almost a given for virtually everyone at some point or other. After all, life is made of challenges that test us physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, when a person has to deal with that type of adversity all of the time, the constant strain from such pressure can really affect a person's mental and physical well-being. This can be to the point where your health can be adversely affected for a short or even long term. This is known as emotional stress. The information below should help you to determine if you are facing this type of anxiety and how to overcome it.

If you are having trouble with your sleeping habits, whether it's sleeping more than usual or only sleeping for a few hours and having difficulty going back to sleep, you could be suffering from emotional stress. Often, the cause of this is due to either anxiety or depression, especially if there are no physical reasons for your sleeping issues.

If you are having extreme changes in your weight over a short period of time, especially if you haven't changed your eating or exercise routines, you might be suffering from emotional stress. Also, if you constantly think about food or constantly avoid eating, those signs could also be indicators that you are suffering from emotional tension. Depression can also cause a lack of appetite.

The body will sometimes aid you and others in letting you know that you are suffering from over tension when you have physical ailments that you just cannot explain the cause of. If you've undergone a physical, and a physician can't find anything physically wrong with you, it may be emotional stress that is causing your physical pain.

Another sure sign that you may be over stressed is if you are always in a bad mood, always showing a short temper toward others, and always getting overly upset over little issues or events. Both your physical and mental health could be at risk, as could the physical and mental health of those around you.

What can you do if you're showing the above signs? First, you have to identify and directly address the stressor or stressors that are causing your emotional angst. You should also try to look at the positives of your life and determine whether the stressor(s) you've identified are really worth worrying about or not. You may be making those issues larger than you really need to be.

You also need to take time out for yourself and enjoy fun activities to help relieve your mind of the pressure you are dealing with; no one can go for long periods of time under great duress without it affecting him/her. Also, let your family, friends, and physician know what you are dealing with, so that they can all help you overcome that tension and see the positives in your life.

Emotional stress can cause a great burden on those who are dealing with it, both in terms of their mental and physical health. They can be more irritable, they have trouble with their sleep patterns, they are less sociable than usual, and they may experience severe weight fluctuations.

By identifying and realizing what you are suffering from, you can work towards overcoming it with the proper attitude, approach, and help from your family, friends, and physician.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Emotional-Stress:-What-Is-It-And-How-To-Deal-With-It&id=9911279

What Stress Can Do To You

Everyone experiences a certain amount of stress in their lives. Some stress some of the time is normal.

In fact, since our prehistoric origins, the stress response has been vital for motivating us to react during times of crisis.

Today, we are not literally dealing with "hunt or be hunted" on a regular basis, although, there are certainly times that may feel that way!

Our stress hormones can help us to meet strict timelines, and deal with situations we find difficult in our daily lives.

Physical

The physical way we experience stress can vary. Some individuals become extremely irritable with their family members and coworkers.

Others describe a vice-like feeling of tightness in their chest or shoulders that makes it hard to breathe. Many people report cardiovascular issues like a racing heart and profuse sweating.

Some individuals suffer excruciating headaches or joint and muscle stiffness.

Gastrointestinal issues may be experienced, like severe stomach pains and diarrhea. Stress and negative emotions often go hand in hand with poor physical health.

Experiencing emotional stress jump starts the production of cortisol.

If this happens on regular basis the excess cortisol begins to break down the body's neurological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and immune systems.

Emotional

Often, it is the emotional side of stress that we initially experience. It is our body's way of warning us "Hey, I'm not OK here... pay attention."

Unfortunately, many people have become accustomed to ignoring the seriousness of messages from their inner selves. They prefer to self-medicate, or deny their stress altogether. These are dangerous habits to get into.

Society has taught us, particularly men, that feeling and expressing feelings is wrong. Denying your feelings can make things much worse.

Chronic or unrelenting stress, if ignored, can manifest as a physical response in the body in the form of illness, or emotionally as depression.

Left unchecked, stress can be very damaging to a person's health. This will compound the problem. This can lead to adverse effects on other aspects of a person's life.

If you find yourself experiencing any of these signs, stop and reflect. Review your life and your priorities to eliminate, or at least reduce, some of your stressors.

Symptoms of stress such as acne, bald patches and dry skin may be visible and obvious. Although the mental and emotional damage may not be visible, their effects on self and loved ones usually are.

If your stress levels are left untreated, you are likely to develop even more serious health problems such as heart disease, obesity and depression.

https://ezinearticles.com/?What-Stress-Can-Do-To-You&id=9660618

Whose Champion Are You?

When you think of being a champion, what comes to mind? Do you think of winning a competition or earning a title? Do you imagine being awarded a trophy or title and receiving the accolades of an adoring crowd? Let's add two more words and see how the image of champion changes. When you think of being a champion for someone, what comes to mind? Where does the focus go? Who notices? What is the "win"?

At a recent workshop with educators, the focus of our discussions turned to the need of every child to have a champion who believes in them and provides the supports they need until they can believe in themselves. Many kids and teens have been so hurt by their experiences in the world that they react with anger and resist the efforts of those who try to help them. These young people seem to be determined to recreate the abandonment, rejection, and disillusionment that have been their experience in the world. Teachers spoke of their emotional stress as they try to create meaningful connections with these hurting youths and continually experience defiance, hostile resistance, and even volatile eruptions.

Consider the unspoken message in the response of one young man to his teacher when she tried to reach through his anger to let him know how much she cared: "Why should I? You're just going to leave like all the others." His experience was that no one stayed. Teachers didn't stay. His parents were in jail. He had no one but his elderly grandma. When he pushed back against his teacher's attempts to connect with him, he was trying to recreate what he had previously experienced. He needed someone to see him beyond his anger, through the bristling protective shield he had erected, to the young man reacting from a place of emotional pain and needing to be loved, crying out for someone to believe in him no matter what. He needed her to be his champion - to believe in him and to love him unconditionally until he could begin to love and believe in himself.

Who do you know that needs a champion? Who has a gruff, keep-everyone-away layer on the outside that hides the tender being inside? Who reacts and acts out because their life experiences have hurt them so much? Who needs someone to see beneath the layers of hurt and fear to who they really are? There are those who use words to cry out for help; there are even more whose actions and ways of being in the world express their need to be loved and for someone to truly see and believe in them. From a surface view, their actions and ways of being push people away, but look closer to find the beautiful being hidden beneath layers of self-protective anger and hostility. Bristles on the outside speak of broken trust and lack of hope on the inside. Anger and attack speak of inner hurt and disillusionment. Beneath whose protective layers can you see?

There are also those who don't speak or act out to express their need for a champion. They suffer in quiet isolation. Don't assume that because someone is alone that solitude is their desired state of being or that because someone doesn't express their need that it doesn't exist. Everyone needs someone to care, to truly see them and believe in them until they can love and believe in themselves.

Who do you know that needs a champion? Whose inner being do you sense in spite of external appearances? How might you show that you recognize the hidden cry for recognition and affirmation? How might you show that you see and care, in spite of what appears to push away, attack, or be self-sufficient? Whose cry to be seen and loved do you see or hear?

Think back to the young man's words: "Why should I? You're just going to leave like all the others." His teacher tried to show she cared, and he reacted - not the way she hoped, but in a way that expressed his inner hurt. Can she recognize the underlying message and not give up? He will try to push away and recreate what he has experienced. Why should he trust? Why should he believe? But, if she holds onto her inner knowing about him and shows up every day to be his champion, in time, he will begin to let the protective walls down and let her in. In time, her belief in him will translate to his own ability to believe in himself. It won't happen overnight just as his hurt wasn't a one-time occurrence. He needs her to truly see him through the anger and hostility and to keep seeing him through the defences he has erected in self-protection. He needs her to be his champion until he can be his own.

If these words are resonating within you, you already know or sense someone who needs a champion. Will you be like so many others who have responded to what is visible on the outside and backed away, or will you be the one who can see through the outer expressions that seem to say "stay away" to the precious being who is crying out to truly be seen? Trust your inner knowing and be someone's champion. Who will notice? The one who truly matters - the one whom you see. What is the "win"? Something beyond measure by the standards of the outer world - the opening and blossoming of one who has been hiding behind walls of hurt.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Whose-Champion-Are-You?&id=9597381

Listening To Your Unconscious Mind

I'd like you to discover how your unconscious mind communicates with you.

If you think your physical manifestations are by chance, then you may be surprised to find out that you are being given messages that are worth paying attention to. Messages that your unconscious mind is telling you to pay attention.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever wondered and stopped to think about why we have our physical symptoms like aches and pains in the body or why we're overweight or underweight? These things that manifest in our body, why we get anxious for no logical reason. You have headaches or are always stressed, whatever it is.

You see, all these things are just symptoms of stress. The signs of physical, psychological and emotional stress that manifests in the body. We need natural stress to protect us from real danger, so crossing the road, you need to get out of the way for cars coming, but when it's overworking, when the unconscious mind perceives danger, it starts overreacting even though the situation might not need it.

Common signs and symptoms of stress are aches and pains in the body, headaches, digestive, respiratory problems, anxiety. They're just the basics, then there's a lot of sub branches of those things. These things aren't normal. A lot of people think they're normal. Aches and pains in the body aren't normal. There's actually two types of pain that we need to recognize. One of them is really good.

If you bang your head on the cupboard or if you bang your shin on a tow bar and it really hurts, that's the sort of pain you want because it's telling you, "Hey, be careful. Watch where you're moving. There's things there that are dangerous." That happens very rarely, but most of the pain, the other sort of pain that most people are living with daily like back pain or neck and shoulder pain, a lot of people think this is just normal. It's not normal. It's common.

So, what's the difference between normal and common? It's common because a lot of people have it, but what's normal is people's refusal to do simple things to address the problem. They don't want to do what's necessary to live without the pain; they don't want to do stretching. When you start doing a bit of stretching every day, maybe some meditation, dietary things, you can take a lot of things into account. You can actually eliminate or really significantly reduce pain.

The same things apply if we're overweight or underweight, and both of those things are an issue. We sort of have a range with all of those things. We can tolerate so much, but we don't want to let them get too far out of whack. If you're putting on a few kilos every time you look in the mirror, you're getting a sign to stop eating so much. What does all this mean? See, your unconscious mind doesn't talk in English like I'm talking to you now. It doesn't talk in any specific language. It gives you signals that manifest in your physical body.

So next time you look in the mirror or feel aches and pains or unwarranted anxiety know that your unconscious mind is communicating with you. Take notice and you are in an empowering position to make changes.

When would NOW be a good time to listen to your unconscious communication?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Listening-To-Your-Unconscious-Mind&id=9348999

Get Angry! Be Passionate! Your Emotions Are Vital to Success.

It wasn’t too long ago that emotions had no place in the business world. They were seen as a total waste of time and unproductive. Boy, how things have changed. Today, inspiring emotions is a critical part of any entrepreneur’s business repertoire and the social skills required have to be developed to create a positive impact on the bottom line.

If there is a desire for stronger leadership, better understanding of your team members’ behaviors and more effective communication -- not only to your peers but also to influencers and investors alike -- you have to understand the one thing that’ll change the way you do business.

Emotions are vital to your success.

In earlier times, you'd hear someone giving advice of “keeping emotions out of business” if you want to be successful. What they failed to acknowledge is that emotion is what gets people to invest in you, to buy your products and help you on your entrepreneurial journey.

Emotions are the driving force of your business. It is one thing to understand how to control emotional stress as it can prevent your effectiveness on the job, but another to use your emotions to drive influence internally and externally. And the way to improve your communication and provoke positive emotions that impact your business is to develop your social skills.

Want proof? Salespeople at L’Oreal who were trained in social skills development sold over $92,000 more than salespeople who weren’t trained, resulting in more than $2.5 million in increased revenue for the company.

So what social skills are the most important ones to develop? Here are the three major principles:

Context revolves around your ability to correctly assess situations, which involves being able read people’s emotions and body language. The best way to go about that is by exposing yourself to various social situations and internally describing various contexts.

The quicker you can assess scenarios, the better you’ll be at effectively making decisions that can move your business forward.

Confidence is at the core of your emotions and the foundation for your success in business. Because emotions can be physically provoked, you can “trick” your emotional state by making physical gestures -- standing upright, smiling, making eye contact, projecting your voice, slower moments and speech, etc. This comes in handy during important meetings and presentations, where it’s vital to deliver the message that influences your audience.

Content is the strategy that brings the results. This revolves around the people who are influential in your business’ success, whether acknowledging them as a group or as individuals, and calling out their meaningful contributions and how much they mean to you. While this is the easiest part for most, its impact is heavily influenced by your understanding of context and projecting confidence your audience can respond to.

When these social skills are developed, you’ll not only boost your emotional intelligence but your entire company’s, in turn boosting its value and most importantly improving the bottom line.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231691

What You Need To Know About Adrenal Fatigue + How To Fix It

"Adrenal Fatigue" is a term that you hear a lot in the health community, but what is it exactly? In this article you'll learn the causes of adrenal fatigue, how it can impact how you feel, and what you can do about it!

Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys and regulate many critical hormonal jobs in your body. One of those jobs is the secretion of your body's main stress hormone, cortisol. Our bodies have been designed for stressful events, and throughout time they have adapted to them. If our ancestors were chased by a predator, the sympathetic response, our body's fight-or-flight mode, would be activated. During this stress response, cortisol would be released, upregulating blood pressure and blood sugar, which were needed for the stressful event. When things calm down, cortisol secretion decreases, along with your blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Normal balance is intact.

Our modern life, with its many chronic stressors, can turn on your stress response and throw away the key. Unlike acute stress, for which we're biologically hard-wired, chronic stress turns on the fight-or-flight response, without any rest. If the chronic stress response doesn't leave, those cortisol triggers never stop. But we haven't genetically adapted to the onslaught of modern chronic stressors. Balance is not intact.

Some chronic stressors that can lead to adrenal fatigue are:

• excessive exercise
• toxins
• emotional stress
• autoimmune conditions
• food intolerances
• chronic gut infection

These stressors can cause cortisol to remain high for a long time. Chronically high cortisol levels can tire your poor adrenal glands out — welcome to adrenal fatigue. Because of the adrenal glands' important role in your health, adrenal fatigue can cause a wide variety of symptoms, such as:

• trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
• irritability
• fatigue
• blood sugar fluctuations
• changes in blood pressure
• low immune system
• digestive issues
• brain fog
• dizziness
• increased allergies
• asthma
• weight fluctuations
• depression
• decreased sex drive

In Functional Medicine, instead of just treating symptoms, my main focus is to address the underlying biochemical mechanisms that are at play. The secret to understanding adrenal fatigue is understanding its origin: your brain!

Your brain tells your adrenal glands what to do through a complex web of communication called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA Axis).

Your hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which tells the pituitary gland to release the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH then tells your adrenal cortex to release cortisol. Adrenal fatigue is really a dysfunction of your brain's communication with your adrenals (HPA axis), not the adrenal gland itself!

Given modern medicine's model of labeling a disease and matching it with a corresponding pharmaceutical drug, it's no wonder why I see many people struggling with adrenal fatigue and they don't even know it. Adrenal fatigue is nuanced and multifaceted and is drastically under diagnosed. There are three main stages of adrenal fatigue: The first stage is marked with high cortisol. The second stage you can see normal cortisol levels, which makes it difficult to detect. The third phase of adrenal fatigue is where we find low cortisol.

So what is the solution?

1. Get a comprehensive diagnosis.

One of the labs I run on my patients is a 24-Hour Adrenal Stress Index, a salivary test which tracks your cortisol levels, HPA axis quality, and other hormone levels throughout the day to get a comprehensive view of what's going on in your particular case.

2. Remove your chronic stressors.

Removing or limiting the stressors listed above will be essential to breaking the chronic stress cycle, regaining your health and feeling like yourself again.

3. Individualized care.

A health program should be tailored for your specific needs and labs. Although individual protocols will vary, in addition to herbal remedies they will often call for carefully replacing a small portion of the exact level of the missing adrenal hormones. Specific amounts of DHEA and the precursor to cortisol called pregnenolone, will stimulate your body to begin producing it naturally.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12463/what-you-need-to-know-about-adrenal-fatigue-how-to-fix-it.html