How to Reduce the Never Ending Stress in Your Life

Everybody experiences stress in life. Stress is actually brought about by a personal perceived inability to cope with certain situations. Stress is really unavoidable in life but it can be reduced. You just need to find out what is responsible for causing it in the first place.

There are 2 types of stress: acute and chronic stress. Acute stress is short in duration but chronic occurs over a long period of time. Chronic stress is never good for the human body. It increases oxidative stress in the cells which can lead to health conditions such as anxiety, depression, stroke, heart problems and cancer. Stress also increases acidity in the body which isn't good for the cellular environment either.

The following ways can help alleviate stress in your life and assist in helping you achieve optimal health.

10 ways to decrease stress in your life

Social Support: Have a good social support system. Talk to someone you can trust about your situation. This has been proven to alleviate stress.

Humor: This is known to relieve stress. Laughing daily reduces pressure one feels from stress and anxiety.

Change of environment: If at all possible, you may need to change jobs or move house if your source of stress comes from these.

Me time: Spending scheduled time by yourself, doing what you love can also help in reducing stress.

Visualization: This relaxes your mind because you are visualizing the truth about who you are; blessed, able, healthy and creative.

Affirmations: Making affirmations has been shown to decrease stress and provide a relaxed state of mind, helping to boost confidence.

Organization: Making a schedule, time management, tidying up your house or work desk can go far in reducing stress.

Exercise: Studies show that regular exercise can reduce stress levels. Exercising outdoors is highly encouraged because the fresh air you breathe helps to increase oxygen flow to the brain. Running, biking, swimming and walking are all great exercises that can be done outdoors.

Meditation: By meditating, you are resting, reprogramming and rejuvenating your mind. Studies show that this helps to reduce stress levels because you are in a state of mental quietness or you are thinking thoughts of goodness.

Yoga: Yoga is a form of exercise that involves stretching and holding those stretches. It has been shown to reduce stress and may be helpful in the management of depression and anxiety.

Reducing stress in your life is very important for good health. Do all of the above and you'll see your stress go down significantly. Remember, whatever you do, try and have fun while doing it!

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Is Stress Shrinking Your Brain?

Stress increases the risk of mental disorders, depression, high blood pressure, anxiety, addiction, heart problems, hair loss and even skin disorders and other health conditions. When it's not managed properly, prolonged stress can lead to more serious, as well as permanent, conditions like memory loss, decreased learning ability even personality changes because stress physically effects your brain and it's functionality.

Before you start looking at your brain as if it is a big raisin, stress does not shrink your brain so much in a literal sense, but there are some structural changes and even a decrease in size to certain areas of the brain.

Stress and adversity are also associated with the part of the brain, which regulates self-control, cognitive processing and emotion, which is why it increases depression and addiction leading to a self-destructive lifestyle.

Scientists who have done various studies on how stress affects and changes the brain, discovered that the hormone released by stress, called cortisol, tampers with your brain's ability to make synaptic connections between the cells.

Meaning, your brain cannot produce new neurons, which then inhibits new brain cells from forming. If your brain can't communicate correctly due to something causing a 'bad connection', the message might get mixed up or perhaps not even reach its destination, causing that part of the brain to not function properly.

Stress can decrease the size of the gray matter in the hippocampus, the vital part of the brain, where your memories are stored as well as making new memories and learning new things. At the same time, stress increases the white matter of the brain, resulting into you having faster responses to fear and is also the reason for your decreasing 'coping skills', resulting in that anxious feeling you get where you just want to run away from everything..

Here is what you can do to stop losing your mind:

There are two things you can do which can effectively reduce stress and increase brain connectivity between cells;

1. Meditation

According to a Harvard researcher, if you do mindful meditation for 30 minutes a day, you will see measurable structural differences in the brain after about 8 weeks. The studies have shown an increase of grey matter in the hippocampus and decrease of matter in the amygdala, the part in the brain which is most active when stressed.

2. Exercise

Physical exercise activates the brain's hippocampus as well as strengthens the nerve fibre for efficient brain functionality.

Meditation and exercise can help repair the connections in the brain affected by stress, but always remember that a positive attitude feeds a healthy mind!

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