Your Wellbeing: Breaking the Stress Cycle
Stress has become a daily life routine for many people. While it is a well versed subject in media, long-term stress is actually detrimental to our health. When people think about stress, they usually have a negative connotation. Stress can be a result of both good and bad situations. Stress, a common human reaction, helps determine if fight or flight needs to be engaged due to the circumstance. Historically, stress has kept humankind alive. It is when stress becomes overwhelming and negatively impacts your daily life that you need to take to take charge.
Definition of Stress
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, stress, if managed, is helpful. Motivation can come from having a stressful project due at work. Having overwhelming stress can make a person avoid the original problem that was causing stress. Making it worse, concentration, decision making and a person's confidence, all are negatively impacted due to stress. Some negative effects of stress include physical sensation, health and sleeping difficulties, along with anxiety-like symptoms. Often confused with the actual situation, stress is a reaction to the situation. Situations that may cause stress commonly include major life events, long-term worries, parenting, and daily hassles like traffic.
Our Stress Toolbox
When stress becomes overwhelming, it can be difficult to find healthy coping mechanisms. As our bodies are in a “fight or flight” mode, our animalistic instincts have the ability to cloud our judgments. Being aware of what causes stress, in your life, gives you the knowledge needed to be prepared for stress overload. The ability of stress to be helpful and motivating in some circumstances can easily snowball into chronic, unhealthy stress. Daily approachable ways to relieve stress include;
- Exercising
- Journaling
- Hugging, and other positive physical touch
- Avoiding procrastination
The Takeaway
Chronic stress can become dangerous to a person’s health. Defining the lines between healthy and negative stress is a balance and unique to each individual. Discovering additional healthy ways to reduce stress will strengthen coping mechanisms when those stressful times emerge.
Please note that this article was written from opinion generated through scientific and medical research. The article/author does not offer medical advice in any shape or form. All cannabidiol consumers do so at their own risk.
Sources
https://cmha.ca/documents/stress
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323947/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24238073/