If you knew what stress does to your body, you would think again before letting yourself fall into the trap of anxious thoughts and negativity.
Stress is a pesky fly that never seems to go away. With our busy lifestyles, it’s hard to shake it off. The good news is that there are ways to release it.
The 11 Signs & Effects of Stress
It’s easy to miss the signs of stress when you’re caught up in your activities. You’re probably so busy that you don’t think about it. But they’re there.
How does stress affect your body? A lot more than you realize:
1. Little energy
You might, first of all, find yourself too tired to do anything. Feeling overwhelmed over an extended time may deal blows to your motivation.
2. Headaches
Stress might also cause tension headaches. You may suffer from it if you experience prolonged pressure. These headaches are either episodic or chronic.
3. Poor digestion
Furthermore, stress might cause you to skip meals. Yes, this is one effect of stress on your body. Doing this may upset your stomach and trigger bouts of nausea. Diarrhea is typical as well. This researchpoints out that it causes digestive problems in rats.
4. Aches, pains, and tense muscles
Among the things stress does to your body is making you physically and mentally strung up. You will have painful, aching muscles. According to the American Psychological Association, stress causes muscles to tense up. If this happens for a prolonged time, they may cause stress-related disorders.
5. Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
A palpitating heartbeat is another symptom of stress. Excess pressure from work or home may cause what experts call Chest Pain Anxiety. Having excess worries can trigger physiological and psychological changes, what experts call the flight or fight response.
Over stimulating the stress hormone, cortisol, may cause chest pains. Indigestion may activate it as well. Thisstudyexplored how panic attacks can trigger chest pains that resemble heart attacks.
6. Insomnia
Moreover, stress may affect how well you sleep. According to thisstudy, it disrupts your immune system and therefore, your sleep-wake cycle.
7. Colds and infections
Carnegie Mellon Universityhas found that stress causes the body to lose its ability to prevent inflammation. The National Academy of Scienceshas concluded that it causes diseases to progress.
8. Loss of Libido
Of course, stress can affect your sexual performance. You’re not likely to feel motivated to have sex with your spouse after an argument with your boss. If this happens over an extended time, you’re liable to suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED).
Thisresearchpoints out that men who went through a stress management program were less likely than those who didn’t to have symptoms of ED.
9. Tinnitus
Stress, according to a study by H.S Herbert, can cause ringing in the ear, though this connection needs further exploration. He discovered that 53.6 of tinnitus sufferers experienced the condition during stressful times in their lives.
As far as stress goes, this is thought to be an irritating effect. What are other damages to the body caused by stress?
10. Sweating
Stress also causes hyperhidrosis or nervous sweating. The researchers in thisstudy found that men who tended to sweat excessively did so in tense social situations.
11. Clenched jaw and grinding teeth.
Finally, stress causes bruxism or the repeated grinding of teeth. This researchpoints out that chronic stress causes a person to clench his teeth, especially in highly-strung personalities.
How to release stress from your body
All’s not lost if you store stress in these ‘stress containers.’ The good news is that there are ways to release it.
Check out the ways to release the accumulated stress from the different parts of your body:
1. Jaw/Neck/Face
First of all, if you store stress in these areas, you’ll likely clench your jaw or grind your teeth. That can lead to deep worry lines and premature aging.
Using intuitive meditation calms your nerves and makes your skin supple. Facial exercises help with this as well.
The first of these is Muscular Massage. Press down on the inner ends of your lower jaw. Open and close it, gently rubbing as you do. This exercise softens the lower jaw muscles. It also relaxes your skull.
Neck rolls help as well. Put your hands behind you. Gently tilt your head to the right, then to the left. Tilt your chin as you do. This exercise improves your blood flow.
You can combine these exercises with meditation and mantras. Find a suitable meditation space. Then, sit cross-legged. Inhale and exhale deeply, dropping your jaw and saying ‘Ah.’
2. Shoulders and Heart
Do you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders? You may have pent-up emotions and irritability stored in your shoulder area, which is the second stress container.
We tend to hold a lot of negative energy in this area because of past misgivings. We need to forgive ourselves and others.
To release stress effects from this area in your body, sit cross-legged in your meditative space. Inhale deeply, drawing in your shoulders. Keep doing this exercise, and you’ll feel your neck lengthening.
You can do another exercise with a travel roller to prevent stress in your body. Place it lengthwise on the floor and lie down, making sure that your shoulder blades rest on it. Breathe a few times, deeply. Draw your palms and wrists together.
To release stress from this area of the body via meditation, use a meditative bracelet. The knots on the bracelet act to relieve tension from the shoulders. Use the mantra ‘I am love,’ or ‘I am forgiving.’
3. Diaphragm
The tension in the Diaphragm causes a person to hunch. It holds the chest in and prevents the lungs from expanding. It robs us of personal power and causes us to panic.
Freeing up this area helps us to regulate hormones and relieve stress. Also, we lack inspiration if we hold tension in this part of the body.
The first move, known as ‘umbrella breathing,’ will help you visualize your lung capacity and generate space in your lungs. Sit cross-legged. Take your hands and wrap them around your wrists. Feel your ribcage, imagine your lungs as an accordion or umbrella. Inhale and exhale deeply.
You can also let go of tension via a travel roller. This exercise is the Diaphragm Release. Lie down, placing the travel roller beneath your Brodel line. Put your hands behind your head. Inhale, arching your spine back. Draw in your breath, filling up the lungs. Exhale as you curl up, bringing up the diaphragm and lungs. Repeat this a few times. This exercise engages the core and empowers you.
To facilitate the stress release, take a meditative bracelet and repeat ‘I am powerful’ few times.
4. The Gut and Stomach
The tension in the 4th container, the gut, compresses the organs and tightens them. The tightening triggers a range of digestive issues.
We hold stress in this area because we give in to the flight or fight response. Therefore, we succumb to our fears and try to ‘escape’ from them.
Deep belly breathing will allow you to release energy from this area. It also elongates and strengthens the biceps. As you breathe, feel the gut filling up. Then, release it.
First of all, sit cross-legged. Put your hands on your belly and breathe into it. Push your stomach out. Exhale through the mouth. Hold the belly in and bring out the organs. Repeat this exercise a few times.
You may also use a travel roller for the next exercise. Place it underneath your hips, Bend your knees, keeping your feet on the floor. Bring each knee up, keeping it bent. Cross your right leg over your left. Turn both feet over to the left. This move will anchor your shoulder. It will also free your organs and the stress surrounding them. Make sure that your hips are above the heart to detoxify. Repeat the exercise by crossing your legs in the other direction and turn to the left.
Use your meditative bracelet and chant ‘I am intuitive’ about twelve times. Hold each breath for about one minute.
5. The Pelvic Floor
The final stress container is the pelvic floor. Stress in this area can cause lower back pain and cause you to lose your connection to your core. The excess tension here causes us to lose our sense of security and physical freedom. It also restricts our sexuality.
First of all, sit cross-legged, Also, close your eyes and connect to the base of your core. Pull your muscles up without touching them. Let go of the tension in the area slowly. Visualize a beautiful flower in bloom. Exhale, thinking of the flower turning back into a bud. Repeat this a few times. Letting go of the stress in that area softens the spinal cord and relaxes it.
Another way to release tension from this area of your body is to use a travel roller for support. Put your feet at the edge of the travel roller. Bring your palms together and hold a prayer position. This posture lengthens and expands your pelvic floor. It also regenerates your organs.
An alternative is to sit on your heels, making sure to feel the support in your hips. Recite the mantra ‘I am open’ to accompany this exercise.
So to prevent stress from accumulating in your body, do these simple exercises and can keep it at bay.