Stress Free Aging

Stress Can Make You Feel Nervous and Anxious

You can have mood swings that threaten relationships, your job and your personal productivity if you’re under a great deal of stress.

Chronic stress may even make you gain weight or change your lifestyle to one you don’t want.

Continued nervousness and anxiety places demands on your physical and mental well-being and can cause extreme frustration when you feel it’s hopeless.

You’ll likely experience some nervousness and anxiety at certain times in your life, but if it’s a constant occurrence, you need to look at the stressors in your life.

Significant stressors can be an event or demands that make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated.

You may experience both psychological and physiological symptoms that can morph into health issues.

Some symptoms of nervousness and anxiety caused by stress include muscle tension (especially in the shoulders and neck), headache, stomach ache, shakiness, lack of sleep, dizziness, sweating and change of appetite.

If not addressed, these stressful symptoms may also cause feelings of doom, irrational angry episodes, lack of mental acuity, panic and restlessness.

Negative health issues are bound to occur if the stress continues over a long period of time.

High blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depression and diabetes are just a few of the health issues that may result in stress.

Stress isn’t always caused by bad things in your life.

Having a baby, moving to a new job or changing schools, an illness or bad injury to yourself or family member or marriage may all be stressors that make you nervous and anxious for the outcome.

Sometimes stress causes anxious feelings that motivate you to do better.

For example, nervous feelings about a test can make you want to study. After studying, the stress will likely fade away.

That’s an example of a fleeting type of stress that leaves you feeling nervous and anxious for only a short period of time.

Stressful situations that begin to interfere with your daily lifestyle may need to be analyzed and addressed.

Ask yourself if you’re worrying irrationally because of an event that’s never happened or have anxious feelings about something that’s already happened and that you have no more reason to fear.

People Who Stress More Have a Hard Time Relaxing

Stress can affect you mentally and physically, making it difficult to relax and enjoy life.

Stress can make you jittery and restless and you may have a hard time concentrating on any task.

Stress management techniques may be able to help you relax and repair your mind and body so you’ll be better able to cope with what life throws at you.

It’s important that you take time to relax and restore to keep health and mental problems at bay.

Some relaxation techniques include progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, meditation and tai chi, but you can also try some cardio exercises such as walking or participating in some type of sports.

Choose a relaxation technique that fits your needs and be sure to practice it on a regular basis.

Remember that some stress is actually good for you and is a normal part of life. It can motivate you to be productive.

Other stress that comes by many daily challenges and a steady dose of multiple stresses can make you lose your coping powers.

Your brain reacts to chronic stress by signaling your body to work and think harder.

After the stress is gone, the body should be able to relax and feel a sense of normalcy.

Unfortunately, today’s world is often a non-stop challenge of deadlines and other types of stress that just won’t let up.

Your brain doesn’t let your body relax until the stress is shut off or dealt with.

Stress management provides the tools necessary to help you relax and prevent your brain from being on high-alert most of the time.

If you don’t use stress management tools to get your stress under controls, you may be left with serious health problems.

Before you choose a stress management technique, first identify those stressors in your life.

After you determine what makes you feel worried, angry or tense, think about what strategies you can use to control them.

It could be work demands, an illness or traffic tie ups.

You may only be able to change your reactions to these stressors by breathing deeply, turning on some soft music or seeking support from a family member or friend.

Tai Chi, Yoga, a nature walk, long, relaxing bath or a massage usually works to calm the mind and body.

Relaxation techniques are critical in effectively managing your stress. The busy lives we lead today make relaxation an essential part of our lives.

Put relaxation at the top of your priority list and never deprive yourself of this essential element.

Also, be sure you maintain a healthy lifestyle.

When you’re eating healthy, exercising and getting plenty of sleep, your stressors will be much easier to manage and prevent.

Stress won’t simply disappear, but learning to manage it will help you enjoy life more.

Lack of Motivation Is a Direct Result of Too Much Stress

It’s difficult to be motivated when your mind is running in different directions from responding to the stress in your life.

Your mind is too scattered to be able to focus on one thing that could build your self-confidence and make you feel productive.

When you have stress at the workplace, it’s difficult to work and stay motivated.

Bosses should realize this and do everything they can to keep the workplace stress-free and a place workers want to be and to perform to the best of their abilities.

There are many reasons why stress is commonplace at work.

There may be unpleasant coworkers (or bosses) to deal with, lack of communication so it takes forever to get the tools or information you need to do your job.

Being well paid for the job helps as does respect and enjoying your coworkers, but when there are backstabbers and tension at work, it’s hard to stay motivated no matter what you’re paid.

Other than the workplace, lack of motivation may be cause from the stress you feel at home or within relationships.

When you’re not motivated enough to work on getting rid of the stress by finding viable solutions, you’re condemning yourself to boredom and damaged relationships.

Lack of motivation may cause chronic depression if it’s not addressed.

One type of depression is called anhedonia, which is a lack of motivation for engaging in activities that you once enjoyed.

Addressing the causes of your lack of motivation is necessary to gain control of the stress in your life causing the issue.

Positive thinking is one way to become motivated – but, it may take a while if you’re in the habit of negative thinking.

Plowing through the negative thoughts causing your lack of motivation is also necessary to overcome the stress of not being motivated.

If you don’t feel like cleaning house, clean it anyway and see how you feel after it’s done.

Choose to be around people who are motivated and positive. Negativity can damage relationships and keep you from socializing on a level that you enjoy.

Keeping a sense of humor is also a great practice to lighten the mood and keep going.

Procrastination and lack of interest can wreak havoc on any feelings of motivation you once had.

To guard against this, you may need to analyze what’s happening to make you feel this way.

You may be overwhelmed and need to step back from some tasks to concentrate on the most important (or most enjoyable) ones.

Or, you could reanalyze your goals and prioritize them so you can accomplish something great in a small amount of time.

Stress is all around us and the key is to address it and then find a way to let it go.

Following a healthy lifestyle by eating properly and exercising on a regular basis can positively affect the impact of stress on your mind and body.

If You Lack Patience, Stress Relief Might Be the Solution

Stress can cause all types of maladies – one, being lack of patience.

If you find yourself becoming angry or irritable much of the time because you can’t bear delays or can’t keep from responding negatively to difficulties, it may be stress causing the problem.

Stress relief can be the answer to being able to control your impatience and stay calm and understanding in the face of chaos.

When you feel yourself becoming impatient, try taking some deep breaths or distracting yourself from the current situation.

Those tricks should act to calm you when you suddenly feel stressed and impatient.

Sometimes, impatience comes on slowly and by the time it hits the boiling point, you’re ready to let those frustrating feelings out in a negative way.

When you feel yourself physically giving in to impatience, you might notice muscle tension, hand clenching, shallow breathing, racing heart, irritability or anger or have trouble keeping your legs or feet still.

It may be easy to figure out why you’re impatient.

Stuck in traffic, slow service at a restaurant or store or other people irritating you by their behavior can make you feel highly impatient and frustrated.

Maybe you’re not learning something fast enough and you become impatient with yourself.

Or, perhaps you can’t control the negative or fearful thoughts that come to your mind and keep you from progressing.

Some easy stress relievers to impatience include changing the focus of whatever is making you impatient to something else.

It may take a while, but distracting yourself will take your mind away from whatever the moment of stress happens to be.

When you can’t change a stressful situation that’s making you impatient, concentrate on how you could make it better.

For example, if you know you’re going to have a commute that might take longer because of traffic tie-ups, try leaving earlier or listening to motivational podcasts along the way — something to lift your spirits.

If you’re frustrated and impatient about studying or learning something new, try removing yourself from the situation for a while.

Don’t just wander around aimlessly – focus on something else.

Try to find something good or interesting about the situation, if you can.

Negative emotions can sometimes impact how well we can control impatience, but when you force yourself to turn negative thoughts into positive ones, it can go a long way toward easing your impatience.

One good stress reliever is to keep a journal and be sure to write down any patterns you see in your times of impatience.

You may find that you’re more impatient with yourself than others – or vise-versa.

Remember that all your expectations about how things should operate and act may not always be met and find ways to counteract those feelings.

Patience takes practice – just like everything else.

Feeling Down Can Be a Thing of the Past When You Learn Stress Relief

Too much stress in your life may cause depression and many other issues such as fatigue, lack of motivation and even health problems.

Chronic depression is a major health problem that can keep you down for long periods of time.

Just like you have to reboot your computer sometimes when it’s got an overload of information, you also have to stop what’s causing the stress and give your body and mind time to reboot.

Stress and depression go together like stress and anxiety.

If the stress is an ongoing presence such as taking care of a loved one who suffers from a debilitating illness or losing your job, your stress levels are going to soar – possibly for long periods of time.

When you’re dealing with sustained stress, your body tries to fight it by elevating hormones like cortisol (the stress hormone), reducing serotonin and dopamine which are major causes of depression.

The chemical process in your body that regulates stress is designed to help you get sleep, enjoy a normal appetite, sex drive and high energy levels.

Your emotions and moods are kept at normal levels – until the chemicals are altered from stress.

You may be able to build resilience to stress-related depression by making some lifestyle changes.

Some of these positive changes designed to build your body’s protection from depression include exercise, relationship support and taking time to unwind and do something special for yourself.

A simple half-hour of cardio-exercise, five days per week, like swimming or walking helps to produce the chemicals in your brain and body that stimulate hormones, neurotransmitters and endorphins – all vital chemicals to help reduce stress levels.

Other types of exercise for the brain and body include Yoga, meditation and psychotherapy – all producing a positive effect – and help to teach the brain how to relax and get rid of stress.

Supportive relationships keep you in touch with others who have your interest at heart.

You can talk to these people and get positive feedback. Stay away from negative relationships that only zap the energy from your life.

Lifestyle changes such as cutting down on alcohol consumption and adopting a healthy diet can do wonders for your feelings of depression.

Alcohol is known to be a mood suppressor, which can exacerbate your depression.

Pursuing a hobby or other creative activities can work wonders on lifting your mood.

And, taking breaks to regroup your body and mind is essential in reducing stress levels.

A mini-vacation, without computer, phones or iPads is a positive shot to the system.

Don’t forget to plan an adequate amount of sleep in your search for stress relievers.

Depression can set in if you’re working too much, juggling family time and not taking care of yourself.

Your Sex Drive Can Be Erased from Too Much Stress

Your sex drive can be fragile when there’s too much stress in your life. Lack of interest in sex can destroy relationships and cut your self-confidence to zero.

There are many things, including hormones, that can affect your sex drive, but stress is one of the main culprits.

Women, especially, are prone to losing all sexual desire when confronted by too much stress.

The juggle of a woman’s personal and professional parts of life can cause stress that can interfere with sex drive and many other portions of their lives.

Coping with children, schedules, medical issues, work and other difficulties are especially hard on women who are trying to do it all.

Stress is taking a toll in the bedroom and without help it can spiral out of control.

When a man’s sexual desire wanes, it’s usually in the form of erectile dysfunction and stress could be a big component in that diagnosis.

Women, however, suffer from both physical and mental issues that aren’t cured by simply taking a pill to correct it.

Sexual dysfunction caused mainly from stress can be addressed without taking medications.

Solutions might include sexual counseling or counseling on how to manage the stress in your life.

Taking medications such as those for depression or anxiety can greatly inhibit your sexual desire.

Even though it may address the depression, the side effects create more problems in the bedroom.

Along with a decrease in sexual desire, stress may bring changes in your emotional well-being such as behavior or mood swings.

Anger for no obvious reason may also accompany the stress causing lack of desire.

Stress may also begin to show in medical issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes and other stress-related problems.

The last thing on your mind will be to have sex when you aren’t feeling well.

Be sure to have a complete physical exam if you think medical issues may be the cause of your lack of desire for physical contact.

That’s also a good time to bring up emotional or stressful issues that may be causing the problem.

The most powerful sexual organ in your body is your brain, and it could be that you need to make some lifestyle changes that will not only reduce the stress levels in your life, but also give you a new outlook.

Whatever the reasons for your lack of sex drive, it should be addressed so you can enjoy life to the fullest.

Stress is the leading cause of so many things that could go wrong in your life. Do something about it before it spirals out of control.

Research online or speak to your health care provider to find reasons and solutions for stress-caused sexual dysfunction, including lack of desire.

A willingness to work on the problem and reduce stress in your life can be the key to boosting your sexual drive.

Adrenal Exhaustion from Stress Is Affecting More Individuals

When your body is stressed out, it uses some particular defense methods that are beneficial for short term stress – but for long term, they’re actually quite harmful.

One of these defense methods is the reallocation of energy.

Essentially, your body takes a bunch of its energy and uses it all at once in order to give you a boost, making you more likely to solve whatever problem you’re facing.

However, with long term stress, your body is eventually going to run out of this energy, and that is known as adrenal exhaustion.

Adrenal exhaustion is like trying to run a car on very little gas. It might go, but it certainly can’t go for long without stopping.

There are tons of negative effects that come with adrenal exhaustion, and all of them can further increase your levels of stress and make your situation worse as time goes on.

One negative effect that comes with this exhaustion is a lower tolerance for stress.

Where before, you might have been able to handle a lot more without getting stressed out, now you’ll be prone to getting very stressed – very quickly.

The smallest things will be able to rile you up. This can put some serious strain on your relationships with friends, family, significant others, and even coworkers.

Another effect that you might see from this is a serious drop in your blood sugar levels.

This occurs because your body uses a great deal of glucose in order to fuel those energy bursts, and once you run out, you’ll have much lower blood sugar than you normally would.

Low blood sugar can have a range of negative side effects. One of the main ones is anxiety.

You’ll become very worrisome and emotional about things that you wouldn’t normally be concerned about.

Additionally, you might become shaky, indicating that you need to get more sugar in your system. In some cases, low blood sugar can even lead to heart problems.

You cannot let your stress drive you to this point of exhaustion.

So many people seem to think that they need to work themselves to death, but that’s not true.

If you work at full capacity all the time, you’re going to end up much weaker than you were before.

Manage your time well and get into a schedule where you can work and relax as you need to.