Posted by dedwards 2 Comments on STRESS, Don’t let it ruin your health. Uncategorized

STRESS, Don’t let it ruin your health.

Stress Management

Stress is a natural part of the human experience and can actually make us stronger and more equipped to deal with the challenges life throws at us. Every one of us will experience stress at some point in our lives. Construction Management can be very stressful. Schedule delays, blown budgets, your boss, trash and poor workmanship are just a few of the stressors related to construction management. This doesn’t even take into consideration the stress that can be heaped on us in our personal life. Family obligations, bills and unfinished home improvement projects usually act as the icing on your very own stress cake. Not to mention the everyday stressors like traffic jams, being late to appointments, arguing with people and so on. Stress can also be brought on by more serious events like a death or illness. Stress is everywhere and we need to be able to deal with it. 

Our bodies deal with stress by releasing adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones help our bodies deal with stress by speeding up our heart beat and getting blood to the areas our body needs it the most.  When the situation is resolved and the cause for stress is over the hormones go back to normal levels. The problem with too much stress is that our body doesn’t get the chance to go back to normal.  It is like revving the engine on your car constantly without ever letting off the gas, how long would our engine last? Being in a constant state of stress can affect our body in many ways. Some of the symptoms include irritability, anxiety, stomach aches, headaches, chest pain, high blood pressure, EBS, sleep disorders, depression and substance abuse. Stress can be a killer and must be recognized and dealt with before it starts to ruin our mental and physical health.

The good news is that there are as many ways to combat stress as there are reasons to be stressed out. Diet and exercise play a huge role in the way your body deals with stress. One of our body’s reactions to stress is to release glucose into your blood. Glucose is sugar, this sugar gives us a boost of energy to help you deal with the stressful situation. If our diet is already high in sugar our body may not be able to keep up with the extra sugar being added to our blood. The inability of our body to remove the extra sugar from our blood can lead to Diabetes. Organic vegetables, fruits and meats should make up most of our diet anyway, but these food choices will help us deal with stress as well. Exercise helps reduce health risks from stress by boosting our cardiovascular system. Under stress our body releases the hormones adrenaline and cortisol which increase your heart rate. By exercising regularly we will strengthen our respiratory and cardiovascular system also known as our heart and lungs. By improving our body’s ability to circulate oxygen we will be better able to deal with the demands from stress. We will also be able to recover from the increased heart rate faster and bring our body back to a more natural state of rest. Exercise also releases endorphins which make us feel happy, regular exercise is a  win, win. We get to increase our body’s ability to deal with stress and it makes us feel good. We should incorporate exercise into our weekly schedule to make sure we are prioritizing our fitness routine. By adding exercise to our calendar, we are subconsciously giving ourselves permission to do it, we also have to make sure we give ourselves enough time to complete our workout. The key to maintaining good stress relief is actually doing the things that relieve our stress. Other stress relieving activities may include reading, fishing or just spending time with your family. Staying connected to the people that we love is a great way to maintain happiness and keep stress to manageable levels.

Remember, however you choose to reduce stress in your life, the key is to consistently do it.  The thought of missing out on the things that bring you joy and reduce stress can actually lead to a great deal of stress, so remember to give yourself permission to do those things.     

https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/effects-on-body#1