Tips for Healing When You Feel Stressed

Tips for Healing When You Feel Stressed

Regular selfcare is a practiced resource for when life gets overwhelming and stressful.

Stress can impact the body in many ways if it goes unaddressed. First and foremost, it is important to recognize stress, confront it, and then take steps to manage stress to stop it in its tracks. It’s time to discover techniques for healing and feeling better when experiencing periods of high stress.

Be Mindful

When it comes to stress reduction and healing your mindset matters. Negative thoughts are the fuel for stress. Being caught in a pattern of negative thinking can cloud your mind and prevent you from finding solutions and a path forward. Mindfulness can ground you and help you to find the clarity you need. If you tend to be a pessimistic thinker, getting into mindfulness can seem daunting at first. However, there are some simple things you can start doing to help you get started with being more mindful. One way is to set aside time to relax with a mindful session. Take ten minutes out of each day to be grateful for the opportunities in front of you without allowing negative thoughts to creep in and bring you down. Another way would be to write down what you are thankful for in a journal. Doing so can help you stay positive. Additionally, you can even learn about different types of therapy that can help you to be more mindful and reduce stress. Having effective strategies to rely on can help keep stress in check.

Unwind With Massage Therapy 

Why not pair mindful therapy with massage therapy? Bodywork can be very relaxing and help you to feel better. Put stress behind you and unwind with a massage. Trying something like cupping can be worthwhile and not only helps you to relax but has benefits for the body as well such as improving circulation. Massage can help you be more in tune with your body overall, and help your muscles relax. For instance, a massage is an excellent form of self-care. It allows you to dedicate time solely to your wellness and helps you to slow down and rest. It is important to have relaxing activities built into your schedule which can help you to value your health and mental wellness. 

Make a Change

Often stress is caused by lifestyle factors. For instance, a lack of work-life balance, toxic relationships, and even negative self-talk just to name a few. Certain lifestyle factors can keep stress high and never-ending. Don’t be afraid to make a lifestyle change that can help lower your stress levels. For instance, address relationships that may not be healthy, set boundaries within your personal and professional life, try something new, and take steps to replace unhealthy habits with positive ones. Making a change may be difficult at first, but start by taking little steps and it will be easier to make the transition into your new routine. For example, some changes could be 

• Getting to bed earlier

• Embracing positive self-talk

• Striving to be more organized

• Trying mindful eating 

Get Relief With Movement

Strive to move your body each day to form a healthy habit that will help you feel better. 

• Take a walking in the morning even if it’s around the block a couple of times

• Incorporate tai chi movements (balance, movement and breathing)

• Use music that makes you happy and dance like no one is watching!

According to a study, “regular exercise is associated with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults.” Therefore, do your best to work and move your muscles to stay physically and emotionally healthy. You may wonder where to begin or how to get started with exercise, but there are some great activities you can try that don’t involve a dedicated trip to the gym. For instance, you can go for a power walk to get your heart pumping, or even try doing calisthenics workouts in your backyard or a nearby park. Whatever you choose to do, make exercising fun, and pick something that resonates with you. 

Start your journey to healing today. Don’t flounder and suffer from built-up stress and pressure. Get started with managing your stress by trying one of these tips. Once you master one, you can build upon your skills to help your mind and body feel better.

What are the Most Important Health Issues for Men to Address in their Lives that Pertain to Personal Wellness?

The key to excellent health for both men and women is to adopt a whole health perspective that addresses diet, exercise, stress management, environment, relationships and spirituality. There are areas that affect men's and need attention.

Men tend to ignore aches and pains and rarely get regular check ups. Ideas around masculinity and health contributes to the increased number of men in their 40’s having heart attacks, that could have been prevented.

Friendship and Community to Combat Loneliness: In an ever expanding world, of working from home, isolation is on the rise and with it loneliness. Loneliness is a big problem in the US, in fact it is considered an epidemic.  This can be especially serious for men's mental health. When under stress, men tend to withdraw socially and that can lead to depression and more isolation; a vicious circle. Statistics show than men are four times more likely to take their own lives than females and represent 78% of all suicides. The cultural paradigm of boys not crying or that being a “man” is putting on a brave face can lead to not acknowledging  which leads to not seeking help. Having a support system of friends, family or partners that men can feel safe and not judged is important. Activities that are geared towards collaboration and giving back to the community can create a sense of accomplishment and connect to something greater. E.g habitat for humanity, church or religious community activities, learning a new skill such as bread making.

Sleep: Studies show that people who don’t get enough sleep or deep sleep have lowered immune functioning. This is because during sleep our body produces cytokines, a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation. There are many other health risks associated with lack of sleep such as heart disease, diabetes and depression.

Poor sleep can impair cognitive function and just one night of missed sleep causes a toxic build up of beta amyloid, this protein is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. 

Not taking stress seriously: Many say, “I’m not stressed if I don’t ‘feel it’.” Men in particular may not think they are experiencing stress unless it is something big, like a life event or something they can’t “handle”. So when they experience back pain, digestive problems, fatigue, weight gain, infertility or insomnia they cannot see how stress plays a significant role. Low levels of stress on a daily basis lead to more susceptibility headaches, sore throats, colds and flus as well as chronic illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Stress and anxiety wreak havoc on the immune system.

Mind body: Research shows that having a mind body connection improves overall health by increasing awareness of our mental, emotional and physical state. This is something culturally men are not encouraged to do. Practices such as yoga, tai chi and qi gong are known as moving meditation and help to calm the nervous system and have better focus. It is also a way to manage stress and support healing instead of ignoring physical problems. 

Alternative and Chinese medicine: Chinese medicine includes acupuncture, herbal medicine, body work and energy healing that looks at the whole person. Acupuncture stimulates the nervous system to go into the natural healing state and to seek homeostasis. Seeing and alternative and Chinese medicine practitioner can teach you had to be your best health advocate and offer natural solutions to improve health and longevity.

Heart health: Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men in the US. Men are 50% more likely to have a heart attack compared to women. Men can develop heart disease in their 40’s long before cardiovascular symptoms show up. Early signs of heart disease that may not seem related such as erectile dysfunction is one of them.

Excess weight: over 100 million Americans are considered obese and 1 in 5 deaths is related to excess weight. The myth of being overweight and fit is a myth. What is important is to look at body mass index and also at the waist measurement. Men with a waist circumference greater than 40inches are considered to have more visceral fat that contribute to heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Excess weight also affects hormone levels and is linked to higher incidence of prostate cancer.

Drinking alcohol: Studies show alcohol is shown to suppress the immune system even in moderate amounts altering the actions of the cells.  A fever is the immune system’s response by elevating the temperature to fight off a bacterial infection or viral attack. Alcohol impairs the anti-inflammatory proteins that regulate the immune responses.

• Dehydrating: Alcohol is dehydrating. It is important to be hydrated so that your body can eliminate the toxins via sweat or urination. Sweat is the way the body cools itself down and flush the system.

• Sugar: the sugars in alcohol are linked with bacterial overgrowth in the small intestines, when someone is fighting an infection, you don’t want to create a crisis by feeding the bacteria.

• Cancer: increase risk of mouth, throat, liver and colon. 

Men have consistently higher rates of alcohol consumption and one of the most commonly abused substances. Men are more likely to binge drink compared to women, and have higher alcohol related deaths. Alcohol interferes with testicular function of male hormones that can result in impotence and infertility (a growing issue for couples trying to conceive).