10 Ways To Relieve Stress
October 24, 2010 by Lyle Holmes · Leave a Comment
Stress is not a very pleasant experience and unfortunately life throws many curves at us that challenge our ability to remain calm. The reasons are endless from the noisy neighbor to the checkout clerk who always gets everything wrong.
The solution to all this centers on focus and relaxation. The following 10 ways to relieve stress will are going to help you maintain balance between keeping your blood pressure down or blowing up at home, at work or during other social times.
#1. Instead of focusing on the problem, focus on a solution. Replace your negative thought with things that are positive like recent funny moments or something personally enlightening.
#2. When you are work, change a seating position or perhaps go for a stroll around the office when stress is hitting you.
#3. Yoga may help as this teaches you through exercise to focus on being calm.
#4. Go jogging or for a walk in the park. Activities such as this help to relieve stress.
#5. You might get a head massage or do it yourself. Gentle rubbing of the scalp is a very effective way to put you at ease. Meditation and also massage techniques offer great therapy. A great way to meditate is to close your eyes and focus on one thing such as your controlled breathing.
#6. Play a game (if allowed while at work) or do a crossword. Activities like these allow you to easily find at least 10 ways to relieve stress so shift your focus away from whatever is stressing you. It’s a known fact that computer game lovers enjoy obliterating aliens or whatever as a means to alleviate stress.
#7. This is an issue at work though if you can, play some music. Perhaps your employer will allow headphones. Sound that invokes feelings of serenity such as sea waves or forests can act as an excellent reliever.
#8. Perhaps, you have heard the song ‘the drugs don’t work’ from The Verve and it’s all true. Being lethargic or stressed should not mean reaching for the pharmaceutical cupboard. Stimulants cannot remove the problem or help to forget it. Grab a huge drink of water instead and enjoy the feeling of refreshment.
#9. Try Humor! As part of this list explaining 10 ways to relieve stress, this is probably the most effective method. Laughing brings you into the brighter side of your daily life. Read some jokes, or tell them to colleagues.
#10. Get at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night. A proper sleep pattern will allow you to feel more relaxed every day and less prone to procrastination and lethargic behavior.
If you will follow these 10 ways to relieve stress you will start leading a healthy life and improve your ways of tackling daily stress to feel better each day.
Escalating Symptoms Of Anxiety
March 19, 2010 by Lyle Holmes · Leave a Comment
The Impact of the Escalating Symptoms of Anxiety
Escalating symptoms of anxiety impact up to 40 million adults in the US per year. While it’s perfectly expected to feel nervous or anxious in certain periods of your life (graduating from school, starting a new job, losing a loved one, etc., people with anxiety disorders feel often and excessively worried for no apparent reason. The symptoms of anxiety can start innocently enough with just a worrying thought but often they progress quickly to more physical discomforts such as a pounding heart, heavy chest pain, lump in the throat, weakness, and dizziness.
Often referred to as panic attacks, escalating symptoms of anxiety may be diagnosed as a phobia, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder or other types of anxiety disorders. While each of these conditions are characterized by different symptoms, all of them are marked by an irrational and unwarrented dread and/or fear that usually worsens very quickly and leads to more severe physical symptoms.
The symptoms of anxiety can make you feel like you are completely losing control or “going crazy”. Those who have suffered these symptoms will describe them as feeling like world is coming to an end, he/she is having a heart attack, or that he/she is going to die. What’s even more unfortunate, is that once you experience a panic attack in this magnitude, it can very easily become part of a viscious cycle which consists of the panic attacks themselves and the ever-present fear of having another panic attack.
These anxiety symptoms can also lead to a multitude of phobias which render some individuals almost totally disabled. One such phobia is agoraphobia, the fear of being trapped in a setting that makes the person feel extremely ill-at-ease and unable to escape. For this reason, the person may not even venture outside of his/her home. Because this type of anxiety can lead to such extreme disability, it is important to treat anxiety symptoms before they are allowed to climb the ladder to another disorder.
The causes of anxiety are still not clear. But professionals do believe that it is likely that many factors contribute to a person’s chances of developing the condition. Scientists have broken down the potential causes into three groups, genetics and early learning, brain biochemistry, and the fight or flight mechanism.
Sometimes the cause is a chemical imbalance in the brain which impairs the way messages are sent. Two of the primary neurotransmitters that affect a person’s feelings are serotonin and dopamine. When there is an imbalance of these chemicals, a person can feel depressed or anxious.
Anxiety disorders also tend to run in families, so if a person’s mom, dad, or other close relative has anxiety, they have a higher chance of developing anxiety themselves both because of genetic factors and learned environmental factors.
The above information about the escalating symptoms of anxiety does not substitute medical advice given by a health professional.