Beat stress and enhance your energy

Stress has become an indispensable part of modern lifestyle, affecting people irrespective of age and social/economic background. Prolonged stress not only distress the mental functions, but also affects the smooth functioning of the immune system, reduces energy level, and makes one sick at various levels.

Stress is a complicated concept that includes both physiological and mental components. Though many forms of stress are psychological, they also create a variety of physiological changes. And these changes include ones in the immune function, indicating a relation between the stress and immune system.

Stress-related cases have grown over the last couple of decades. Stress makes one fatigue and decreases the body’s energy level. Today, we see a lot of things in the name of ‘energy drinks’ & ‘energy shots’ in the market, which gives an instant energy to the human body. The problem is that sugar and caffeine in those products, mostly fails to fix our energy level for very long, even if it says organic or artisanal forms. Actually, sometimes they make the things worse, causing one to be on a roller-coaster of sugar lows & highs, and eventually, energy and sugar crashes.

Adrenal stress response:

Our body has an entire stress response system that is built or hard-wired to protect us from danger. And, its base camp is none other than our adrenal glands, tiny organs that lie on top of our kidneys and organize a whole lot of our health from blood sugar to hormones to mood.

The system is meant to protect us from immediate danger. It rallies to protect us by pumping out adrenaline and cortisol, when the adrenal response system goes into action. Chronic stress will make the adrenal gland exhausted and ultimately they become too fatigued to meet the requirements of the body. 

Any major or chronic stress affects the adrenal gland. So, to be frank, it is not a gland that goes well with this modern day lifestyle. Now, let us compare our life with a saber-toothed lion chasing us. If we encounter a lion, we would need to fight against the lion to flee from it. This type of stress lasts only for a few minutes or just a matter of seconds, which is much different from the daily attacks we face. A terrible commute, a rocky relationship, a chronic illness or an impatient boss – there are lots of things to face a day. From the neck down the adrenal glands and the other organs respond when we undergo stress. We may run from a lion for short distances, but how about the other things that happens every hour of the day.

Read more...

Stress and Women - Reduce Stress and Symptoms of Burnout

Today, employees are expected to do more work with less time, which has become a main cause of stress at work. Other causes of stress on the job include worries about performing well, as time diminishes and demands rises, disagreements with the boss or argue with co-workers, and pressure to continuously be plugged in. In fact, in some cases, unemployed people seem to far better when compared to the employed one, as some jobs can affect the mental health badly.

Do Women React to Stress in a Different Way Than Men?

A recent survey revealed that women were more likely to suffer physical symptoms of stress than men. Even though there is no enough proof to confirm that it applies to all women, stress is a common factor among women. They regularly deal with stress in many ways than men. Most of the men survive by ‘escaping’ into an entertainment or other relaxing activities. While they are more likely to have the ‘fight or flight’ response, women have ‘tended and befriend’ qualities and get support from their friends and families.

Most of the Women’s Story:

Most of the women do two full-time jobs at the same time. Yes, as a perfect mom for their kids and as a responsible employee in their profession. They try to expose themselves as a happy person and a hard worker. But still, chaos might happen often in their life. They may find hard spending enough time with their kids, which makes stressing them out. Getting up early in the morning, making kids to get ready for the school, doing other regular activities, including cooking, running to office in heavy traffic, doing overtime to finish the deadlines, etc. When they were so tired and think they didn’t want to do anything, they find the day is not yet over. Again, they have to run for preparing dinner, doing laundry, and the kids need mom’s attention in between.    

  Read more...