When it comes to our health, many people don’t realize that the way we feel has a huge impact on our bodies. When we are stressed out, we don’t just feel uneasy in our brains, but our body can start to quickly reflect our emotions.
If you thought that stress was just an emotion and had nothing to do with your physical health, think again. Here are some of the biggest ways that stress can affect your health and what you can do to avoid it.
Affects Sleeping Patterns
When we have a lot of things weighing heavily on our minds, we can start to become fixated. We may find ourselves lying awake at night thinking about paying off loans, making work deadlines, or being generally self-critical.
Stress makes our minds go into overdrive, therefore when we start to do this at night, it can create symptoms of insomnia. Some people stress so much that they aren’t able to sleep at all so they seek out prescription medication. They then develop a dependency on the medication they use to sleep and now they’re dealing with two health issues. Stress and a chemical dependency.
If you start to feel yourself unable to sleep at night because of stress, try to opt for natural solutions first before turning to drugs. Sometimes a simple meditation or breathing exercise can help you get the rest that you need.
Affects Eating Habits
Stress can cause people to start seeing food in a different way. Some people may start stress-eating and put whatever they find into their mouths, while others have an aversion to food altogether.
If you start noticing significant changes in your eating habits, you may want to ask yourself if it’s stress related.
Affects Our Personal Relationships
When we are stressed out we tend to be shut down emotionally. Since our brains are fixated on our worries, our exchanges with other people can be brief and insincere. When you start to shut yourself out to other humans your personal relationships can start to suffer.
Even if your lack of contact with the ones you love has nothing to do with them, they may take it personally.
Affects Our Motivation To Be Active
Part of being healthy means getting up and being active every day. Whether it’s going for a walk or taking some kind of a class, it’s important to get your body moving in one way or another.
When we feel stress, we may have little motivation to make healthy choices for our body’s well-being.
When this happens we are in turn neglecting our health due to our emotional circumstances. Instead of allowing yourself to give in, try to make yourself get up and get moving. You will find that you feel much better even though it was hard to force yourself to do it.
Leave a Reply