Stress & Our Body

By GWBT Contributing Blogger Sayeeda B.

Stress amongst Americans is very prevalent and common in our society. According to healthonline.com “, 70% of adults in the US say they feel stress or anxiety daily”.

There are several different factors that can cause stress in our lives such as work, schools, finances, and relationships. According to medical news today “Stress is the body’s natural defense against predators and danger. It causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare its systems to evade or confront danger. People commonly refer to this as the fight-or-flight mechanism.”

When confronted with stress our body reacts by causing us to have high blood pressure, sweating, and we become more alert. How people react and handle stress differs from person to person and there are different factors that can attribute to that. We first need to be aware that there are two different forms of stress “The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recognizes two types of stress: acute and chronic. These require different levels of management.” Acute stress is more common among Americans because it’s more short term and we deal with it day to day such as recent events that may have occurred.

Chronic stress is more long term and the person may see no way out such as an unhappy marriage. Ultimately, the main goal is to be aware of what’s causing stress in our lives and what are different ways we can manage our stress to help improve our health. Some different ways we can improve our health and relieve stress are exercising, supplements, creating a pamper routine that can be down every other night, journaling, and spending time with loved ones. Although stress is something that we are going to have to live with because it’s part of our day to day the ultimate goal is being aware of when you are stress and making yourself a priority to have better healthy stress habits.

Stress: Why does it happen and how can we manage it? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145855#types

Jennings, K.-A. (2018, August 28). 16 Simple Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/16-ways-relieve-stress-anxiety

Sayeeda B. is a Girls Who Brunch Tour contributing blogger based out of Georgia. Her area of expertise falls under social media marketing and content creation. She is most passionate about topics related to beauty and lifestyle. Social media to her is interesting because you are able to form genuine connections with people who have the same interests as you. Also, you can learn so much because social media is something that is always changing.