The Dangers of Stress and 5 Holistic Ways to Manage It

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Stress is inevitable. Whether you have a big deadline or friend group drama, everyone experiences a pressure that sometimes feels all too overwhelming. If you spend too long in that anxiety-riddled state, it can affect your mental and physical health. However, there are plenty of ways to start processing those feelings and work toward a solution. Here’s a look at how stress may affect you and how you can ease yourself holistically.

What Stress Can Do to Your Mind and Body 

In small amounts, stress can actually be helpful. A bit of it releases neurotransmitters that improve alertness, focus and brain power so you can better tackle a challenge. It will also produce cortisol and adrenaline — stress hormones. The immediate effects of these chemical changes can cause your blood pressure and heart rate to rise, muscles to tense, and produce the previous benefits. Cortisol can create more intense emotional reactions, while stress in general can raise the likelihood of fear, frustration and anxiety.

When pressure becomes chronic, it can have some surprising physical effects. It can heighten your risk of anxiety, mood and addiction disorders on the mental health side, but your body can experience:

• Lower fertility and sex drive
• Memory and focus problems, or brain fog
• High blood pressure and heart disease
• Damage to the central nervous system
• Medical complications, potentially due to immune dysfunction
• Chronic condition development, such as celiac disease
• Earlier mortality

You may notice some changes in your personality if you’re stressed for too long, too. You may care less about appearance or punctuality, have issues communicating, get more impulsive and defensive, spend more time alone, increase lying, and generally be more irritable and aggressive.

Holistic Stress Relief and Management Strategies

All that might sound even more stressful if you’re already stressed, but not to worry. There are many ways you can start chipping away at that oppressive iceberg. Here are five holistic ways to manage stress.

1. Make Some Lifestyle Changes

Perhaps the best overall way to tackle persistent pressure head-on is to make some lifestyle changes. Researchers find a well-rounded diet with whole grains, vegetables, lean proteins, and fruits can help balance energy and mood levels. Meanwhile, staying away from processed foods, sugar, caffeine, tobacco and alcohol can have a similar effect.

Getting more active can be a huge help, as well. Tai Chi, strength training, yoga and aerobic exercise were all reported as effective relaxation techniques. For a strong physical and mental baseline, ensure you get seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

2. Become a Scheduling Master

Being on top of your schedule doesn’t necessarily mean you’re planning your days out to the minute. However, you do know when you must complete your requirements and give yourself enough time to do them. Rather than procrastinate, you tackle those tasks piece by piece so you’re not rushing to do them the week or days before they’re due.

One example may be a large work project — breaking it down into smaller milestones can make finishing the whole thing more manageable. You may also look at your house and decide on days to do certain chores so you’re not scrambling to do them all in one. Giving yourself some wiggle room is important, but overall, improving your time management can make everything you have to do feel streamlined.

3. Communicate Your Headspace

“Honesty is the best policy” is a classic saying for a reason. Being transparent helps quell any rumors and improves trust, which lowers anxiety and stress. If you’re honest with your friends and family about how you’re doing, they could be there to offer support, solutions or distractions. Doing so can also help them understand why you might withdraw or snap more than usual, though you should still apologize if you hurt any feelings.

Communication is also extremely valuable in the workplace. Perhaps your higher-up doesn’t know how stressed you are and keeps putting more on your plate because they think you’re managing just fine. Being grateful while expressing the pressure of the workload provides clarity for both of you.

4. Try Mindfulness

Be sure you’re taking time for yourself regularly. When taking a walk, gardening or even coloring a picture, pay attention to the sensations as you experience them. Rather than listening to music, a podcast or a show while doing one of these activities, think about the feeling of the coloring tool on the page, the smell of the dirt or the sound of your feet on the pavement. Some also enjoy journaling, working out a problem as they listen to the scratch of pencil or pen on paper.

While new practitioners might feel too self-indulgent at first, taking the time to slow down like this is a way therapists recommend easing anxiety. Mindfulness can even reduce the higher risk of heart disease and high blood pressure from stress.

5. Breathe

Sometimes, stress can feel all-encompassing. In these moments, it helps to step back from everything, empty your mind and just breathe. Deep breathing and breathing exercises can provide relief if you experience something that stresses you out, while regular practice can fight stress.

When pressure starts to mount, try these breathing exercises to make the most of deep breathing, repeating each cycle as necessary:

• The 4-7-8 technique: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, then breathe out while making a “whoosh” noise for 8 seconds.
• Alternate nostril breathing: Press a finger to your right nostril so it’s closed, breathe in through your left nostril, press another finger to your left nostril while opening your right one and breathe out slowly through it, inhale again through the right nostril, open the left one and breathe out.
• Box breathing: Breathe in slowly for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, breathe out slowly for 4 seconds and hold your breath again for 4 seconds.

Don’t Let Stress Run Your Life — Learn to Live Alongside It

Stress is like one of those long paper finger traps — the harder you fight against it, the more stuck you get. Avoid falling into the mindset that managing your stress means never feeling it. It will still rear its anxious little head now and then. You deserve the grace to experience and acknowledge that feeling.

When you’re constantly at war inside, your mental and physical health will start to suffer. Luckily, you can calm that internal noise holistically, both long term and in the moment.