We all live with stress and must learn to deal with the pressures of everyday life – family life and relationships, work life and even friendships can all affect us in different ways. Stress isn’t all bad, of course. Being under a degree of pressure is often necessary to push us to meet deadlines and achieve certain goals.
However, stress at increasing levels is definitely bad for your physical and emotional health, and specifically bad for your heart. It will raise your blood pressure, possibly to dangerous levels, and increase your risk of developing heart disease or other cardiovascular conditions.
And the stress-busters to which you turn to help you cope can also have a negative impact on heart health – often these include smoking or comfort eating, which can increase cholesterol and potentially lead to obesity.
The key is learning to handle stress is finding effective coping mechanisms that will benefit every aspect of your health, physically, emotionally and psychologically.
So it’s essential to learn how to recognise the signs of stress because people often don’t realise how their behaviour and wellbeing is affected by outside pressures. Some typical symptoms include problems with eating and sleeping; a feeling of anxiety and of not being able to cope; seeking crutches such as alcohol and drugs; retreating from family, friends and work colleagues.
When you accept that stress is affecting you, take stock and examine all of the situations in your life where stress is a factor. Some matters will be much easier to resolve than others but the important thing to know is that you don’t have to deal with things on your own. Talk to someone you trust – even just unburdening yourself can have a positive effect on your stress levels.
Find new ways to cope. Exercise is a terrific way to reduce stress with even just a half hour of strenuous activity that gets your heart rate pumping working wonders for your blood pressure and increasing your sense of wellbeing.
Look at your workload, whether at work or home, and find ways to reduce what you have to do. Achieving a better work-life balance is a top stress-buster – carve out time for you to do the things you enjoy best and try to find some “me” time where it’s all about you.