How to Avoid Stress and Anxiety

Ever notice how a feeling of anger, frustration, fear, insecurity, jealousy, exhaustion from daily life and prolonging chaos in the mind can lead to a sleepless night that is followed by an early morning that can’t be avoided?

Your anger knows no bounds when you wake up feeling exhausted, drowsy, irritated, and cranky and your head whirling. You know you’re late for work, your child is delayed getting to school, you commitments and chores for the rest of the day are hovering over you. You have no idea how you’ll make it through the rest of the day with the stress and anxiety refusing to leave your side. They’re like unwanted guests you didn’t invite, and now they’re refusing to leave!

Unwillingly, you drag yourself out of bed, crawl to the washroom and turn on the shower. As the calming hot water runs down your face, you stand there – transfixed. You can’t help but wonder how you got here- how you let the stress of daily life cause anxiety to such an extent that the rest of your day goes for a toss. This is a commonly seen occurrence in day-to-day life. Yes, stress and anxiety are very real problems – they are as real as any other physical or medical conditions.

Difference between Stress and Anxiety

Stress is the response to an external cause, a particular situation, that wears off as soon as the situation has been resolved. Anxiety, however, is actually a reaction to stress. It originates internally and persist even after the situation that triggered it has subsided. It is a feeling of apprehension or dread that can persist for long periods of time.

Stress is a common trigger for anxiety, and although anxiety and stress share similar symptoms they have very different origins.
Most of the common triggers of stress and anxiety revolve around personal relationships and marriage, emotional traumas, serious medical illnesses, fear about the future, exam preparation, work and the most common one of them all, financial problems.
Symptoms of Stress Stress can interfere severely or moderately with day to day life.

Some of the most commonly occurring symptoms of stress are:

• Headaches
• High blood pressure
• Chest pains
• Palpitations
• Skin redness
• Loss of sleep
• Feeling light headed or dizzy
• Sweaty palms or feet

Symptoms of stress may change or vary overtime.

How Our Body Responds to Stress

Here’s a video that efficiently depicts the effect of stress on our body. (Don’t miss the powerful words by Bruce Lee towards the end of the video)

Most of our body’s mechanisms are provided by hormones. Depending on various situations, our body produces a variety of different hormones.

Positive or negative stress signal our body to produce the “stress hormones”, which immediately help the body to overcome the emotional, physical psychological or chemical exposure that the body went through at that moment.

The body’s normal reaction to threatening factors that cause an imbalance within the body is the release of the main stress hormones. The main stress hormones, namely Cortisol, Adrenalin, and Noradrenalin are released by the body in particular situations that the body perceives as potentially dangerous. These stress hormones also regulate mood, behavior, sleep and hunger.

Stress is a common reaction of our body to everyday situations. Everyone feels overburdened and stressed at one point or the other in life. While the symptoms for stress are similar, the coping mechanisms and the recovery process differs from person-to-person. How someone reacts to a particular situation depends on genetic factors and life experiences.

We must, however, keep in mind that not all stress is bad stress. Sometimes, stress motivates people to do better in dangerous situations where the body triggers the fight or flight response.
Acute stress and Chronic stress are the different kinds of stress and while Acute stress can be thrilling and exciting, Chronic stress wears people out, day after day, and wreaks havoc through long-term attrition. Chronic stress can result in a fatal breakdown. It can lead to digestive problems, sleep and hormonal disorders, repeated infections or the common cold, to name a few.

While a stressful situation cannot be avoided most of the time, the following might help to reduce, control and cope with stress:

•Medical advice and talk therapy

•Relaxing breathing: Practice deep breathing when you’re calm so it can come in handy when you find yourself in a stressful and complicated situation.

•Practice mindfulness: Disconnecting yourself from the digital world and reconnecting with nature for a little while each day can do a world of good for your mind, body and soul.

•Get creative: Adopt fun, energizing and effective ways to relieve stress and anxiety. Dance relaxation therapies combine the power of meditation, dance and music.
•Yoga has been proven to be extremely effective, not just for the body but also the mind and soul. Take a calming restorative yoga class and reap the benefits of this beautiful practice that has been enlightening human beings for years unknown.
•Meditate: Meditation helps in self realization and self-awareness. It helps us evolve and recognize who we truly are. Meditation helps us look inward and find the answers we’ve been looking for all along. Self-awareness can help lay a finger on the stressor. It’s easier to solve a problem once the source is known.
• Surround yourself with healthy friendships and steer away from negativity.

• Get moving: Any and all forms of cardio are said to boost feel-good chemicals in the brain and hence, boost mood and performance at work and school.

• Keep a journal: Set short-term goals for yourself if you are prone to or recovering from any form of stress or anxiety.

• Phone a friend: A majority of our problems would be nipped in the bud if we’d reach out to people and talk about what’s bothering us. Research has suggested the healthy benefits of talk therapy. Having a word with someone who cares can give you a different perspective to everything related. An extra set of hands to help salvage a deteriorating situation could be a game-changer. Try it!

In some severe cases, anxiety can escalate into an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder involves more than temporary worry or fear. People with an anxiety disorder have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. An anxiety disorder often involves repeated episodes of sudden feeling of intense anxiety and fear that reach a peak within minutes, resulting in a panic attack.

Anxiety Disorder can be classified as:

Social Phobia
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Panic Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Agoraphobia

Anxiety disorders are said to be caused by traumatic life experiences. They are more common in people who are already prone to anxiety. Genetic traits may also play an important role.

Causes:

Medical problems such as heart disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, misuse or withdrawal of drugs etc. can trigger an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can also be a side effect of certain medication. Sometimes, certain trauma or stress due to an illness may also cause an anxiety disorder. According to a recent survey, four out of ten Indian professionals across metropolitan cities suffered from general anxiety disorder, where a person experiences excessive or unrealistic worry that persists all day, everyday.

Yoga for Stress Relief

Everyday problems can be emotionally challenging and stressful. People turn to various forms of stress relief, sometimes good, sometimes bad.

I, however, naturally tend to turn towards yoga for anxiety and stress relief. You can turn to yoga at any given time, of the day, or night. As someone who’s been there, done that, I can tell you, yoga never lets you down.

Listed below, are a few benefits of Yoga for stress relief  : 

Relaxation and rejuvenation

When practiced the right way, yoga can be soothing enough to relieve the body of any stress and stress-induced physical pain. 

Poses like the Balasana or the Child’s Pose, have magical powers to induce calmness throughout the mind and body. Further on, poses like Shavasana or the Corpse Pose, gently relax the muscles, the mind and the body after a soothing Restorative yoga session. 

Effective breathing techniques 

Stress can cause the breathing to become erratic and the serene practice of yoga helps reverse those effects. Certain Pranayamas, like the Brahmari or the humming bee breath, the Nadi Shodhana or the alternate nostril breathing, and the Ujjayi pranayama have calming internal effects and hence, help restore normal breathing..  

Develop self-awareness 

Yoga improves awareness and helps us reflect on ourselves, It helps us dive deeper on the inside to understand what affects us and how we’re supposed to deal with it. Most often, a stressful environment can lead to intense effects on the mind, which with time can give rise to grave consequences like depression. Yoga helps keep the anxiety levels on the lower side, and helps us become self-aware and recognize the source of the stress so it can be nipped in the bud.  

Yes, stress and anxiety are very real problems, but we have to understand that we are not alone. It’s an ongoing battle, but if we train our mind to recognize the symptoms, we can work towards helping the body get healthier and our mind get stronger.
Here’s a 15 minute soothing video tutorial by SarahBethYoga to help you achieve your goals to keep stress and anxiety away, for good.

Try and incorporate it in your daily routine and if practiced regularly, the results will leave you ecstatic. Remember, you’re not allowed to let your mind wander or your worries come knocking at your door. Stay happy, stay healthy.