Stress Management Links

Stress management

What is stress?

We live in a busy world

Our "free time" is often spent running errands and keeping up with household chores and family demands. Work-life balance for many of us seems to be an ongoing quest that is becoming harder to sustain or even reach. Major trends in the workplace including performance demands, rising health care costs, all contribute to a growing sense of feeling pressure and stress.  

If you feel stressed, you are stressed

Left unchecked, chronic stress leads to strain, which has been proven to have multiple and far-reaching effects on your body and mind. Stress produces a variety of physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms. It can lead to illness, aggravating an existing health problem or possibly triggering a new one.

Physical signs of strain include frequent headaches, difficulty sleeping, sore and stiff muscles, fatigue and an increased susceptibility to illness. Emotional and mental symptoms include irritability, quick to anger, inability to concentrate, impatience and depression.

It's important to remember that stress comes from not only what's going on in your
life, but how you choose to react/respond to it. Learning to recognize your stress triggers as well as being able to apply techniques that break the stress response is an important step in being able to manage and build resilience to the excessive demands.