How To Stay Mentally Fit And Stress-Free?

Staying mentally fit and healthy is as important as being fit as a fiddle physically. Most of the time, we ignore our mental health. This results in stress. Stress is like a slow poison. It is challenging to get to know when it started to affect you. But by the time you realize it, it might be too late. You would have lost interest in most of the things. Feel irritated and unhappy all the time, despite your achievements. Thus, today we shall discuss how to stay mentally fit and free from stress at all times. We will be discussing the following in this article:

• What stress is and how it affects you
• Why is it important to lead a stress-free life?
• How you can lead a stress-free life

Stress:

Stress is the emotional or physical factor that causes tension in mind. It makes you feel irritated and angry. You will never be at peace with yourself when you are stressed. Stress can take you from a happy person to an unhappy person over a period of time.

There are two types of stress:

1. • Acute Stress: This type lasts for a very short time. You might be worried about a deadline to beat, or maybe a destination you have to reach by the day end, etc. It helps you manage challenging situations and also overcome it. It is common for people to have acute stress once in a while.

• Chronic Stress: When you are worried about something for a very long time, it may lead to chronic stress. Chronic stress is usually seen with people who have problems regarding money, health, or work. If you are stressed about something for weeks and months, you might be prey to chronic stress. It would help if you immediately tried to relieve yourself and or seek help from professionals. If you do not find a way to manage stress, it may lead to critical health problems.

Your Body When You Are Stressed:

When you are stressed, the body releases hormones; these hormones help your brain become more alert, think harder, and get things done. These reactions help you handle the situations that are causing stress and make you calm again. But if you are stressed for a long time, then you are putting a lot of pressure on your brain as it tries to stay alert at all times. This might lead to various health problems. We will discuss more on this in the next section. If you already have health conditions, they only become worse with chronic stress.

It is essential to identify when you are stressed for a long time. A few signs that indicate that you might need to rest it out are:

• Constipation
• Forgetfulness
• Frequent aches
• Headaches
• Lack of energy to focus
• Sexual problems
• Stiff neck
• Tiredness
• Trouble sleeping or too much sleep
• Upset stomach
• Use of alcohol or drugs to relax
• Weight loss or gain

As soon as you realize that you have one or more of these symptoms for over a couple of weeks, it is always good to consult an expert to help you relax.

Importance Of A Stress-Free Life:

A stress-free life might be a dream for many! Though all of us experience stress at some point in life, people with chronic stress (discussed in detail above) experience hardships that cause adverse effects. Thus, it is crucial to learn to manage stress. We shall be discussing various ways to manage stress further in the article. Before we move there, we must know the importance of a stress-free life. Stress-free life, in simple terms, is a happy life. Where you and the people around you are always able to keep a healthy smile on their faces, if you or people you live with are stressed for a very long time, it may lead to critical problems such as:

High Blood Pressures: If you are stressed, you tend to think a lot. But all this thinking doesn’t yield any result. When this happens, your blood pressure increases drastically.

Mental Imbalance: You might start feeling impatient most of the time if you are stressed for a very long time. You never feel happy, no matter what you achieve. You might start to feel depressed.

Aeging: Many 40-50 year people still look as if they are in their 20s and 30s. You might wonder how this is possible. They look young because they learned to control their stress. If you experience chronic stress, studies have shown that you start showing signs of aging sooner than usual.

Diabetes: If you are a diabetic patient, you should certainly not stress yourself a lot. If you stress too much, your cholesterol and glucose levels might go up! You will have to take more medication!

Heart Diseases And Alzheimer’s: Getting stressed too often can lead to health issues that might make you very weak. These include heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

The list of diseases that are caused by stress goes on and on. Hence, you should always remember to take a break now and then, if you think you are getting too worked up!

How To Lead A Stress-Free Life?

Now that we have understood what stress is and how it can deteriorate our body let us learn a few methods to keep you stress-free. Using these methods in your everyday life can keep you happy and stress-free

Follow A Routine: Prepare a comfort schedule for yourself. Keep it flexible so that you can follow it every day. Ensure that you have a to-do list that includes those tasks you need to complete and a few entertainment activities and hobbies you want to pursue. This will help you be stress-free.

Early To Bed, Early To Rise: This is a good old saying and very effective. When you are developing a routine, make it a point to have a fixed bedtime and waking uptime. It will help your body get adjusted to the working time and relaxation time.

A Happiness List: Prepare a list of things that make you feel happy. Ensure you have simple, doable things on this list. It might be singing, playing musical instruments, drawing, going on a long drive, swimming, and more. This will help you be happy and not get stressed.

Stand Your Ground: Challenges are common. Get this into your head. When you are faced with a challenge, face it, and work through it. You don’t have to stress yourself just because it has surfaced. If there is a problem, there will be a solution too. It’s only a matter of time.

Meditate: Meditation is a proven method that helps you stay relaxed. It enables you to clear your mind. During meditation, make it a point to concentrate on your breathing. Try to meditate at least twice a day if you get stressed more often. This will help you reduce stress. Gradually, you will be able to become stress-free as well.

Try To Stay Focused: Once you have a schedule set up, try to stay focused on it. Avoid all kinds of distractions, especially digital devices such as mobile phones, laptops, tabs, and more. It might be difficult to remove these devices from your life completely, but try to limit the usage. Stay focused on your goals instead.

Exercise Regularly: Regular exercise keeps your body fit. When you are physically fit, you tend to be at peace in your mind as well. Try to make time to exercise every day. Exercise at least 20 minutes a day.

Watch Your Diet: When you are stressed, you might start eating healthy. Also, you might tend to turn towards unhealthy food. It might be a lot of tacos, ice creams, chocolate, and more such things. This will not only increase your stress; you will start feeling guilty that you ate a lot but also adversely affect your health.

Seek Help: There might be times where how much you try; you are not able to lead a stress-free life. You might be slipping into depression. In such a scenario, please make sure you share your feelings with people around you or with a professional and seek help.

Now, let us take a few scenarios and discuss how you can tackle them to be stress-free. This will help you be prepared when a similar situation occurs in real life.

At home:

At home, there might be many things that might make you stressed. A few things being a fight with your loved ones, a broken window, or some other product at home, health issues, and more. If you have had a fight with your loved ones and stressed about it, try to get some air. Maybe you can take a long walk or go on a long drive. This gives you time to think and get your thoughts together. Then when you are back, you can talk it out. If you are stressed because some product at home is not working, know that everything is fixable. All you need to do is find the right person for it. Health issues might be sensitive and cause a lot of stress. But remember, if you already have a health issue, there is only little that you can do to change it. But not stressing about it is something that you can certainly do, and maybe this helps you get better soon.

At work:

During your office hours, a few common things that might stress you out would be deadlines, targets, facing your boss when something has gone wrong and such things. If you have deadlines, make sure you develop a plan to complete all tasks well within time. This makes your life easy and stress-free. If you are worried about targets, set processes to achieve these targets. Do not worry about the target every day. Once you have set the process, follow it consistently. You will certainly reach the target without any problem. It is the path that is more important than the result. Remember this always. Things go wrong at the workplace now and then. You have done beat yourself up for it. Be ready to face the heat and take corrective actions to make sure you do not repeat a mistake. When you do this, facing your boss wouldn’t be that hectic.

At Public Places:

You rarely get stressed due to something that has happened in a public place. But if it is something that might damage your reputation, or if you are someone who cares a lot about society and it’s well being, problems in public might affect you. A few things here would be some stranger swearing on you regularly, for now, reason, or a public utility service not working for a very long time. In such scenarios, remember all you need to do is make the concerned authorities aware of the situation, and they will come to your aid to help you sort it. You do not have to take on the world all alone. You have many people who want to do good, just like you, and you can ask them for help.

Conclusion:

Stress is not inevitable. If you learn the techniques to deal with it, you can easily live a stress-free life. Life is full of surprises. Do not think a lot when you face difficult situations. You can always find solutions for any problem that comes your way. Many apps can help you lead a stress-free life. Explore them. If you think you might need an expert solution, consult a professional. Many people can help you practice and follow it regularly to lead a stress-free life.