Thinking About Stress
You may feel you can handle the stress in your life, or that you don't have time to change it. Take just a few minutes to look at this information and learn more about stress, then see what you think.
When you complete the activities in this stage, continue on to the next stage. Or return to The New You any time to work on this or another health area.
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Think About It...
Why Stress Matters
In many ways stress is a very personal reaction to the world around you. People talk about good stress and bad stress; one can challenge and motivate you, the other can cripple you mentally and physically. When we talk about stress here, we mean bad stress. As our lives have become more complicated (balancing career, family, finances, etc.) stress has increased. This can lead to headaches, body tension and pain, and eating and sleeping disorders.
Also, anxiety in one part of your life can affect other parts. Problems at work, for example, may keep you from being able to handle family needs, leading to situations that create even more stress. Many people find negative ways of dealing with tension; smoking, excessive drinking, anger, depression; unfortunately, all of these methods have problems of their own.
But there's good news, learning to decrease stress has several advantages, such as:
More energy
Better sleep
Resistance to illness
Less depression.
Your stress reduction approach doesn't need to be an elaborate program and it can be as personal as the stessors in you life.
