7 Hacks to Beat Stress
Don’t let stress get in the way of your health. Learn how to manage it with these tips from Dr. Scott Lear.
Stress. It’s a part of everyone’s life. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, at work or retired, we all experience it.
While we have a negative notion about stress, it’s not all bad. Stress pushes us to perform, whether it be physical or mental. Exercise is a form of physical stress, working our body to make it stronger. And without the stress of deadlines, it can be hard to get things done.
While a little bit of stress can boost our performance, too much can impair it. For some stress, such as work or school deadlines, the stress can be temporary and usually disappears once the deadline is met. But continual or chronic stress can increase our risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and even early death.
Fight or flight
Our body responds to stress by getting revved up. It gives us a boost of adrenaline, getting our heart pumping faster and breathing quicker. In days of old, this was helpful when the best response to stress was either fight or flight.
Nowadays, we can’t really run away from stress at work, and we can’t fight our way through daily stress. So, we’re left to wait it out without a release. It’s the lack of release that creates stress that can impact our health. But there are many things we can do to reduce stress and prevent the negative impact on our health.
How to manage your stress
- Get a good night’s sleep
Ever wake up after a restless sleep? It seems like nothing can go right that day. But a good night’s sleep can make you feel invincible. When we’re tired, our adrenaline is usually up, which makes us more susceptible to stress. Getting enough sleep is important to our performance and will make things that seemed stressful the day before, much more manageable.
