The Effects of Stress on Your Daily Life

Contrary to popular belief, stress is good. Stress is a valuable response mechanism that summons our instinctual fight or flight response, which is transmitted by the hypothalamus (area of the brain regulating the autonomic nervous system and the pituitary gland). This mechanism was biologically developed early in man’s history to cope with the harsh realities of a hunter-gatherer society during the stone age.

Fortunately, our societies have advanced to such a degree that we no longer need to stress out over life-or-death scenarios on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, we’ve retained the biological stress response to a fault. We tend to get stressed out in smaller doses (traffic, work, family, the list goes on). This stress response has been proven to have debilitating effects on our overall health and wellness. Stress is responsible for several negative effects on your body, including headache, insomnia, muscle stiffness, digestive complications, and lack of sex drive. Hypertension caused by stress also puts stressed out individuals at greater risk of heart attack and stroke. Stress can also affect the mind by causing undue anxiety, depression, irritability, and a diminished ability to focus. You can see how an excessive amount of stress can negatively affect your overall quality life. Identify your stressers and extinguish them with no mercy. If you’re proactive in your hunt for stress, your overall wellness will improve, without a doubt.