What are your stress symptoms?

Stress can affect your body and mind in different ways - and knowing which way is important to control your stress!

For example stress can affect your body. Do you feel muscle tension, tight shoulders.

Or perhaps you feel the emotions of stress? Such as feeling hassled or having a racing mind?

Other psychological effects of stress include anxiousness, confusion, lack of attention and an inability to focus on a task.

Stress symptoms can occur at the physical or emotional level, and often manifest at the relational level.

Knowing the symptoms of stress can help you target an effective stress management technique for you.

Physical symptoms of stress

The following physical symptoms may be increased by stress (note that this list is not all inclusive):

• Increase in blood pressure and hypertension
• Back, shoulder or neck pain
• Fatigue and tiredness
• High blood pressure
• Shortness of breath
• Sweaty palms or hands
• Skin problems such as eczema
• More and colds and flu due to the suppression of the immune system
• Migraine and tension headaches
• Upset stomach
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Muscle tension, especially in the back, shoulders and neck.

Emotional symptoms of stress

Some emotional symptoms of stress are (list is not inclusive):

• Nervousness
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Moodiness
• Frustration or irritability
• Feeling of ‘butterflies’ in the pit of your stomach
• Problems with your memory
• A lack of concentration or ability to focus on a task

Stress can affect your health and well-being. This makes beating stress in your life a priority.

Knowing what causes you stress is an important first step to stress management.

Filling out this stress diary identifies your causes of stress and how you react to them.

Knowing the cause of your stress helps you to put in a strategy to beat stress. For example, if time pressures cause you stress, then time management can be beneficial, however if a lack of clear priorities is causing you stress then a goal setting plan can help.

If you find that procrastination is a cause of your stress, then try these methods to beat procrastination.

To counter the the effects of stress, activating the relaxation response through these different relaxation techniques can be very helpful in beating stress.

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