Mental Health: How to Deal with Stress
For a long time we all knew how important it was to stay physically healthy. All too often we spend time worrying about taking our daily multi vitamins, exercising regularly, and having a healthy weight. Although these practices are a great step to dealing with physical health, we are still missing something.
Today, the increasing topic in the health sector is making sure we keep our minds healthy and having great MENTAL HEALTH.
Having a healthy brain and good mental health is imperative. If you don’t prioritize mental health now, I will not stop you from exiting this short passage. I will encourage you though to be open to a few of the topics we will cover. I want to talk about mental health and negative mental health prevention. We will how mental health gives benefits in relationships and stamina in the workplace.
If you have made it this far, I know you have the courage to continue.
What is Stress?
Stress is has been defined in many ways but for our purposes we can define stress as a physical or mental response to pressures or events. That being said, I think we can all relate to stress entering our lives when we have an important exam, job interview, deadline or day to day activity with our families. LIFE IS STRESSFUL! How much is stress really hurting us though? Let’s check it out on a biological level.
When you examine stress at the biological level, our body releases hormones which speed up breathing and heart rate and also increase your blood sugar levels. This happens because our body enters SURVIVAL MODE. At all cost, our body wants the bad stuff to stop and stress is a homeostatic way of keeping balance. Stress can be a good thing though. When we think about Stress versus Eustress (good stress) we are able to understand the flight versus fight complex. A good way to think about Eustress biologically would be a hunter who had to kill a lion to survive. As we overcome obstacles or lions, Eustress is a powerful tool.
When stress occurs, our body can temporarily adjust to the environment and triggers we are facing. However, it is natural for our body to fall back in to our comfort zone. Our comfort zone is the 99% daily lives we live in. This leads to something called “Burn Out”. Burn Out occurs when stress has weekend our bodies and we are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually worn out. Has this ever happened to you before?
Looking at stress under the medical microscope, there is a ton of physiological damage that stress leads to. When we have too much bad stress, there are increases occurrences of heart attacks, pressure pains, cancer, digestive disorders and insomnia. If you have ever had an important midterm before, you know exactly what I am talking about. Stress produces chemical reactions in our bodies and leaves us with sleepless nights.
Stress Prevention
Because we want to STRESS work life balance, let’s look at dealing with stress in the workplace. You can deal with stress in the workplace by watching for warning signs.
Warning signs of stress:
- Headaches
- Dry Mouth
- Chest Pains
- Fatigue
- Difficulty staying awake or sleeping
NOTE: If you are suffering from severe chest pain, please seek advanced medical attention. You could be experiencing a heart attack. If you think you are having a heart attack call 911.
Identifying that you are stressed is the first step to dealing with it. But the real question is, how do we keep the healthy mind in our busy work lives? There is not a simple answer but we do know what helps. People tend to deal with stress better when they exercise regularly, take breaks during work and also practice breathing techniques.
There are a few other stress prevention methods such as utilizing laughter as a combatant, building self confidence, managing time and most importantly, SPEAKING TO SOMEONE! Sometimes putting all of your stressors on the table helps, identify what is causing you stress and attack it. Seeking advanced therapy or counseling is a great idea, but you should always feel confident turning to a family member or trusted friend/peer.
So far we have identified that STRESS IS NORMAL and there are methods in dealing with stress. Let’s lastly look at positive thinking and having a healthy attitude.
The Healthy Attitude
Having a healthy attitude helps your mental health and can leave a large impact in the workplace. Have you ever met someone who really is never happy? We all have met this person. This person is the negative Nancy or Negative Nathan that seems to suck the energy out of the room the minute of entrance. How do you deal with a negative Nathan? Lead by example!
When you carry yourself in a positive manor you are decreasing your chances from stress taking the steering wheel of your life. People will begin to mirror your happiness or exclude themselves from being around you. If you practice positive thinking and the few steps below, you can help protect your mental health and the mental health of others:
Ways to practice a healthy mindset:
- Understand that the weight of the world in fact is not on your shoulders
- Motivate others and be an active listener
- Get to work on time and be efficient
- Have down time to be human (yes you have interests outside of your work life remember)
- Have respect for yourself and have respect for others
Although these short tips might seem like common sense, sometimes we need a reminder. Thomas Edison once said “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves”. Edison may have said it best with that statement. To protect our mental health we need to do the things we are capable of.
Looking back at our middle school health classes now, anyone can understand the information you were learning is in fact 100% correct! You just have to be able to put that information to work and live the best life you can. Stress occurs in everyone’s lives but we CAN DEAL WITH IT.
Call To ACTION
Today, I challenge you to do the things you are capable of doing to protect your mental health.
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