Stress and anxiety may not be such a major problem to some of us, especially when we do not experience excessive amounts of it on a daily basis. However, according to the 2007 Stress and Anxiety Disorders Study, a stunning 43% reported that stress and anxiety interfered with their daily activities, with women feeling effects more than men. Stress and anxiety also interferes with sleep, making waking up and feeling refreshed for the day’s activities often difficult to do. Other physical symptoms of stress and anxiety like back pains, dizziness, falling hair, chest pain, rapid weight gain or weight loss, palpitations and skin rashes may become so severe in some people that they end up having to miss work or school. Fortunately, stress and anxiety can be managed. Here are a few ways to do so.

Meditation And Yoga

Meditation is wonderful tool for stress and anxiety relief. Deep breathing exercises, visualization, Yoga, and other techniques which use the body’s amazing power for relaxation can help you decrease your stress and anxiety levels by decreasing your heart rate, slowing your respirations down, and relaxing your body’s muscles.

Exercise For A Healthy Mind And A Healthy Body

Exercise can release the body’s natural supply of endorphins, the ‘feel good’ hormones that are also produced when we eat chocolates or have sex. Often referred to as a runner’s high, the same effect is produced no matter what kind of physical activity you are into–a rousing game of racquetball or several laps in the pool can still give you the same effect. Another benefit of exercise is that it can keep depression and mild anxiety at bay, keeping you not only healthy physically healthy but emotionally robust at the same time.

Socialization: Go Out With Friends And Make Some More

Maintaining a sense of connectivity, aside from keeping us from feeling lonely, is another great way to reduce stress and anxiety. The presence of friends and family can help us forget our worries for a while and concentrate on something positive. Join a club, call up a friend, have coffee with the girls, or better yet, involve yourself in volunteer work. All these can take the focus out of your problems and into something else and can help you feel refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle the problem again. Having people around you for emotional support is always a good thing.

Relaxation: Indulge Yourself With A Vacation

Feeling burnt out? Dragging yourself out of bed to go to work? Perhaps a vacation is in order. Companies often give out vacation time for a reason, and that is to keep employees from burning themselves out. Overwork and too little rest can not only tire you and make you unable to function at your best, it can also make you prone to illness, not good if you want to keep those sick days to a minimum. Stress is known to produce hormones that lower the immune system, which makes you prone to sickness like colds or the flu.

Stress and anxiety can be a good thing in moderate amounts. It’s what actually drives us to do what we are supposed to do to survive. However, when we experience high amounts of stress everyday whether at home, at work or in school, our bodies could suffer as a result. The bottom line is that if you want to stay healthy, learn how to manage stress and anxiety well so that you can keep its negative effects at bay.