Types of Stress
Everyone relates to stress and knows how debilitating it can be. Stress in small amounts is good for us, although high levels of chronic stress are known to be the leading cause for many conditions and diseases.
There are 3 types of stress:
1. Emotional stress caused by worry from work, money, relationships and many other like factors.
2. Physical stress from posture, certain prolonged habits like sitting, repetitive strains and others.
3. Bio-chemical stress caused by dietary intake, medication or drug abuse and hormonal imbalances.
In order to stay healthy and keep the body in homeostasis or equilibrium we need to manage the stress placed on us. Best way to do this is develop healthy habitual routines for every day to reduce all three types of stress.
Emotional exercises: 5 minutes of daily meditation, silence or self-affirmations. There are plenty of helpful Meditation Apps out there, free to download.
Diaphragmatic Breathing will also help relieve tension and increase oxygen to the body.Perform this by: Place one hand on your side of ribs and the other on your tummy, take a deep breath thin through the nose and expand ribs laterally and tummy outwards, exhale and relax. Repeat 20 times.
Physical stress: daily postural exercises like shoulder retraction and neck extensions 3-5 times a day. See below stretches
Bio-chemical stress: Smoothies and salads daily are a great, quick and yummy way to increase fruit and vegetable intake, and with them your required vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, which decrease inflammation and decrease the stress hormones.