September 12th, 2008 by Jason
Getting the proper type, amount and regularity of nutrition is unquestionably critical in the war on cardiovascular disease and cancer. Do all of that right and you’ll be at your ideal weight. Your body will also be getting everything it needs from you – or will it? Simply eating properly isn’t enough folks, and I’m sorry to burst your bubble if you thought it was.
In addition to nourishment, how we live our lives is important too. The interaction we have with our environment causes stress; no matter where or how you live, you have stress, although to widely varying degrees. Additionally, how we deal with that stress plays a major role in determining our overall health.
The best way to combat stress is to focus upon lowering the source of the stress while increasing your ability to deal with it more effectively. Get rid of the bad stuff or rest assured that it will get rid of you. High stress levels can come from a myriad of different sources, although some of the more common ones include financial, relationship, job-related and even chronic pain.
There is no easy way to proceed here, but the important thing is to create a good plan (seek out a professional relevant to your situation if necessary, such as a debt counselor) and then take action. You may not be able to free yourself from financial stress by next month for example, but enacting and adhering to a recovery plan is a huge step in the right direction.
We must coexist with a certain amount of stress, which is even healthy for us – up to a point. Unfortunately, there are those of us that do not deal with stress in a healthy manner. I ought to know – I’m one of them. If you’re like me, being told that you simply “need to relax” is downright insulting. Thanks, Mom. As if we hadn’t thought about that option already!
Proper nutrition is important here as well. Also, plenty of good and restful sleep is invaluable. Now if you’re really unlucky, you could have difficulty dealing with stress AND sleeping (that one gets me too). Type A personalities love a good challenge, though. I’ll write more about chronic insomnia in a future article. It can always be worse, however - millions of people don’t have access to such basic things as clean water and electricity. That certainly helps put things into perspective, wouldn’t you say?
Ideas abound for reducing or eliminating extreme stress, but depending on the situation, this can be a long, hard row to hoe. There is also a mind-boggling variety of methods for helping people deal with stress effectively. Most of these have not worked so well for me, while a few have made a positive difference. Chronic insomnia can also be challenging to eradicate, and often times we just settle for the “some is better than none” philosophy of sleep. If you have any ideas/solutions of your own to share, please do!
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