Managing stress is important for your health and overall well-being. If done properly, you can see an increase in your mood, boost your immune system and promote longevity. If you don’t manage it effectively, you could be increasing your risk of illnesses ranging from a simple cold to heart disease. There are plenty of doctors and health professionals that consider stress to be a big risk factor for heart attack and even cancer.
Ongoing stress often leads to tense muscles, which in turn lead to headaches and migraines and a multitude of other musculoskeletal problems. Most people realize that stress can lead to headaches, but most don’t realize that it’s also disruptive to your digestive system. It can influence which vitamins and nutrients can be absorbed by your body, how fast food makes its way through your digestive system. When your digestive system is compromised, you can experience heartburn, acid reflux, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea.
But it’s not just physical problems. Stress also comes with psychological effects. It can be a contributing factor for depression, panic attacks, anxiety and phobias. When you suffer from any of these, it can effect your focus and mental clarity. You can experience frustration and anger, a decrease in patience, and irritability. Left untreated and un-managed, all this can it can truly take a toll on your overall well-being. These alternative treatments can help you manage stress and even help treat anxiety and depression.
Breathe
Master relaxation and your body will be able to handle stress easier. Most people who suffer from chronic stress have a tendency to breathe with fast-paced, shallow breaths and don’t even realize it. This leads to feeling more tense than you need to. Take a little time out each day to concentrate on taking slow, controlled breaths that fully utilize your diaphragm.
Cognitive-behavioral Treatment
Sometimes referred to as CBT, this is a technique that’s been shown to work wonders for stress and it’s isn’t hard to do. It focuses on not over-reacting and proactively managing stress. Most of the time, stressed people over-react. They turn a little bump in the road into a huge mountain that’s impossible to climb. They never see the glass as “half full” vs “half empty” and end up losing all hope. With CBT, you proactively acknowledge, address and change this way of thinking with small mental tricks and techniques that help you see things in a more positive manner.
Cold or Soft Laser Therapy
One of the newest forms of treating stress, anxiety and depression is cold laser therapy. It combines ancient Chinese medicine and cutting edge 21st century technology that’s used on acupressure points to boost those “feel good” chemicals: endorphins and dopamine. These chemicals naturally help your body reduce the physical effects of stress. Samuel Mark Gross, a noted health expert, entrepreneur and life coach, opened a revolutionary cold laser therapy center that’s already helped many people get better.
