How to improve stress tolerance: tips psychologist

How often in the resume you can find a beautiful concept: “stress-resistant”. However, in fact, not everyone can cope with the problems and difficulties that arise in life. Low stress resistance threatens nervous breakdowns and depressive state. To get rid of the negative effects of stress, you must always be ready for them. But how to do this in practice?

What is dangerous stress

In fact, stress does not always have only a negative effect on the body. “Soft” stresses, on the contrary, are even useful - they mobilize all the forces of the body, forcing the brain to work faster, activating the defense mechanism. If stress is not a constant phenomenon of life, then sudden stressful situations train the psyche, help to cope with difficult tasks that somehow arise every day.

Another thing, if stress - a constant phenomenon.Regular pressure on the psyche does not activate, but, on the contrary, inhibits the body's defenses. After all, why fight a task if it is still unsolvable? Nervous tension flows from one sphere to another - from working to personal life, because the brain simply does not know how to relax and is constantly under stress. People begin to lose weight, sleep and appetite, apathy and even depression.

Here is a short list of negative effects of stress:

1. The risk of stroke and heart attack is increasing - no wonder they say that many managers are literally “burning at work”. Constant stress, a pressing sense of responsibility and the fear of failure increase the risk of heart problems by 31%.
2. Diabetes is another manifestation of stressful situations on the body in the form of a disease. Regardless of genetics, age and weight, constant stress can lead to at least type 2 diabetes.
3. Lack of immunity due to stress hormone (cortisol). As you understand, this increases the risk of getting any disease, moreover, the treatment may be delayed and complicated.
4. Children who are attacked by their peers, also have serious health problems, in addition to the disturbed psyche.Scientists have proven that school stress can lead to brain cell death and premature aging in the future.

How to improve your own stress tolerance

Awareness of the problem is a huge step towards its solution. If you stop hushing up the fact that work brings not pleasure, but constant stress and anxiety, you can get neuroses and health problems. Accepting the resulting stress as a problem, you can already begin to fight.

Emerging problems should be treated more calmly - yes, it is difficult, but this is precisely the way to increase stress resistance. We offer you a few techniques that will help you learn to relax. Remember that every day you need to learn to "turn off" from the problems, leaving them within the walls of the office. Pleasant moments are important in your life, not work achievements.

1. Sign up for yoga or Tai Chi courses, learn breathing exercises and meditation. These classes will help you find a balance of calm, teach you to relax even in a stressful situation and, additionally, heal the body, make it more flexible and flexible.
2. Any exercise - daily walks, jogging, cycling, rollerblading, swimming in the pool will help increase the level of hormones responsible for reducing the level of anxiety. Also, psychologists advise power sports and martial arts, during which you can "let off steam" and forget about the problem.
3. Improving the mood will help the occupation of your favorite hobby - even if it is not calm and relaxing. The main thing that you enjoy doing your favorite thing.
4. But "sluggish relaxation" behind a monitor or screen will not bring the desired result. Thoughtless viewing of programs and videos on the Internet does not at all unload the brain, as we used to think. It’s just for a while that’s filling up the head with unnecessary information that disappears exactly at the moment when the monitor goes out. Therefore, free time should be spent in conversations, sports or walking.
5. Sometimes to relax even on a legal day off is not given by relatives and friends who need you. It is necessary to learn to say “no” to the next requests that eat up your free time. Give it to your own body.
6. Use any opportunity to listen to classical music. Modern rhythms excite the nervous system. Listening to the radio on the way to work, we come to the office already rather wound up from loud music and loud voices of the presenters. In addition to the classics, it is useful to listen to the sound of nature - the sea, rain, birds.

A harmful way to avoid everyday problems and routines is the use of alcohol and tasty foods. However, it harms the body and creates only a false sense of relaxation - remember how tired you feel in the morning after the party. And carbohydrate-rich foods made from white flour increase levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. It is more beneficial to eat foods high in omega-3 acids - this is halibut, salmon, mackerel, flax seeds. Food with Vitamin B5 is also good — baked whole wheat flour, eggs and broccoli.

Frequent exposure to fresh air is beneficial, as it fills our body with vitamin D, the best natural antioxidant.

Of course, the best way to increase stress tolerance is to learn how to solve problems, not perceiving them as a threat to the rest of your life,but as a small obstacle in the routine of daily affairs.

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