Will stress kill me?
Stress is like the minerals in the cover photo, if you don’t control it, it quickly takes over and spreads! It covers and leaks into every part of one’s life: health, wealth, wellbeing, productivity, relationships, business… 🦨
In the short term, stress mobilizes your resources, and enables you to focus better and achieve more. It feels good and that’s why it is addictive and easily can become a habitual body’s response. Yes, stress can be very good, however ONLY in short term! ⚡
In the long term, stress burns out one part of the body (adrenal glands, liver, tense muscles) which is overworked, while others is suffering from neglect (digestion, immune system, reproductive function) and lack of energy. 🔥
There are also many side effects related to stress, like insomnia, which can be caused by an abundance of hormones and neurotransmitters active in the body. Another cause is the inability or lack of desire to calm your mind and stop it from overthinking & worrying, which contributes to the former cause. Insomnia itself can cause a lot of problems down the line, i.e. brain damage. As always, there is also a good side to insomnia: it’s a great warning sign that you are under a lot of stress and not able to release it and something must be done about it in order to have a happy and healthy mind & body. 😴
How about the question: will stress kill me?
If you are asking yourself this question then odds are you already have too much stress and you are asking this question because you know it’s too much. And you worry if the damage from stress is faster than the body’s natural ability to heal itself. And as long as you worry about it, yes – that is additional stress! Think about it! 🧐
For those of you who are not under chronic stress, the answer is still affirmative – sustained stress has the potential to kill. Almost every disease out there is stress-related. ☠️
🐝 If you never get any stress your immune system is weak and untrained.
🐝 If you are chronically stressed it is also weekend by being off all the time.
Like training muscles we need some exercise/stress: not too little, not too much. 💪
How to avoid being killed by stress?
An interesting fact about stress is that person under the stress does not really see the full impact of how it affects their judgment and perception. Therefore often people around are the best feedback. 🙈
Also, proactive check-in with one-self, self-awareness, mindfulness, and proactive stress relief are important tools to have, so you don’t have to end up burned out or in hospital with stress-induced disease asking yourself: “will stress kill me?”. 🤕
How to know you are under too much stress?
Often people either don’t know they are under stress, rationalize it that it’s ok, or are way too “optimistic” about the impact it’s making. Therefore it is important to keep your eyes open to yourself and others! 😈
It’s actually similar to hiking. As you walk on you see different scenery and see the same landscape and objects from different angles. It gives you the full picture. 🗻
Yes, you can take your time to go around and see it for yourself. ⏳
Yes, you can save your time and ask others to share their views from other places. 🤝
And in stress detection often it’s that lack of perspective on our life that we suffer the most from. 😬
Often all we need to do is zoom out and take a look at the bigger picture:
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Will this matter in 5 years’ time? 🤷
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Will this matter if I were to die tomorrow? 🧐
Or take a look from a different angle:
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What would X do in this case? 😎
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How can this be of benefit to me? 😏
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How can I see this as a blessing, not a curse? 😇
Like a car, we do have our own blindspots. Therefore it is invaluable to have someone else to give us feedback. 🚓
If you happen to release your negative emotions on other people (yell, shout, anger, fear, say something means). Yes, for everyone except you this looks like overreacting to something meaningless. However, for you, it feels like mutiny on a ship! So ask another opinion about the situation. If you get a response: “overreacting”, then good question is – why? 🤬
If you feel stuck or have no choice in the matter. Under stress, the brain gives us the power to have better focus. And if we focus on a problem, we see a problem for every solution! A relaxed mind is a creative mind and can come up with countless solutions for every problem. If you notice yourself rejecting solution after solution, ask if that might be because you are stressed? Better yet, ask someone’s advice and see where is your focus – finding excuses and rejecting solutions or committing to the best solution? 🥶
If your body sends you a sign: digestive problems, unexpected weight change, too much or not enough sleep, disease. Our body is designed to handle short-term stress, and get focus and energy for parts of the body at expense of others (digestion, immune system, reproductive functions). On chronic stress parts of the body don’t get the energy needed and suffer the consequences. 🤒
There are many more signs to detect stress early, however, the biggest problem is not to detect it, it’s wanting to get rid of it! In most cases, we WANT to be stressed. 👻
Why would we want to be stressed?
Because…
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we believe it’s worth it 💪
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we believe we are more productive (over)stressed ⚡
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we believe we have no choice 🤖
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we believe it’s out of our control (we blame circumstances) 🛂
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we prioritize something else above our health, wellbeing, our relationships, productivity, etc. ⚖️
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we are already stressed and we rationalize to stay the same: change is scary, familiar is good ☠️
I believe you found some value in this article. I much appreciate you for taking your time to read it! And I would like to invite you to share one thing that resonated the most with you!? ✍️
If you struggle with managing your stress, DM – I would love to help you! 🤙
Smile & Be Present
🐝💝