Is Stress A Weakness?

Are you stressed? When asked this question the common answer is "NO!" Human nature being as it is we do not like to admit to anything that may be perceived as a weakness.

Stress can rear its ugly head in many ways, creep up slowly and in some instances, take over completely. Being able to recognize that we are stressed is the first step to being able to challenge the problem, then asking a few questions such as:

• Do I know why I am stressed?
• How long have I been feeling stressed?
• Am I able help myself with this challenge or do I need help?

Admitting that we are stressed and moving on to finding the cause(s) leads eventually to either eliminating stress from our lives completely, or finding ways to alleviate the stress as much as possible. This all depends on the type of personality we are and the lifestyle we lead.

Many conflicting opinions exist as to whether it is possible to completely free our busy lives of stress. If we all could be free of stress forever that would be a wonderful feeling, one that many of us yearn for. Unfortunately not all of us are able to live stress free, but managing the stress in our lives goes a long way to preventing health problems associated with severe stress.

There are many advocates who strongly advise the use of medication, and in some cases, after investigating personal history etc., medication works well. Personally I believe that getting to the root of the problem works well for the majority of people. Once the reason(s) stress is present has been established it is time to find ways to help alleviate the stress or even eradicate it altogether.

Every individual has choices in the way they wish to pursue the ultimate goal of stress reduction, some suggestions are:

• Relaxation
• yoga, meditation, walking, sports, anything that you enjoy and feel helps, works.
• Healthy diet
• moderation in alcohol use and no smoking cigarettes or the use of drugs not prescribed by a physician.
• Restful sleep
• different people need different sleep times – know your own sleep cycle and make sure to get the amount of sleep you need to wake up feeling energised.
• Talking about stress
• with counsellors, friends, or family is a huge step to resolving this challenge.

So the message is, admit to being stressed, it is not a weakness, it just proves we are human after all.