#2: How Stress Affects Your Body (and what to do about it)

Let's talk about stress baby
Let's talk about you and me
Let's talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be
Let's talk about stress!
<thank you Salt n Pepa>

As I was creating this series that song was constantly in my head.

Stress can be incredibly useful to motivate and inspire us to accomplish things that we never thought possible.  But, mostly, stress just sucks.

Understanding how stress is affecting you is one of the most valuable steps you can take to start to manage it.  Once you build your awareness, you will notice when it's affecting you so that you can take action in real time.

I created a 3 part series to help you pinpoint how stress is affecting you so that you can start to do something about it:

Part 1: How Stress Affects Your Body

Part 2:  How Stress Affects Your Emotions

Part 3:  How Stress Affects Your Mind

What you will learn in this episode:

1. That different things stress different people out.
2. That stress impacts each of us differently (physically, emotionally, + mentally).  
3. How to begin to consider how stress might be impacting you physically. 
4. To begin to notice how stress and its effects might be impacting your life and your business.

Stress and Your Body

Stress has many possible physical implications.  Not all of these things might be caused by stress, but what if they are?  Wouldn’t it be worth considering, and then figuring out how to fix it? 

We are going to focus on three major physical impacts that stress might be having on you:

1. Sleep
   Here are some questions to consider about your sleep as you consider if stress might be impacting your quality and quantity of sleep:
1. Do you ever have a hard time falling asleep?
2. Do you ever have a hard time staying asleep all night?
3. Do you ever have a hard time waking up?
4. Do you have nights when you are restless - tossing and turning?
5. Do you ever have vivid dreams or nightmares?
6. If these any of these things are happening all the time, I would encourage you to see a physician.
7. If you answered 'yes' to any of these, please consider:  was a there a specific stressor that caused this?  For example, if you couldn’t fall asleep last night - what do you believe was the reason?

2. Pain
Let’s focus on the following idea:  some of the pain we experience might be related to stress and might be preventable.  

1. Do you ever have neck or back pain that seems to occur whenever you are more stressed?
2. What about any other pain that seems to be more pronounced when you are stressed?
3. Do you notice tension somewhere in your body during times of stress?
4. Do you suffer from headaches or migraines?
5. If you answered 'yes' to any of these, please consider:  was a there a specific stressor that caused this?  

3. Digestion
Continual stress can impact your digestion from a stomach ache to cramping to constipation to diarrhea to gas. Lucky us. Yes, sometimes those things are caused by something we ate or another reason, but sometimes they are caused by stress.

1. Do you experience any of these digestive issues that might be explained by stress?
   

So, I’d love to believe that NONE of these possible physical implications of stress have ever happened to you - but, I’m guessing that at least one of these resonated with you. 

How does this information help you?

Here is a 4 step process to help you take this knowledge and apply it today!

1. Notice when you experience something physically that you think might be related to stress.  
2. When you experience it, ask yourself - what is the SPECIFIC cause?  For example, saying “I have a headache because work is so stressful” doesn’t really help.  Instead consider, “when Bob talked over me at the meeting again, that totally stressed me out, and then I got a headache.”  Or maybe it’s not stress at all. Try to figure out the cause. 
3. Work on fixing the physical effect in real time- what could you do right now to stop what you are experiencing?  Schedule a massage, go for a walk, get away from the situation, takes some deep breaths, drink a soothing tea…
4. Work on fixing the stressor that caused it - not all of them are fixable, but now that you know what it is that is impacting you, what are you going to do about it?

How will you start working on noticing how stress impacts you and why?  And what will you do to fix it?

Don’t forget to subscribe at <<Apple Podcasts>> or <<Spotify>> so you don’t miss out on the rest of this series - how stress impacts our emotions and our minds.  Yikes. I know. I bet you can’t wait.