Have you ever experienced stress or anxiety so badly that you physically cannot move? Has it ever messed with your daily life to where you cannot function properly? Well do not worry, because you are not the only one. Today, I am going to tell you some ways that you can properly deal with stress and anxiety. Stress can be very physically, emotionally, and mentally draining, but as long as we can treat it, we can relieve ourselves from such exhaustion.

Over time our bodies can become very worn down by stress and anxiety. It has been clinically proven that if we have too much stress and it is prolonged over time, we can cause more health problems. Depression can set in, we can begin to have eating disorders, and one can turn to unhealthy habits to relieve the stress. The most popular unhealthy habits are smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, and drinking alcohol. These unhealthy habits can lead to many diseases, however, the most common is cancer. We can still become ill even without turning to unhealthy habits. High blood pressure can also be caused when a person has been dealing with a lot of stress or anxiety. As that person continues to keep having stress and anxiety their heart can become blocked form the high blood pressure, and they could then potentially have a heart attack.

Stress and anxiety can affect our everyday thinking. Often times when we are so overwhelmed with stress, our problems are all we can focus on. For example, if a father is dealing with stress from the house, work, and financial stress and comes home and is snippy with his family, he does not see that he is being snippy. The family can get upset and start being rude to him. However, all the father sees is his family acting out. He is unable to see that because of his stress he answered them in a rude tone. This can cause even more stress than he had before. We begin to have a box thinking mentality an we cannot see and think out of the box. Also, one can become very depressed and only think of depressing thoughts. One can even become distant and stop being social. One cannot think straight and their world seems to have little to no meaning.

There are many ways one can begin to manage their stress and anxiety. Some people suggest meditation. Meditation can be helpful because it allows our blood pressure to drop down, and our muscles to relax. We can also take a certain time and set it aside to relax and just lay down and think. Another method is to become more active. One can go for a run, a walk, a swim, and even doing some simple exercise such as squats. Becoming more active helps our moods. Immediately after being active one will start to feel better. This also happens because the individual feels that they have accomplished something. Going outside is also helpful. The sun gives our bodies nutrients to keep us healthy, and when we do not go outside we begin to lose those nutrients.

Now that we are aware that prolonged stress does more to our bodies than we think, hopefully we can use the knowledge we now know and help us relieve some of our everyday "stressors" and anxiety "causers". With little adjustments of our schedules we can begin to turn our thinking around for the better. More positive thinking leads to less stress and anxiety.