Surprising Causes of Stress
Stress comes in many forms, from affecting your mental health and clarity, to giving you physical effects like headaches and digestive problems. Stress is normal and something everyone experiences, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t serious.
You should always take your stress seriously and treat it just like you would any other health condition you have. In order to find the right treatment, you need to figure out where your stress comes from. You might find some surprising causes of stress in your life that you hadn’t even thought of before.
Not Taking Care of Yourself Enough
If you are not taking care of yourself, you might notice that you have much higher levels of stress. This is exactly why self-care is so important. It is not a matter of being selfish or trying to isolate yourself in your home, but doing things for you. You need to take care of your health, hygiene, happiness, and mental health. They are all equally important to keeping excess stress away.
You Don’t Pay Attention to Proper Nutrition
A big part of taking care of yourself, and reducing your stress, is making sure you eat nutritious foods. This doesn’t mean being on a strict, crash diet, but just being sure you are providing your body and mind with adequate nutrition. Unless you have food allergies or sensitivities, look for a balance of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, whole grains, and don’t forget the nuts and legumes. These will allow you to get all the important vitamins and minerals you need, which can also help you to keep stress away.
Relationship Issues, Even When They Aren’t Obvious
Yes – your personal relationships and friendships could be causing you stress. There are some obvious issues with relationships that you probably know cause stress, but there might be others you haven’t considered. For example, if you have a close friend in your life who is always negative and toxic, and does nothing but complain about their life, they are spreading that negativity around.
While in the short-term, it doesn’t seem to cause stress, it might be bringing you down and leading to emotional stress in the process. If you feel a lot of stress in your life, take a look at your personal relationships, who you spend the most time with, and how they might be impacting you.
Daily Annoyances That Add Up
Everyone has those annoying or frustrating things that happen every day. Maybe you are always kept late at work, or your daughter is always running late for school, or your water heater keeps going out. None of these are life-altering situations, but over time, they add up and really start to get to you. Start writing in a journal about what is bothering you each day, so you can figure out resolutions that will help keep the added stress away.
Social Media
Social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and more often than not, both at the same time. Social media does have its benefits, such as helping you to stay in contact with long-distance family and keep connected with friends and co-workers. Unfortunately, it can also be detrimental to your mental health.
You might have added stress each day just by using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram without even realizing it. If you can’t figure out where all your stress is coming from, try unplugging from social media for a week and see how you feel.
Being Messy and Disorganized
If you are a messy person, it might not seem like a big deal, but this can add stress to your life. When you are constantly looking for your keys, can’t figure out which pile of clothes is clean or dirty, and always have to search for paperwork on your desk, it is adding to the amount of stress you have. Not only this, but just waking up in a bedroom that is messy and disorganized can make your stress and overwhelm worse.
It is worth taking a few minutes every day to clean your living and work spaces in order to keep things as neat as possible. You don’t need things to be perfect, but a little more organization can be good for you.
We will be discussing more on how to take care of ourselves by reducing stress in the Clean Eating for the Busy Person Program , click the link below to check it out.