5 Stress Symptoms You’re Ignoring Your body is more reactive to stress than you might think

“Have you been finding it difficult to remember small details or have you been knocking your coffee over a lot lately? When you’re stressed, you do all your chores and social activities with a “porous” consciousness. As a result, you are more accident prone and likely to get injured and get involved in more conflicts and misunderstandings because you are not actively listening.”

“Avoid multi-tasking and focus on one activity at a time. Dividing your attention means you’re less likely to finish any one task and end up with as many half-baked projects as you started, stressing you out even more.”

“You become hooked on the mantra, “no pain, no gain.” While exercising releases endorphins which helps reduce stress, hitting the gym excessively could have the opposite effect as it puts a strain on your body. Remember, there is such thing as too much of a good thing.”

“Limit exercise to no more than 90 minutes a day and be sure to include stretching exercises to balance weight lifting and aerobics. You can turn your stress into strength as exercise is the most efficient way to burn off stress hormonal surges but balance is key.”

“Stress can also induce mindless eating which means wolfing down a bag of crisps, drinking coffee after coffee to jolt your body and mind into performing, and self –soothing with creamy, fatty and sugary foods only to crash to an all-time low. Ingesting all these unhealthy foods lowers your body’s ability to fight stress.”

“Eat balanced meals of lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. Sip green tea which is anti-inflammatory and make an effort to taste your food, savouring it with mindful bites so you don’t over-eat.”

“If your colds become frequent, your skin breaks out in acne or hives and you feel various pains like back, stomach and head aches or your wounds don’t heal fast enough, stress could be the culprit. The immune system is compromised by the inflammatory response of stress and as a result the body is not operating at peak performance. Also, that feeling of fatigue is often a case of adrenal fatigue, which is both emotionally and physically draining and signals the need for relaxation and self-care.”

“People often don’t take all the vacation days they can because they feel they cannot afford the time or they’re afraid of how they might be perceived by their superiors. The truth is, restorative time away from the causes of stress is crucial in rejuvenating the body so that it’s more equipped to fight stress further down the line.”

“A subtle but telling sign of stress is a persistent eye-twitch, often started by fatigue from staring at screens or documents all day but coupled with neurological stress from the pressures of meeting deadlines.”

“Like muscle fatigue, eye twitching can be helped with some stretching. Simply find a window and look at a vista to allow your eyes to stretch to a landscape as opposed to reading print. Or try to close your eyes and envision a favorite landscape as you breathe deeply – inhaling to a count of two and exhaling more deeply to a count of four for five to 10 repetitions.”