Stress can be extremely harmful to your body in many ways, the effects can be seen in minor stress symptoms such as headaches, but when stress is prolonged it can cause very serious issues with your overall health, such as hair loss, obesity, heart disease and depression, just to name a few. Stress has even been linked to accelerating certain cancers. A recent study showed that 90% of adults who visit the doctor do so due to stress related symptoms. So what are some things you can do to help yourself be more stress free?

Identify Your Stressors

Sit down and take some time to list those things in your daily life that cause you stress. This could be anything from deciding what to wear to work in the morning to cooking dinner after a long day. Find ways, once you have your list, to begin to eliminate your stressors one by one. If you spend a long time stressing out what to wear each morning, lay your clothes out the night before. Things like this may seem simple, but allowing yourself to have more time and stress less will prove beneficial almost immediately.

Don’t Rush

Allow yourself plenty of time throughout your day to accomplish everything that you need to do. Taking a few extra moments in the morning to be able to sit outside and enjoy your morning coffee will start your day off completely differently than rushing out the door coffee in hand and spilling as you get into the car. If you have plenty of time to get to work, to accomplish tasks and to get everything done that you want to, you won’t find yourself rushing and watching things pile up, creating more stress.

Evaluate Relationships

There are those relationships in our lives that are toxic, literally they have the ability to damage your health through stress. Evaluate your relationships and take care to identify those that on a daily basis you find to be affecting you negatively. It could be that these relationships are abusive in some way, or they could just require more energy to maintain than you are capable or willing to give. Don’t feel bad for cutting these energy suckers loose, it could save your life.

Work Easy

Try to get ahead with your work when possible and avoid procrastinating. Allowing items to pile up at work creates more stress and can actually paralyze you in some ways and prevent you from working efficiently. If you can work thoroughly, avoiding multitasking when possible, and allowing yourself plenty of breaks, you will find that you can get a great deal more accomplished and feel better when you are finished. Taking time during the day to relax your mind can actually help you to be more productive.

Planning for the Future

2/3 of Americans believe that by having life insurance, it alleviates certain stressors and gives you peace of mind. Knowing that you have a plan in place in the event that you suffer a loss or knowing that your family will be provided for should something happen to you, alleviates the stress caused by not knowing how that would affect finances and everyday life while dealing with a tragedy. Investing in your future, through insurance, savings, and retirement plants gives you a sense of ease in your daily life just knowing that you have a safety net in place should you need it.

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cmec_stress_ball_f02_t6.png#file
About the author: Frank Henkley is a health writer who studies human behavior to identify the causes of certain behaviors and impulses. He recently helped a company develop a way to figure out their insurance needs with a life insurance calculator.