Guest Author - Jim & Jamie B. Lowrance
According to the PubMed medical research article entitled; STRESS AND THYROID AUTOIMMUNITY, stress plays a role in triggering the onset of autoimmune thyroid diseases.
Quote:
"Stress can be one of the environmental factors for thyroid autoimmunity."
PubMed Link> Stress and thyroid autoimmunity
One skill that few people truly possess would have to be successful stress management. Stress seems to play a major role in most of our daily lives but we can benefit greatly from mastering the skill of stress management. There are so many ways that stress affects our lives, even in ways that we might not recognize. There are many effective ways to manage stress levels so that you can begin living a life that is less harmful to your mind, emotions and body.
Stress can continually be a major problem in a person's life especially in these days of living in this crazy, hectic, fast-paced world. Stress can be brought on and aggravated by many things both major and minor including work, personal life problems, financial issues, relationships, school, children, health problems, or many times from an overload of all these things combined. Some people even become stressed over the little things such as traffic, a long line at the grocery store, house chores and upcoming events or even because a waiter treated you badly at a restaurant. These are just a few examples but there are many things that cause stress in people's lives that can accumulate and become harmful over time.
There are many stress-relievers available for practice to help us deal with the "stressors" of daily life. Yoga and meditation are very popular ways that can help us experience some relief from the stressors of a hectic life. Exercise in general is also a great way to deal with excessive stress. Having an occasional quiet time can also provide some stress reduction, by removing ourselves from everything and everyone for a few minutes a day. This can help us to calm down and place us back into focus. Deep breathing exercises are another good way to relieve stress, by taking, slow, long, deep breaths, inflating your diaphragm, rather than your chest.
Some people suffer stress that is severe enough that they need the help of a therapist to deal with it. This can actually be a good idea if you are suffering stress severe enough, that you are losing the ability to handle it well on your own. Hobbies and leisure activities that you enjoy can also be stress relievers. Activities involving art projects, such as painting, drawing, building things, scrap-booking, and gardening are a few simple ways to get your mind off of all the stressors you are experiencing and to enjoy some leisure time.
The consequences of not mastering the skill of stress management may include health problems, depression, and lack of sleep to name a few. Stress can contribute to or even be a cause of these health issues that can be potentially harmful if stress is not brought under control. Other health problems may also include muscle tension, increased heart rate, headaches, increased blood pressure (hypertension), increased risk for heart attack and stroke and can cause more vulnerability to colds, viruses and may also increase the risk for developing certain types of diseases. Stress can also take away much the happiness in life and cause symptoms of anxiety and cause increased susceptibility to depression. For these reasons it is very important to work on these skills for mastering stress.
Another way in helping to master stress management is to identify all of the things that stress you out and to begin working on improving these areas. A simple method for helping to identify stressors is to write it down in a notebook each time you find yourself getting stressed about something. This will help you identify those stressors, so that you can begin to work on ways to better deal with, reduce them and possibly even eliminate them. Also, try working on ways to stop any negative thought patterns that contribute to stress as soon as they begin coming into your mind. Try to think positively no matter what the situation might be because it is very likely that your concerns are not as bad as you have allowed yourself to think they are. You have to develop a practice of controlling your negative responses to stressful thoughts and learn to better cope with them. Also try to remove yourself from any situations that cause added stress for you, whether it is certain job situations or even a relationship that causes ongoing stress. If you can identify anything that is negatively affecting your daily life, it is important to remove yourself from those things if at all possible, since they will only serve to make your life more difficult and complicated than it should reasonably have to be.
Most people can benefit in many ways from mastering these skills for reducing stress which can lend toward a much happier and healthier life. The benefits of better health that can result are not only physical but also mental and emotional. Mastering these skills can also help you to benefit more from life itself and help you to experience more enjoyment in life as well.
Hopefully more people will begin to realize that chronic stress is a continually growing problem in our society and causes an increase in negative and violent behaviors. We all must begin working more on skills and methods for coping because stress can easily spiral out of control if we do not do everything we can to control it instead of allowing it to control us.
