I'm always feeling stressed!

So it seems nobody can get by these days without saying once in a while "I'm feeling so stressed!" And it's true. There is a lot more to be stressed out about the older you get. I look back and think "I wish I was 10 years old again, when the world was simpler and kind" yet I know that when I was 10 I couldn't wait to grow up and do grown up things.

So it might be helpful to remind y'all some of the symptoms of being stressed: 

• not sleeping well, or sleeping lots but not feeling rested. 

• drinking lots of caffeine 

• feeling like there isn't enough time to do all the things you need to do 

• yelling at perfectly innocent friends, family and bystanders

Yep, got one or more of those, it's likely you're feeling stressed. I probably ought to put some sciencey bits in about stress, so here's a round about version of what I learned in A level psychology. 

Stress is a reaction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Originally this evolved sat a defensive mechanism- fight or flight stuff. Something is perceived as dangerous, and your adrenal glands leap (often prematurely) into action. Cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline flood the body. Know that feeling that starts low in your back when you've been startled? That's your adrenal glands. They live just above the kidneys. Here is my not to scale, not nescessariy accurate diagram:

I know. I should be an artist, right? But that role in my family is already taken by my sister, so I'll leave the drawing and so on to her because she is great at it. 

Because the body's reaction to stress is a primal evolution we can feel very stressed about things that aren't actually life threatening. Here are a list of non-life threatening things that make me feel stressed out:

• deadlines

• money (and lack thereof)

• work (and lack thereof)

• not being able to see all my friends as much as I'd like

• being misunderstood.

But here's the thing folks: Stress is really really bad for your health. Not just your mental health, but your physical health too. It diverts energy from all sorts of normal processes in the body, such as digestion. Stress can aggrevate all sorts of things aswell, including diabetes, athsma, arthritis, depression, skin conditions. I know my eczema can get much worse when I'm stressed. 

COPING WITH STRESS! 

Some of the ways I like to cope with my own stress may seem obvious, but they really work for me. Obviously they may not work for everyone, but there you go. I like to set time aside specifically for relaxing or doing something creative. I watch mindless tv that I can do nothing with. Because doing nothing means I'm not exposing myself to any stressful stimuli. The only thing stressful about doing nothing is the procrastination factor, so were I still a student, I'd finish any work I had to do first. I like listening to music without lyrics and going for walks by myself, preferably near water. I like rivers and the sea. Being outside is also great for stress because sunlight helps you to produce serotonin that can help combat stress. Also, I just love being outside! 

What makes you feel stressed? How do you cope with it? Leave a comment and let me know :) 

Today, this is me: 

Nice brolly, huh?

See you tomorrow,

- Rosa

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