5 Important Truths About Stress
I'm stressed out, and it￢ﾀﾙs no wonder why. I have two small children, a young marriage, a new house, a new business, my husband￢ﾀﾙs two chiropractic offices, some rental properties, and friendships and familial responsibilities that need my attention. But guess what? I can remember being in college￢ﾀﾔa time when I had comparatively less responsibility and pressure￢ﾀﾔand being stressed out. Same thing in high school, too. I look at friends of mine who have much more, or much less, on their plate but are equally stressed out.
Why is this? And what can we all do to help manage our rising stress levels? The answers lie in these top 5 most important truths that everyone need to know about stress.
1. Stress is a natural state of being.
From an evolutionary standpoint, stress and anxiety were necessary. If you didn￢ﾀﾙt feel pressure to prepare for winter, or you weren￢ﾀﾙt alert for dangers lurking outside your cave, you probably wouldn￢ﾀﾙt survive. The problem is that while society has evolved past the point of imminent danger, our brains have not. Today, we still feel the physiological effects of a brain wired for stress, and then we look for reasons why we feel this way, such as ￢ﾀﾜtaxes,￢ﾀﾝ ￢ﾀﾜmy boss,￢ﾀﾝ ￢ﾀﾜtoo much sugar,￢ﾀﾝ etc. So the next time you need a reason to plug in when telling yourself the story of why you￢ﾀﾙre feeling the way you feel￢ﾀﾔtry this: because you￢ﾀﾙre human.
2. Negative is easy, positive is hard.
While perusing your Facebook every day, it￢ﾀﾙd be easy to believe that your life is the only one that doesn￢ﾀﾙt come with a chrome filter. Don￢ﾀﾙt let the Internet fool you￢ﾀﾔwe all feel down, worried, depressed, anxious, and focused on the negative sometimes. In fact, your brain is wired that way. Being happy, calm, serene, and focused￢ﾀﾔwell, that￢ﾀﾙs something that takes a lot of work to achieve.
3. Stress relief is not for hippies.
For so long, words like ￢ﾀﾜmeditation￢ﾀﾝ and ￢ﾀﾜbreathing￢ﾀﾝ reminded people of new age nonsense. Well, the joke￢ﾀﾙs on them now. Today we know for a scientific fact that meditation, deep breathing, and a myriad of other stress relief techniques actually impact and change the brain and the body, creating readable, sustainable changes to our experiences of stress. What￢ﾀﾙs more, training the brain in some of these methods has additional bonuses such as increased productivity, alertness, problem solving, and creativity.
4. Learning to manage stress is not optional.
In our health conscious society, we spend a lot of time caring for our physical bodies. We￢ﾀﾙve always associated stress relief with our mental health, and put it in the back seat of healthy priorities. But this can no longer be the case. Stress, anxiety, depression￢ﾀﾔthese mental states of being have actual physical manifestations that can negatively impact our health in both the short and the long term. Weight gain, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure are just a small list of the negative health outcomes that come from being stressed out. You cannot get healthy without paying due attention to your mental health￢ﾀﾔyou just can￢ﾀﾙt.
5. Your employer knows this: this year in wellness is the year of the brain.
Productivity losses, burn out, employee retention, prescription drug costs, absenteeism￢ﾀﾔwhen you get the blues, your employer pays the price. Many workplaces are implementing programs aimed at stress reduction. Check with HR and see if your workplace has something on the books. And if it doesn￢ﾀﾙt, click here to learn more about how Voom can help!  
Resources you￢ﾀﾙll love
Read
For a great place to start learning about the importance of your emotional health, check out Arianna Huffington￢ﾀﾙs book Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder.

Play
Not a book lover? Check out Happify! We￢ﾀﾙre obsessed with the website and mobile app, which provides ways to get your happy on through short, interesting, and fun games, activities, and articles.  
Learn
Looking for something more intensive? Our founders are long time proponents of the Buddhist technique of mindfulness, and they aren￢ﾀﾙt the only ones! Some of the most successful and productive members of our society also swear by this stress reduction technique. Classes are offered all across the world, so try finding one somewhere in your city. Learn more about mindfulness by checking out these two resources:



Top 10 Things Most People Don't Know About Mindfulness


About Mindfulness



Practice
Know all about mindfulness, but now actually want to practice it? You're in luck! This week, Voom will be releasing a brand new mindfulness video module! We'll get you focused, breathing, and meditating every hour right from your desk.





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Want to try it out at no cost? From now until July 31st, you can try these new videos, along with our stretching and strengthening activity breaks, for free! Just enter promo code MINDFUL at checkout for a complimentary one week trial of Voom, and we'll have you feeling calmer and less stressed in no time.
Sources: Harvard Health, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic
Photo Credit: Getty Images
http://blog.voomwell.com/blog/bid/389966/The-Truth-About-Stress-What-Everyone-Needs-to-Know