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Stress is commonly seen as a side effect of modern life; with all the pressure and forces acting on our lives that are far removed from our control, it is easy to see why people become stressed. Although, stress is not an inherently bad thing. As human beings, we thrive on pressure and it makes us perform far beyond what we believe our capabilities are. Everyone loves seeing action movies and hearing survival stories of people trapped up mountains and accomplishing extraordinary feats of endurance.

However, those feats aren't extraordinary as human beings are designed to be capable of that. Our bodies have hormones purposely designed to max us way past our usual performance levels to aide in our innate Fight or Flight response. The thing is, these chemicals are poisonous. From a developmental standpoint, sacrificing an infinitesimal fraction of our health to save our own life, or the life of another, stands to benefit us a lot more than the 'dying up a mountain' result.

Sadly this 'good' form of Fight or Flight stress isn't what people suffer on a day to day basis. We suffer what is called 'Chronic' stress, which keeps our production of these harmful chemicals running permanently.

1. The best way to combat stress is to use it. Stress is designed to make our bodies perform physical feats, and sitting in an office chair is quite the opposite. Regular exercise, while stress relieving by itself, helps use up the chemicals our bodies produce when we're stressed and can help counter the health problems associated with Chronic Stress. The major benefit here is that regular exercise reduces the bodies need for rest, makes us sleep better and gives us more energy, all better allowing us to cope with the stress levels.

2. A healthy diet. Statistics provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, show that 68% of Americans consume less than the RDA for magnesium, not only does this comment on peoples' diet but magnesium deficiency is directly linked to prolonged levels of stress. Not only is magnesium deficiency a symptom of stress, but it is also a cause! Possibly the easiest way to alleviate your stress levels is simply by taking a daily multivitamin.

3. Rest! This point cannot be highlighted enough as insufficient sleep is a major contributor to stress. Everyone loves to lay in on the weekend, and that's because it relieves stress. However, if you find yourself sleeping till noon on a weekend then that isn't a lay in, that's you suffering from sleep deprivation. Getting your full nights rest - not necessarily a full 8 hours, lots of people function better on a couple hours less a night than others - will see you properly through the day and make the minor things that usually stress you to no end seem trivial.

4. Take time for yourself. Between work, kids and the spouse, most people believe they have no time for themselves, but this simply isn't true. If you make no time for yourself to fulfill a hobby or other activity then you won't have time for yourself. If every weekend, instead of dragging yourself out shopping or running the kids to 'God Knows Where' that they don't need to go to on a weekly basis, you should take an hour out for yourself. Tell the little ones to wait, you're just as entitled to relax for an hour as they are, if not more!

So before you give yourself a coronary running around and causing yourself vast quantities of stress, cut back, relax and unwind. It's life, enjoy it while you can because you only get one!

Learn more about this author, N. R. Gregory.
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