Stress comes out in different ways for different people. Sometimes it feels like fatigue, sometimes it’s a headache. Sometimes it shows up as insomnia. Sometimes it shows up as gut distress, since adrenalin highs interfere with our ability to break down food, leading to indigestion, bloating and gas.
Often, we ignore stress because we figure there’s not much we can do about it—but is that really true? Maybe we can’t cut off the source of stress, like our kid going through a “phase” or our supervisor dumping an unreasonable workload on us just before vacation. But we can take action to prepare ourselves to handle it.
Making time for sleep. Or giving up 15 minutes of sleep in favour of calming morning meditation. Calling a friend. All of these activities help to damper stress and if you make them part of your routine then they can have a good long-term effect.