Glamour – Feeling Stressed? The Way You Handle Pressure Could Affect Your Health

Photo: weheartit.com

New research has found that the way you handle stress is more important to your health than how often you’re exposed to it. This data adds to a growing body of science that suggests that how you deal with stress matters more than the stress itself.

It doesn’t matter if you have stress every now and then or every single day, how you deal with it is what keeps your reactions in check – and importantly, this is what you can control. We can’t often control the stress that comes into our lives, but we can control how we view it, and what we do with it. We can make ourselves miserable under its weight, or we can embrace it for its positive benefits and use it to our advantage.

I was pleased to help out with this great piece by Korin Miller for Glamour. The way you handle anxiety can absolutely affect your health, and these data make so much sense. Who doesn’t want to manage stress more optimally? To read the full post on Glamour, CLICK HERE.

 

Licensed clinical psychologist Alicia H. Clark, Psy.D., says it’s important to remind yourself that you can handle it. “Fighting with stress, wishing it weren’t in your life, and worrying about whether you can take it are all real ways that our reactions to stress can amplify its negative, unhelpful effects in our lives,” she says. Instead, try to use it as a motivator. So, you’re frazzled about a looming work deadline, try viewing it as a challenge instead of something you feel like you can’t do.

 

Done all that and still feel some level of stress? That’s OK—stress happens and a little bit of it can even be helpful. “Stress is a key part of living a full, and engaged life,” says Clark. “Recognizing it as the information and energy source that it is can allow us to more fully embrace the things we care about most in life, and keep us performing at our best.”