How Stress Impacts Your Mind, Body, and Soul

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Stress. We’ve all felt it at some point in our lives.

You’ve probably dealt with something stressful before you finished your coffee this morning. Trying to get your children ready and out the door for the school bus on time, perhaps work emails are stressing you out, or maybe the day just didn’t start the way you wanted it to. Stress can set a negative tone for the day.

Stress is inevitable, there are triggers all around us; but there are things you can look out for, to help manage how you cope with stress. 

Here are some ways that stress impacts your mind, body, and soul.

Signs of Stress

Stress can impact not just the physical body, but also the mind and the soul.

Often, you might not notice the signs and symptoms of excess stress until it makes you sick.

Physical symptoms of stress that you may feel can be panic attacks, insomnia, fatigue, difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, digestive issues, sickness, hair loss, and even weight gain. In cases where stress leads to significant hair loss, individuals might consider solutions such as hair transplants. Understanding hair transplant costs can help you plan if you need such treatments due to stress-induced hair loss.

Some of the physical symptoms coincide with the mental symptoms.

Too much negative stress can cause anxiety, which leads to difficulty breathing and panic attacks as well as insomnia; depression which can cause insomnia, fatigue, and weight gain; irritability or anger can result in increased blood pressure; and feeling overwhelmed can cause digestive problems, insomnia, and high blood pressure. 

When you’re in a heightened state of stress, you may be living in fight-or-flight mode, and you might ignore our most basic spiritual needs.

The mind, body, and soul connection isn’t something to be ignored. Everything you experience physically can also be felt mentally and spiritually.

If you’re feeling overly stressed, you may skip out on your daily journaling, or your morning meditation. You may avoid spending time with friends because you’re too overwhelmed with everything else, or you might pass on reading books that help your spiritual growth.

When we’re not nourishing our souls, we begin to feel the effects mentally first, then physically. 

Related Reads:

• 12 Ways to Reduce Stress and Feel Calmer
• 30 Journal Prompts for Stress and Anxiety

It’s Not All Bad

It’s amazing how connected our minds, bodies, and souls are.

While most stress that we feel is negative, some stress can be good, known as eustress.

You can feel the way stress impacts your mind, body, and soul when you’re learning a new skill and when you have big life changes such as starting a new job, getting married, or even having a baby. We may also feel eustress while traveling somewhere new and exciting.

How to Cope with Stress

There are many ways you can manage stress when it just gets to be too much to handle.

Taking a break from whatever stressor you’re dealing with, would be a great first step. It’s also important to understand the stress response of your body so you can take the right approach to deal with the stressor.

You can also call a friend or write everything down that is on your mind so you can get some mental clarity.

Taking a walk in nature and meditating are all excellent ways to help reduce stress. And don’t ever underestimate the power of a nap.

While stress is surely inevitable, you can make sure to keep an eye out for signs of stress and continue prioritizing stress management by nourishing your mind, body, and soul through a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and sleep, and spending time meditating, or journaling.