7 signs you could be stressed without realising it
With the year we've had, it's not surprising that more of us are feeling a bit stressed. However, even if you're not so aware of being overly stressed, there could still be some tell-tale signs that you're slightly more stressed than you even realise, including:
- Trouble sleeping
- Skin breakouts
- Problem digestion
- Feeling overly emotional
- Low energy
- Low immunity
- Aches and pains
Here I go into these areas in a bit more detail, explaining how stress could potentially be having an influence, and offering some suggestions to help.
1. You have trouble sleeping
Stress can easily impact your sleep as it affects your ability to relax. Whether it's the physical symptoms such as a racing heart or feeling warmer than usual that are preventing you from nodding off, or an active mind, it can be a challenging time and often you need to try and address the stress to benefit from some good quality slumber once more.
What can help?
Whilst in some cases stress during the day can be harder to avoid, really making some effort to unwind come evening time is crucial. Try to minimise any chores or stressful activities (or at least try to get these out of the way earlier) and then ensure you create some 'you' time to help you switch off – this can be anything that you, personally, find relaxing!
Then, try to limit your exposure to screens at least a couple of hours before bed, which can subconsciously fire up your stress response. Finally, why not experiment with some herbal ingredients, such as passiflora, to help give you a little extra push in the right direction?
2. Your skin is breaking out
Whilst there are many possible reasons for skin flare-ups, including hormones, the use of topical products and wearing masks, stress could also be a possible underlying contributing factor.
Stress can influence the balance of your hormones, for example, including the sex hormones including oestrogen and testosterone which have a direct impact on our skin. Also, as your internal stress response becomes more active, processes that would normally help to protect areas of the body, including the integrity and health of our skin, also diminish. Unfortunately, these are considered as 'non-essential' in crisis-type situations.
What can help?
Whilst working on targeting the root cause of skin complaints is important, be it hormones or stress, some quick tips which can make a big difference to the health and look of your skin also include: drinking plenty of water (at least 1.5-2l daily), clearing out your makeup bag regularly, using more natural toiletries, and practicing sensible sun exposure throughout the year.
3. You have digestive complaints
We know that unfortunately stress and digestion have some strong links so, if you have any mystery digestive symptoms, this could be an area to explore.
Watch my self-care tip video below for more information on how de-stressing could potentially have some benefits when it comes to your digestion:
My Self-Care Tip: De-stress to improve your digestion
In my latest self-care video I explain how de-stressing could be one tactic for improving an under-par digestive system:
What can help?
It's important to note that many stress remedies could offer both physical and emotional benefits once you start using them.
Whilst the herb passiflora, for example, is especially useful for helping to calm your mind; it may also allow for more physical benefits such as helping to calm muscular contractions throughout the length of your digestive tract.
4. You’re overly emotional
Whilst, much like skin flare-ups, emotional episodes can also be linked to hormones or other causes, they could also be a sign that stress is lurking beneath the surface.
Stressful situations can make us more likely to get a bit teary or, in some cases, anger is another emotion that can more easily rear its ugly head if we're feeling more under pressure.
What can help?
As in most instances of stress, turning your attention to the root of the symptoms can be a helpful first step when it comes to working on getting your emotions in check. Talking more is often a good bit of advice; but whether that's to your boss, a close friend or family member, or even a health professional, this is up to you depending on what's contributing to the stress in the first place.
Then, the usual self-care tips also apply when it comes to regulating emotions. Keeping properly hydrated, limiting caffeine and employing some herbs, such as passiflora, can all help increase your resilience to stress and help prevent your emotions from running so high.
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5. You’re low in energy
Energy is a hot topic of conversation and probably one of the most frequently asked questions in healthcare. There is honestly a whole raft of reasons that you could be lacking in energy from diet and poor sleep to nutrient deficiencies. However, today, our focus will be on stress.
Being stressed uses a lot of resources. Taking the stress response back to its roots, this was originally only fired up when we were in a spot of bother - that is a situation that could potentially put our lives in danger. Therefore, we needed to be ready to run, fight or whatever we had to do in order to survive. This means that your heart rate increases, your muscles become primed and your blood sugar levels increase all in a bid to provide you with the energy and resources that you need to survive.
However, nowadays being in this 'primed' state unnecessarily can understandably be quite draining. After all, it isn't a state our body is meant to be in long-term.
Other than when we are sleeping, which is easier to achieve, many of us may need to work on returning to a more 'relaxed' state to prevent our energy levels from being drained unnecessarily.
What can help?
More often than not we need to aim to be activating our parasympathetic nervous system, or the 'rest and digest' branch of our nervous system.
One easy way to do this from the comfort of your own home is to breathe. Breathing deeply and deliberately, and especially exhaling (so breathing in for a count of '4', and out for '8', for example) helps to do just that as it activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
Herbs, such as passiflora can also be a useful addition since they help to increase the neurotransmitter GABA, which helps to promote calm, rather than stimulation.
6. Your immune system is suffering
Particularly pertinent right now, stress can also cannibalise your immune functions. I was fascinated to learn, as highlighted in research, that almost all our immune cells have receptors for stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline.2 This means that having increasing levels of stress hormones in your system could ultimately modulate how our immune cells are working. It also risks upsetting the quality or quantity of immune cells being produced at any one time.2
Again, this relationship stems back to evolutionary times when, during times of stress, our immune cells would be down-regulated to make room for other vital bodily processes to keep us alive in the moment.
What can be done to help?
Luckily, it's becoming more recognised now, more than ever before, that self-care should be an essential part of our daily routines. By taking some down-time, doing things you enjoy and immersing yourself in some relaxing activities, even for as little as for 10 minutes each day, you could help to limit the effects stress could ultimately have on your system. Again, passiflora is a lovely herb to add to your self-care regimes.
Then when it comes to immune health, herbal remedies can also be a useful addition to help ward off any potential ill-effects of stress, should they occur, with echinacea being particularly relevant.
Echinaforce echinacea is a traditional herbal remedy which can be taken at the first signs of infection, whilst also helping to support your immune system by maintaining your body's resistance.
7. You feel tense
It's possible that mystery aches and pains, especially around the head, neck and shoulder region, could be the result of muscular tension, due to being stressed.
It's important to always have any unusual symptoms checked by your doctor, of course, but sometimes just being more conscious of your body language and positioning, day-to-day can help to pinpoint the cause of some recurrent symptoms.
What can help?
Drop your shoulders and do some very gentle stretches to see if you can feel any of the tension dissipating.
Also, it's interesting to note that certain stress remedies could have both physical and emotional benefits. The herb passiflora, for example, may help to calm your mind, as well as allowing for more physical benefits, such as helping to disperse muscle tension.
