Life is full of challenges, and many people have busy and stressful schedules. Whether you work, attend school, or have other responsibilities to tend to, everyone has experienced stress at some point in their life. However, acute stress, which occurs in small doses and is temporary, is good for individuals. A little amount of stress will keep individuals alert, concentrated, and sometimes even energetic. If you have a big presentation to present in front of your boss, peers, or even have a major test, a little stress is OK. However, chronic stress, which occurs in large doses and happens for an extended period of time, is not healthy for the body. In fact, when your body experiences stress, it releases a hormone called cortisol, and your nervous system releases adrenaline. Now, everyone handles stress differently, and everyone is affected by it uniquely, but to avoid trauma to your body, it is important you are aware of your stress load to prevent the following various health problems.

Too much pressure and stress can lead to heart disease, sleep issues, depression, skin diseases such as eczema, autoimmune diseases, anxiety, nausea and dizziness, frequent colds, chest pains, etc. The list goes on and on. On the other hand, there is a high chance that you have experienced one of the following issues due to an increasing amount of stress. However, if you are reading this and think that you have experienced some of those symptoms, but you don't think you're stressed, there are many different causes of stress that you need to be aware of. For example, some other sources of stress are having unrealistic expectations, being too busy, having too many responsibilities, significant life changes, work, school, family, financial issues, always worrying, and much more. Since individuals cannot escape stress, it is very important that individuals learn how to personally manage pressure in their own lives.

A couple of ways to balance life situations, a.k.a. stress or pressure, are to try working out, taking a yoga class, or just doing an activity that you enjoy. That could be painting, reading, jogging, baking, talking to your best friend or family; whatever you enjoy doing, do it often and try to let that be your stress outlet. Stress may seem like something we talk about all the time and even joke about, but it really can have serious impacts on your life that should be monitored and reduced. Life is short; enjoy every minute of it, but make sure you don't let stress ruin your life.