Almost everyone finds stress annoying and unwanted in their lives, but not everyone knows how dangerous stress can be - especially when it stays in your body for a long time. Certain parts of our bodies are directly affected by stress and its adverse effects.

Stress begins in the brain. There is a sudden unexpected surge of "stress" hormones when you feel anxiety. When these hormones are released, sleeping and resting are nearly impossible. Though being extremely energetic is good when one is working, the human body is not built for such state for long periods of time. If the hyper-activity is extended too much, one will eventually experience headaches, mood swings, aggressiveness, and a loss of the ability to concentrate on a given task. During this time, it becomes difficult to retain information and short term memory can be affected.

There is a constant misconception that men are less susceptible to stress compared to women and this idea is now being challenged. Studies reveal that the difference between men and women is not stress susceptibility, but their way of dealing with stress.

Too much stress also stops the function of the "hypothalamus" which is where the brain regulates emotion. When we are stressed, the hormones that make us feel better (endorphins) are not well regulated. Thus, we lack energy to deal with problems and tasks, and we eventually feel unwell.

Another area affected by stress is the ears. Though high stress usually increases our awareness and therefore our hearing, it does not mean that it is healthy to be in this constant state of arousal. A study from Cornell University reveals that during hyper-awareness, there is a greater risk for heart failure. Since our hearing is increasingly sensitive when we are stressed, we are more exposed to hearing loud honks of car horns, too loud ringtones and shouting.

One's lungs are also affected by stress, as one will more likely experience hyperventilation when he or she is under a lot of stress. It is a natural response for our body to demand more oxygen when it feels in danger or uncomfortable. Too much inhaling of oxygen will cause dizziness and a sharp pain on the chest. Asthma and other respiratory problems can be triggered if there is too much inhalation of oxygen.

When one is under stress, the adrenaline resulting from this state will dilate the eyes, thus improving one's vision. However it also might cause eye ticks. Over time, your eyes become overused, over-stimulated and fatigued.

Uncontrolled stress also dries out the mouth, and leads to dehydration - something we all know is uncomfortable and unhealthy. Clenching jaws and grinding teeth are also normal mannerisms of people when they undergo stress.

As proven by countless researchers, aromatherapy is a good way to de-stress. One will instantly feel rejuvenated after a relaxing bath using products made from essential oils and plant extracts such as the oils of jasmine and lavender. Nice flowery scents take the mind off the problems that are impending, and stimulate the brain. Not only do they smell great, but plant based products tend to restore hydration and replenish oils in the skin that are lost during times of stress. The skin will not only look better from the outside, but it will also absorb the essential oils that are bundled with aromatherapy products and be healthier on the inside.

By: Elizabeth Boardman
The San Francisco Bath Salt Company's slogan is "Relaxing The World One Bath at a Time". The company specializes in luxury bath salts for skincare and relaxation with the overall goal of improving health through bathing. Their website is a powerful resource of information about bathing and contains many more articles and the daily bathing blog. For more information visit http://www.sfbsc.com or to visit the complete resource section on bathing go to sfbsc.com/resource-center.

Submitted by:
Barry Arcant
Legal Resources - Legal Services

We all experienced those moments in which we feel completely out of control with frustrations. Perhaps you've thrown something across the room, screamed at someone uncontrollably or put your fist through a wall. Having this kind of experienced, most people react rationality out of their emotion. Unfortunately, the majority of people will lash out without thinking and then realize what they should have done after the fact and the damage isn't exactly easy to take back. Through this, without even realizing that we hurt the feelings of others during those stressful moments and perhaps even cause some damage to ourselves or our property.

An emotional state that may range in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage. Anger has physical effects including raising the heart rate and blood pressure and the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. It inspires powerful and often aggressive feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and defend ourselves when we are attacked. hen anger gets out of control and turns destructive it can lead to problems at work, in personal relationships, and affect the overall quality of life. People with anger management issues get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person, and the notion that "letting it all out" helps is false, because it actually escalates anger and aggression, which doesn't resolve anything.

The term, "anger management", commonly refers to therapeutic techniques and exercises practiced by someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger to control or reduce triggers. The goal is learning how to control anger before it controls the individual, both emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes according to the American Psychological Association and various reliable online resources. The most common techniques recommended immediately before escalation of emotions is to stop talking, stop staring, and leave the room. Learning relaxation techniques like deep breathing and meditation will also help, in addition to stress management skills, learning empathy and forgiveness, and becoming optimistic instead of pessimistic. Chronic mismanagement of anger can lead to serious physical and mental disorders, and if the individual is not proactive, whether by voluntary or involuntary means, the outcome could be disastrous.

We need to understand anger management. Even though, some people don't need to go to the classes that your communities offer, but others may have that need. There are people who can control their anger and deal with it in healthy ways. They have somehow learned that their emotions can be controlled and that they need to react only after they have thought the situation through. They still have the same physical reactions that are natural to every human being - the quickened heartbeats, raise in blood pressure and the levels of adrenaline. That's what your body does instinctively when you get angry. The important concept of anger management is the physical reaction that your body doing.

Of course, our bodies and minds react in an aggressive manner. We want to whip out and defend ourselves. Even the meekest of individuals will experience that feeling. In fact, isn't bad thing to react in that manner in that some kind of situation. But, most scenarios don't need such a harsh outburst. We all know that we can't get rid of the people who annoy us or the scenarios in this world that will test our patience beyond its limits, but we can change how we react.

If you are attending classes, or reading books and listening to lectures, this can be helpful and life altering that can convey to you. You'll learn relaxation techniques and how to calm yourself down in certain situations. And also you will learn ion techniques and how to calm yourself down in certain situations. You'll learn how the language and words that you use in aggravating scenarios can be unwise choices and incredibly harmful. Once you can learn some relaxation or calming techniques, you'll be better able to solve problems much more rationally than you may have previously. You may also find that you're learning to communicate with others as well. Suddenly, learning some of these anger management solutions in which you can convey your anger in healthy ways will have you seeing the world a bit differently.

If you find that you struggle with this, admitting that you may need to find some healthier ways of dealing with life and its stresses could be a great way to start to enjoy your life more. In fact, every single person could benefit greatly from learning some forms of anger management. You just may be surprised at the person you turn into.

Limits are placed on how far anger can take an individual, by laws, social norms, and hopefully common sense. People just can't physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys them; they need to focus on something positive instead of losing control and dramatizing every life event. Fortunately for these people, there are many reliable self-help resources available online for people with anger issues, including online anger management counseling and education.

By: Crizza Reyes
To learn more on anger management and how to control it, please visit our web site http://www.tomnicoli.com/emotional-freedom-series.shtml.

Submitted by:
George Snedrow
Reverse Telephone Directory

If you never experienced one, you won't know what hit you. But you'll know when the anxiety panic attack symptoms takes a hold of you. Following is a typical scenario.

You'll be on the floor shaking, sweating, trying to breathe while your pulse is racing and heart pounding. Your vision blurs and feel dizzy, everything seems to be spinning out of control followed by nausea.

Everything feels unreal and you forget who you are. Strong sense of fear sets in and refuses to let you go. You sense something bad is going to happen; you are loosing control and on the edge of going insane or worse yet, you feel that you are moments from death.

These attacks normally are over in minutes but what a long horrible nightmare it is. You may find it a relief in fact that you are still alive after experiencing your first anxiety panic attack symptoms. But some will be scarred emotionally to find it more terrifying to the thought of repeating this experience.

You may experience some or all of these anxiety panic attack symptoms if and when it hit you. These panic attacks have already been experienced by countless others. You may have been lucky not to go through other symptoms such as chills and hot flashes.

You now know the symptoms to identify panic attacks, but are you ready for the next one? What are you going to do when you don't even know how you survived the first one?

While you were under attack, whatever thoughts and sensations you had of going crazy, of facing death are traumatic. These sensations shock and scare you but will not physically harm you. Just remember that you didn't survive the attack by chance.

Certain situations or things you are exposed to can trigger your panic alarm at anytime. Anxiety attack panic treatments are available to take control of these situations. You can learn to ride out the panic attack without showing much of the symptoms.

One:

Control your breathing is the most important tip for panic attacks since hyperventilation is panic attack's most common symptoms. Inhale deeply and exhale through your mouth, trying to slow down your breathing.

Two:

Should you have difficulty controlling your breath, try

tensing your muscles, hold tension for a few seconds and release slowly. Repeat this as many times as it takes. This relaxes your body, makes you feel like you are taking control back each time you release tension.

Three:

Imagine yourself in what you consider to be a safe place. It could be a nice sandy beach, warm comfy bed or whatever place you think is safe. Or think of something funny.

This visualization exercise is an effective anxiety attack panic treatment.

The best tip for panic attacks is to remember that as horrifying as the anxiety panic attack symptoms may be, you are not going insane, you are not going to die from it and with natural techniques, it will soon be over.

By: Ryan Ogawa
Learn how to deal with panic attacks the natural way. Click here to discover the best ways to deal with panic attacks.

Stress is actually killing us from the inside out and it happens every single day . . . all day long! Why is it we PANIC when we hear the words . . .

Cancer - AIDS - Tuberculosis - Leukemia . . . and think immediately of treatment and medication.

And yet, when we hear the word . . . Stress . . . no problem! We hear it so much that we really DON'T hear it.

Everyone has stress. No big deal. We'll slow down one of these days when we can. Stress is the greatest medical problem of this century and yet, the most misunderstood. Studies by the American Medical Association have shown stress to be a factor in over 75% of all illnesses today. Research linking stress to a variety of diseases and illnesses has been the subject of more than 20,000 scientific studies.

Now is the time to really listen and understand and educate yourself about Stress.


STRESS is freeway traffic at a standstill
Getting up early to go to a job we hate that pays us a measly salary that never covers the bills
STRESS is possibly a marriage gone sour
Stress is worrying about the children or worrying about a million other things going on in your life.

These are stressful situations that may cause anger, depression, anxiety, frustration and we know these feelings are not good for our blood pressure or hearts or the way we respond to other individuals.

Do you realize, without us knowing or even feeling anything, our bodies are CHEMICALLY reacting in every single one of these instances and in many many more. It is during these moments that harmful chemicals are being released throughout our bodies. But, do you realize our bodies release these same harmful chemicals in our bodies when these things happen?


Loud music
loud noises
television sounds and pictures
video game noises
noises that are a constant from living in a big city, overcrowding.

Daily, almost hourly, emotions like frustration, irritation, resentment, hurt, anxiety, threats, even arguing with someone.

Yes, stress is killing us everyday!

In your brain are ten billion neurons (brain cells). Between each and every one of these are neurotransmitters. Chemical messengers that TRANSMIT thought from one cell to the next, allowing brain cells to "talk to each other."

Some transmitters transmit thought in a positive, happy or euphoric feeling; some transmit thought in a relaxed, calm and quiet mood; some transmit thought in a highly motivated, intense and focused "state of mind," and so on.

The types of transmitters change regularly between cells in your brain to meet the needs of your current circumstance.

During times of stress it must raise levels of another transmitter that helps you to remain calm and in control.

IT IS critical that all of the major neurotransmitters be present daily and in sufficient amounts in order for the brain to be chemically balanced. When there are insufficient amounts of one or more of these it upsets the ratio and symptoms are experienced. Certain transmitters, when depleted, may cause you to be easily agitated or angered, experience mild to severe anxiety and have sleep problems. You may feel more psychological and physical pain. These can all be symptoms of neurotransmitter insufficiency.

STRESS: Stress depletes neurotransmitters! Any type of stress . . . In handling daily stress the brain uses feel good transmitters called endorphins (opiods). When large amounts are needed to handle stress, the ratio of many of the other transmitters, one to another, becomes upset creating a chemical imbalance.

We begin to FEEL stress more acutely -- a sense of urgency and anxiety creates more stress. Harmful chemicals are released in our bodies that do damage, causing more stress.

This vicious cycle is called the "stress cycle." Emotional fatigue can result, and be experienced and felt as depression.

The body responds to EMOTIONAL STRESS exactly as it responds to PHYSICAL DANGER. Without our being aware of it, usually not feeling it at all, our bodies are continuously reacting to emotions such as frustration, irritation, resentment, hurt, grief and anxiety -- responding to these MENTAL and EMOTIONAL STRUGGLES with a primitive physiological "fight or flight" response designed to prepare our bodies to face immediate danger.

In modern day life we don't fight, we don't flee. Instead, the high-energy chemicals produced in many everyday situations boil inside of us, potentially taking years off our lives. Your body responds to stress with a series of physiological changes that include increased secretion of adrenaline, elevation of blood pressure, acceleration of the heartbeat, and greater tension in the muscles.

Digestion slows or stops. Within 24 to 48 hours after a stress-anxiety-anger reaction, major physical symptoms can and do occur.

Increased adrenaline production causes the body to step up its metabolism of proteins, fats and carbohydrates to quickly produce energy for the body to use.

The pituitary gland increases its production of andrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which in turn stimulates the release of the hormones cortisone and cortisol.

These have the effect of inhibiting the functioning of disease fighting white blood cells and suppressing the immune system response.

This complex of physical changes known as the "fight or flight" response is also the reason that stress can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

Researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80% of all major illnesses that include cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders and infectious ailments of all kinds.

Neurotransmitter deficiencies can be expressed as both psychological (behavioral pattern) and physiological (physical craving) problems.

In stressful situations, here is what happens:

The alarm is signaled in your brain. Adrenaline races through your body, commanding a series of physical changes.The heart immediately beats harder and faster so your blood pressure abruptly rises.

Automatically, blood is shunted away from the stomach and skin, where it is not needed, to the muscles, where the body feels it is needed.

High energy fats are rushed into the blood stream for energy. Chemicals are released to make the blood clot more quickly in case of injury.

In these situations, the statements we want to remember are "Adrenaline is released" and "chemicals are released".

In other words, eventually, our brain runs out of these chemicals or Neurotransmitters.

When this happens , the Stress Cycle is started. Its like dominos. One Neurotransmitter depletion affects the other and that depletion affects the other, and so on.

By: Linn Carlton
Linn Carlton, diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager, has spent the last 6 years studying neurotransmitters and their effect on our bodies and our lives. You may learn more about these important chemicals by visiting his web site Neuro5plus. A shortage and/or an imbalance of neurotransmitters can cause Anxiety, Stress, Alcoholism, Depression, (ADD/ADHD), Drugs, Outbursts of Anger, Lack of Concentration, Overweight, PTSD, or Sleeping Problems. Normally we are not born with a need for drugs. If we just stop and think logically, we know that well before there were medical drugs . . . humans survived. Learn more by visitiing Neuro5plus.