Stress is everywhere, so what are you going to do about it?

Stress seems to be a fact of life nowadays, whether it’s pressure at work, stretched finances or a neighbour that likes to burn garbage on a Sunday morning (every week!). Constant stress is one of the factors that can really impact your health and your mood. This week getfit.com will be tweeting about sources of stress and simple things you can do to reduce stress as it happens. However there are longer term measures that will make you more resistant to stress, the following are not magic bullets – but they will help in the daily battle that stress can feel like.

• Caffeine – Exaggerates the body’s response to stress e.g. elevating blood pressure and stress hormones. It also amplifies the perceived level of stress being experienced – sensitivity to caffeine varies between individuals, and caffeine in small amounts may have health benefits for some people.

• Sleep – Produces a refreshed mind and body, and enhances learning, memory and decision making – all useful tools and skills in the armoury for successfully dealing with potential stressors on the battlefield of daily living!

• B vitamins – Are considered to be the “anti-stress” vitamins because it is believed they help the body cope with stressful conditions. Mother Nature has made food (rather than nutrition supplements) available for thousands of years, so get your B vitamins from a balanced diet rather than a bottle.

• Vitamin C – Is used up more rapidly under stressful conditions. Prolonged stress depletes vitamin C in the glands (adrenal) regulating the stress response. Get enough of this vitamin to top up the adrenals and mop up free radicals (damaging substances) from environmental toxins e.g. cigarette smoke.

• Physical activity – Relaxes muscle and helps sleep (muscular tension and poor quality sleep are classic symptoms of stress). Exercise improves blood flow throughout the body, boosting delivery of nutrients and speeding removal of waste. Also, the body's release of chemicals during exercise produces that feel-good sensation of all-is-well with the world!

• Time management – Is the skill of spending no more time than necessary in completing tasks to the satisfaction of you and/or others. Time spent unnecessarily on the first task means less time for the next, and so on – not having enough time is a major source of stress. Buy time by learning how to manage it well.

• Assertiveness – Means freely expressing (non-aggressively) your true thoughts, desires, and intentions to others. Saying “no” when being pressured, or “yes” without feeling obliged liberates you from doing something you would rather not – spare time is valuable, so spend it doing what you enjoy.