Diet
It is not a secret that deficiency in the levels of certain nutrients causes deterioration in the health of a person which in turn causes poor performance of the mind as well. This in turn affects our thoughts and feelings. Vitamins and minerals are required for keeping the mind and nervous system in good shape. There are certain vitamins and minerals whose deficiency directly affects the performance of the mind and nervous system. It is well known that Vitamin C is helpful in protecting yourself from stress. This vitamin aids in maintaining a healthier immunity system and helps in reducing the susceptibility towards stress. Vitamin C also increases the rate of healing of various disorders and chronic infections. From an experiment conducted, the people given the supplements of Vitamins, minerals and fatty acids showed a 25% decrease in the level of offences and 40% reduction in the violence levels. Both these actions are directly related to stress and are reduced greatly by the intake of these nutrients in their diet.
To avoid physical stress on the brain and nervous system, a properly balanced diet is necessary. Toxins like steroids, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and pollutants cause the imbalance in the nutrient levels. Therefore, these toxins will tend to increase the susceptibility towards stress. We have mentioned some simple facts about the diet below.
• Butter is much healthier than margarine, contrary to common belief. The reason for this is that the fat in butter is completely natural making it easier for the body to convert it where as margarine contains hydrogenated fat which is not easily convertible.
• Natural and fresh foods are much better than processed foods because of the presence of the chemicals introduced while processing.
• Soft drinks are extremely harmful for the body. These drinks contain various harmful chemicals like aspartame which is responsible for nervous disorders. Most of the squashes and cordials also contain this chemical.
• Canned baked food contains high levels of sugar and salt. Always make sure to check the contents on the can label.
• Tea, especially green tea is very good for the health.
• Health tablets and pills are not good at all. If you are having a headache, go for a walk or take rest instead of taking a tablet.
• Coffee is not recommended. It is high on caffeine and can become an addiction. However, espresso coffee contains much less amount of caffeine than normal and filter coffee.
It is not very difficult to have a balanced diet, irrespective of the tastes of the people. The only thing needed is commitment to take care of the one body you have got for your entire life.
Loss of humor and increase in anger level among people are two important factors leading to serious stress problems. In a survey in the United Kingdom, about 50% of the people believed that they were in a good health. Around 43% of the people reported to become angry with others very easily and 31% had a loss of humor due to everyday problems. A majority (55%) confessed to experience physical pain and muscle tension where as 44% suffered from regular headaches. More than half of the people reported having feelings of insomnia and tiredness.
Our actions in stressful situations are also controlled by the level of confidence we have. People who are short of confidence face a harder time in handling with the stress and related problems. All our actions are directly controlled by our thoughts. Over confidence is also harmful since it makes us believe that the task at hand is extremely easy and generally results in failure. An appropriate level of confidence is required to do a good job. Self esteem represents the value other people have for you. With confidence comes self esteem and with self esteem comes support from other people and the tendency to handle stress related issues improves.
Stress is something that we can use for our advantage and protect ourselves from the problems it results in. The choice lies with us, to choose either to become stronger by using stress in a positive way or become a slave to the stressors.