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Did you know that high stress levels can lead to high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, and even a heart attack? Whether you are experiencing stress due to your home life or challenges at work, too much stress can negatively impact your cardiovascular health, which is why you need to create and stick to a stress management plan.
Understanding the Impact of Stress on Your Heart
High amounts of stress can cause you to feel anxious, weaken your immune system, and lead to a wide range of cardiovascular problems. These issues include:
- Irregular heart beat
- High blood pressure
- Hypertension
- Coronary artery disease
- Artery and valve damage
- In severe cases, a heart attack
In layman’s terms, prolonged periods of high stress can be incredibly damaging to your heart. The good news is that there are affordable and effective ways for you to manage your stress levels.
Using Stress Management to Reduce Stress Levels
As its name suggests, a stress management plan is designed to help you tackle stress-induced problems, including panic attacks. Stress-related panic attacks can not only be debilitating, but they are also incredibly disruptive to your daily life. In order to take care of your body, reduce stress levels, and properly manage your excess emotions, you can use the following three tactics.
- Plan multiple work breaks
Far too often, people take a work break but bring their phone and continue to answer emails regarding work-related tasks. To reduce stress throughout the day, you should plan a brief work break every hour or every other hour. This work break should ideally include a short walk outside (weather permitting) and avoid the use of your smartphone for work-related tasks. By leaving your phone behind, you can give your eyes a break, reset mentally, and take the time needed to actively lower your stress.
- Practice relaxation methods throughout the day
From deep breathing exercises to resting yoga postures, such as happy baby or child’s pose, there are several relaxation methods that you can implement throughout the day. Whether you want to implement your preferred relaxation methods into your work breaks, or you want to set aside an additional five minutes at the start and end of each day, your body and mind can greatly benefit from practicing relaxation methods every day.
- Make a manageable to-do list
People often feel high levels of stress when they have too much to accomplish each day. By making a manageable to-do list and crossing items off as you complete them, you can create a more organized approach to your busy life, give yourself an endorphin release as you complete tasks, and effectively reduce your stress levels throughout the day. Be sure to praise yourself as you accomplish each task. The small amount of praise will keep you motivated throughout the day and leave you feeling thoroughly accomplished when your final item is crossed off.
Through the above three tips, you can work to actively reduce your stress levels on a daily basis.
Find the Help You Need at Brookhaven Heart
Are you having trouble creating a stress management plan that you can stick to each day? Are your high stress levels increasing your blood pressure? If stress is negatively impacting your mental or cardiovascular health, then don’t wait to seek the help that you need. At Brookhaven Heart, we believe in creating customized stress management plans for every patient. We invite you to book an appointment online or call 631-654-3278 to discover how our health care professionals can create a stress management plan that fits your unique lifestyle and needs. Visit one of our three locations in New Hyde Park, Patchogue, and Hicksville, New York.
