How our Environment Affects our Stress Levels and How to Reduce the Tension

We can easily identify our bigger stress issues — work, buying a house, and divorce, for example — as the main causes of our stress. In reality, the most harmful stress may come from the smallest of our daily frustrations. Where you live, how you eat, and what you see and hear every day of your life affects your level of stress. Your senses can have control over how positive your attitude is in your life.

During commutes where you spend time stuck in traffic, you are more likely to be irritable at the end of the journey. If you can never seem to find a quiet place away from a noisy environment, it’s not likely you have much opportunity to clear your head or de-stress. When you live in a crowded city where your home can be as little as four feet away from your neighbor’s house, finding total privacy may be virtually impossible. Your environment can have a huge impact on your physical and mental stress levels.

Today’s technology affords us the ability to communicate with each other from anywhere, at any time, through cell phones and computers — in a matter of seconds. Yet if we live in a crowded city environment, we wait endlessly for many other simple necessities. Just to eat a meal out, we wait a half hour for an open table at a restaurant, and to reach a destination only ten miles away, we spend a full hour in heavy traffic. Even though we have made an appointment time, scheduled a week in advance, a visit to the doctor’s office can leave us in a waiting room full of germs for hours. If we weren’t stressed before, we will be after all the waiting and frustration. The accumulation of these little annoyances may be the biggest stressors in our lives.

Those little, persistent, common stress issues related to living in a crowded city environment negatively affect our physical and mental health. For those of us who are not so stress resilient, they can change our personalities and make us impatient, selfish, and hard. A stressful city lifestyle may even contribute to sickness and disease.

It’s not always an option to move to a quieter environment. We have careers and family that may keep us in our existing surroundings indefinitely. Many are not financially able to escape. But taking a break from our busy lifestyles, for a moment, and hour, a day, or a week, is absolutely necessary to reduce our stress levels. The best relief comes from simply getting out of the city. Find a place far away from the crowds, pollution, traffic, and noise of the city where you can unwind and relax your mind and body. If that’s not possible for you, find a quiet place away from your daily stressors and practice stress relieving exercises. Try visiting a gym or spa, taking a walk in the park, or spending quiet time with your pet. Put on earphones and listen to soothing music. Make a commitment to yourself to have time alone each day.

For new weekly tips on ways to temporarily escape, or change your lifestyle, visit A Stress Free Life at http://astressfreelife.blogspot.com