However, the good news is you can bounce back before stress causes any permanent damage to your healthy diet.

There are some natural alternatives to traditional medicines to combat stress. One way is to plan time for meditation each day. We all have busy lives with our work and raising a family.

The more we’re on the go, the more run down our body will become. When you’re rundown and tired both physically and mentally, it will make facing stress that much harder to overcome. A daily dose of meditation, even if it’s only for 10 minutes, can do wonders for your body and mind.

Having a regular exercise routine that includes a mind-body mix, such as yoga, will also help you handle stress better. It helps you clear your mind and gives you a little energy, making you feel better about yourself. When your confidence is up, you’re better equipped to battle the stress whenever it pops up.

If it’s possible for where you live, plant a garden. Horticulture can be a rewarding way to build confidence within yourself by the “fruits” of your labor. You can enjoy the results of your efforts as the fruits, vegetables, and herbs grow to maturity.

Even small planter gardens can help. Grow your own herbs and spice up your healthy dishes with what you grew. When gardening isn’t an option, just try doing another hobby that can provide stress-busting benefits.

Sometimes food seems to be the only option in your eyes. If you can’t resist food, then go for the healthier snacks. You can handle your stress and you won’t add more stress to the mix by feeling guilty about eating the wrong types of food.

Stress is inevitable for us, but it doesn’t have to control you to the point where your diet suffers. If you take time for yourself, give your body and mind a chance to thrive, it will help you face your stress and eradicate it from your life the second it shows up.

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Left unchecked, stress takes its toll on your immune system. Your immune system acts like your protective armor in the battle against the germs that invade your body. Too much stress weakens the immune system, leading to more frequent colds and viral infections.

If you’re prone to high stress levels and your immune system is deeply compromised, then you might suffer stronger symptoms of the ailment than if you had shored up your defenses.

The doctor can’t prescribe you a magic pill that boosts your immune system, but you can use alternative methods to do the job. Stress reduction techniques are one thing you can do, such as hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, and meditation.

Your nutrition is also important to your immune system. Make sure you get plenty of vitamins and nutrients that balance out your body’s needed intake. Try to eat with the color of the rainbow in mind, mixing a combination of nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, and grains.

Many natural herbs can provide a boost in your immune system, too. Herbs like Astragalus, Sage, Garlic, Honey, mushrooms, and St. John’s Wort all have immunity-enhancing qualities.

Astragalus is generally used as a tonic. In Chinese medicine, it’s been touted to restore the immune system and help tissue cells regenerate. They’ve found it creates a natural obstacle to cancer cell growth, and provides many other health benefits. Specific to the immune system, it increases the white blood cells that act as your army of protection against foreign invaders.

St. John’s Wort and garlic have been active in helping fight Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Aside from inhibiting infections of AIDS patients, they’ve also been known to prevent herpes outbreaks, an obvious sign of their immune-boosting powers.

To help stave off frequent infections, make sure you follow a healthier lifestyle that includes exercise and nutrition. But get an added boost by enhancing your immune system with alternative therapies that reduce stress and elevate your body’s natural defense system.

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Excessive stress can cause chemical imbalances in the brain and lead to hyperactive “flight or fight” response to ordinary situations. If you’re suffering from frequent bouts of anxiety, your body and mind are telling you to slow down and restore the natural balance.

Frequently, stress or anxiety disorders are treated with a class of antidepressant medication known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). Popular brand names are Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, and Luvox. Other anti-anxiety drugs include Valium, Ativan and Xanax.

However, these drugs carry the risk of addiction and there are possible side effects like drowsiness, poor concentration, and irritability. So stress reducing or anti-anxiety drugs are not recommended for long-term use.

If you would prefer natural remedies for stress reduction, you do have several options. Best of all, these are all home remedies without harmful side effects and there’s no risk of addiction.

Your do-it-yourself stress reducing options include:

• Timeouts: Take frequent timeouts throughout the day while working or doing your chores. A good rule of thumb to follow is a five-minute break for every 45 minutes worked. Adjust your breaks and frequency according to your own pace.
• Deep breathing: This is a simple, yet powerful, relaxation technique that you can do anywhere. You want to breathe deeply from the abdomen, getting as much fresh air as possible in your lungs and inhaling more oxygen. The more oxygen you get, the less stressed and anxious you will feel. (Learn How to Use Deep Breathing for Stress Relief from ehow.com)
• Exercise regularly: Taking a long walk to clear your head is one of the best ways to alleviate stress. Walking is also an excellent form of exercise for your body as well as your mind. You can walk and work out your frustrations in order to come back refreshed and tackle your problems from a new perspective.
• Listen to relaxing music: Our brain has to process a lot of information from our surroundings. However, information overload can happen from things we read, hear and see every second of every day. This can cause stress to escalate and bring about a number of problems. So give your brain a break by listening to soft and relaxing music to ease the racing thoughts and help you think clearly and normally.
• It’s okay to vent: Pent up anger and bottled up emotions can lead to a lot of stress. Learn to vent your feelings in a way that releases stress without doing any harm to you or someone else. If you’re so stressed that you want to cry, then let those tears flow. If anger is your first reaction to the stress, let it come out in a controlled situation like a punching bag.
• Stay occupied: Find a hobby to do and be sure to make time for it at least once a week. Everyone needs to get out of the mindset of having to deal with problems and making tough decisions in their lives. By giving yourself something else to focus on, you can gain a sense of accomplishment in an area of your life where you feel you have more control unlike a job.
• Soothing massages: Another option you could try is to treat yourself to a massage. Stress can cause your muscles to tighten and ache, making your stress worse. A massage can loosen up those muscles and put your mind at ease. You’ll be ready to face life’s challenges feeling refreshed and renewed.
  If  time and money stop you from getting a professional massage, you can practice some simple self-massage techniques. These can help release tension and promote relaxation.

  Self-Massage Techniques

Source: Northwestern Health Sciences University

Control your stress before it starts to take control of you. Medications may be one answer but they’re not the only answer. Find what works best for you and beat that stress in your life.

Recommended reading:

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It is difficult to manage something if you don’t know the cause of the problem. So let’s look at some of the common factors that lead to workplace stress and how to manage them so you can get relief.

Managing a bossy boss

Maybe you’re dealing with a bossy or mean boss. Working daily for and putting up with an overbearing boss can make your work life miserable and be very stressful.

Your first goal should be to have a heart-to-heart (if possible) with him/her. Don’t lose your temper and start making wild accusations. Calmly explain how you feel about the situation and see if that helps.

If that doesn’t work, then you may need to follow the chain of command and approach your boss’ boss. Talk to him/her about the stressful situation you are experiencing with your boss. If you work for a large company with a separate HR department, you may want to approach the head of the department and share your side of the story with him/her. It always helps if you have documented specific incidents or a written list when you go in.

There’s no good reason for you to put up with workplace stress. Most companies will work with you to resolve the problem once you bring it to their attention.

If the workplace stress doesn’t get resolved despite your best effort, you may have no choice other than to find a different job or request a transfer to another department. Eventually that stress will adversely affect the rest of your personal life. Given the current bad economy and high unemployment, you may have to be a little more patient until you find a viable alternative before leaving your current job.

Work overload

Corporate mantra these days is “do more with less” which usually means you having to shoulder a bigger workload. Improving productivity is great but there comes a point where you feel too stressed with the workload to be efficient. Trying to do more than you can handle in a normal workday will lead to the inevitable workplace stress.

Be honest with yourself and your supervisor; take on only what you can handle. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from others and be willing to reciprocate and help them when they need it. A lot of things can be accomplished with teamwork.

Difficult and/or rude co-workers

Most of us have had to deal with rude co-workers at one time or another. Being exposed to daily rudeness can cause a lot of stress in the workplace, making your job performance suffer unnecessarily.

There are a few ways to handle this kind of situation. First, decide if it’s something that really bothers you or not. Sometimes just ignoring them is all you need to do your job effectively.

When ignoring them doesn’t work, you may want to try talking to them about the situation. Sometimes, they may not even be aware that they are coming across as being rude. Getting it out in the open may provide stress relief.

If that doesn’t help, you’ll have to go to your boss and tell him/her what’s going on and how it has been affecting your work. Sometimes a boss will intervene and straighten out the situation because nobody wants unnecessary workplace stress.

Workplace stress can come from many other sources as well. Learn what causes your stress and find out how to manage it and get relief. Your workplace can be a stressful environment, but don’t let that stress get the best of you.

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What can we do to help ourselves with all this stress? There are many ways to relax and de-stress every day. You can try things like meditation, visualization, a nice bath, writing in a journal, a good workout or some self-pampering.

The problem is that many women say they simply don’t have time for any of this. The simple answer to that is that if you don’t take time to take care of yourself, you’re going to be ineffective at best at taking care of anyone or anything else.

You really need to find time to allow yourself to de-stress. Here is a list of techniques and things you can do to reduce stress in your life:

1.) Organize, simplify and delegate. Stop thinking you can or you have to do everything all at once and all by yourself. Find ways to better organize your life and your home. Use calendars and lists.

Get rid of the clutter that you don’t use or need (be brutal), stop worrying about dusting the house every week – if it’s that important, have one of the kids do it or hire a housekeeper to come in every other week. Or, better yet, realize that the sun doesn’t rise and set depending on whether your coffee table is dust-free or not.

2.) Practice tried and true forms of relaxation. Meditation isn’t difficult to learn and it can do wonders for helping you reduce stress in your life. Even if you only meditate for 10 or 15 minutes a day, you can use a mediation CD to learn, or join a class.

Another method used for deep relaxation is visualization or guided imagery. You can purchase CDs that guide you to a state of deep relaxation and back out again. For many women, these are very helpful.

3.) Get some exercise! You can use Asian exercise forms such as Qigong or Tai Chi which can be learned in class or by using an instructional DVD. Yoga is also wonderful for helping to reduce stress.

These forms of exercise have other benefits beside stress reduction. You can also reduce stress by doing a more traditional workout every day – or even every other day. Join a gym, or get a workout buddy. Walk or run for exercise or take a kickboxing class to really get some pent up energy out.

Other good ways to reduce stress include:

• Writing in a journal every day. Just let it all out.
• Allow yourself to go to the spa for a massage once in awhile and really enjoy the experience.
• Practice deep breathing and pay attention to your breathing all day long. If you notice yourself shallow breathing, stop and concentrate on taking some good, healthy, deep breaths.
• Take a warm bath and follow by cuddling up in your favorite pajamas with a good book.

The pressure to perform is intense for women. We are mothers, partners, daughters, employees and employers. We serve on committees and help with the local volunteer group.

Sometimes we get stressed out. The need for time to relax and pay attention to our own bodies and minds is great, and we cannot ignore that need. If we do, we may end up not being able to serve others or ourselves in the ways we want to.

Visit our bookstore to get more ideas to reducing stress in your life.

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