It is more important than ever right now to keep your stress levels down. Why?
Your immunity. Higher stress levels can weaken your immune system. The immense stress we all feel from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine coupled with isolation and loneliness can weaken our immune system and make us more prone to catching an illness, like Coronavirus itself.
This is exactly what we are trying to avoid, right?
How does stress lower the immune system?
Basically, when you’re stressed the body releases cortisol or the stress hormone. This hormone boosts your blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. While this is not terrible here and there, feeling stress frequently can cause the receptors for cortisol to be desensitized. Cortisol also helps to keep inflammation in check. This means that your body becomes accustomed to it and more inflammation occurs. More inflammation means an overtaxed immune system, less able to fight other battles like infections or viruses.
So what can you do?
- Focus on better sleep
- Exercise regularly
- Get outside, even if it’s just letting the sun touch your face
- Talk about your stress to friends or family
- Establish your support system
- Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to be overproductive
- Give yourself grace when things aren’t perfect
- Work with a therapist to give you the tools you need to make this time easier
There are many things we can do to reduce stress. The specific things we do can be different from person to person. Maybe 15 minutes to quietly enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning reduces your stress or maybe it’s watching Step Brothers again. Whatever it is, reducing your stress is critical to your immune system and keeping the virus as far away from you as possible. You got this.
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