How many times have you felt stressed out in the past year? How about the past week, or even the past twenty-four hours? Everyone deals with stress in their day to day lives, but most people don't completely understand what stress is or the impact that it has on our lives.

Stress is a physical reaction to any situation that is subconsciously perceived as a threat to our well-being. These situations can be as direct as a physical confrontation or as indirect as preparing a presentation for work or an argument with a friend.

When confronted with a stressful situation, your nervous system responds by flooding your body with a variety of stress hormones. The most widely recognized stress hormones are cortisol and adrenaline. Together, these hormones are designed to sharpen your senses, decrease reaction time, enhance your focus, and provide you with above normal levels of strength and stamina.

When working properly, the body's reaction to stressful situations will provide you with the temporary boost needed to rise to the occasion. However, if you are frequently confronted with stressful situations, your emergency response system stays on. Constantly running on overdrive without a chance to regroup, your body will eventually run down.

There are lots of ways that people try to mask their stress. These can include changes in diet and sleeping patterns, self isolation, procrastination or avoidance of responsibilities, and substance abuse. There are also a lot of behavioral changes used to "burn off" the excess energy, such as nail biting, pacing, and tapping.

These things don't actually reduce the level of stress hormones in the body. Nor do they create any positive change in the situations that cause stress. Often, through these activities, we convince ourselves that we have managed to eliminate stress while merely suppressing or ignoring the effects of stress on our bodies.

After a while, an overload of stress and the above mentioned "coping mechanisms" begin to take a toll on our bodies. In fact, many serious conditions such as obesity, insomnia, depression, eczema, digestive problems, heart disease, stroke, and some autoimmune diseases may be traced back to an overload of stress. Stress can cause aches and pains, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, dizziness, and chest pains. It can also make it difficult to concentrate or remember things and can make you more susceptible to colds and flus.

The important thing, and the only true way to prevent a long-term overload of stress, is to recognize stress when it happens and concentrate on how your body reacts to it. Once you are able to recognize stress for what it is you can try a variety of relaxation techniques to find one that works for you.

Dealing with stress depends on the situation that you have found yourself in. Sometimes dealing with stress involves something as direct as confronting the situation that has caused you to be stressed to begin with. For example, if you are worried about an upcoming exam or presentation you need only prepare yourself to complete it before being able to relax.

Unfortunately, directly dealing with the stressful situation is sometimes impossible or undesirable. We can't all quit our jobs, after all, or we would just end up stressing out about money. In this type of situation it's important to practice relaxation techniques. Some people listen to music, take up a hobby, participate in a physical activity like yoga or running, or practice breathing and meditation. In these ways we are able to work through our stress without suppressing or ignoring our physical responses.

If you feel that you are constantly confronted with an overload of stress or if you have trouble coming down from a "stress high," it may be a good idea to consult with your physician. Your doctor will be able to assess you to predict whether or not you may be at risk for stress related health problems. As well, your physician can recommend a variety of relaxation techniques that can help to lessen the negative impact that stress has on your life. At the very least, you would have one less thing to stress about.