Each of us experiences some level of stress in our life. We feel stressed when dealing with situations we perceive as problems within our family or with people in the workplace. We often feel stress when experiencing financial challenges. Or, sometimes being stuck in traffic is enough to create a pile of worry in our mind. These situations cause us to experience challenges in our life that we perceive as a threat to our overall well-being.

Whether you live with a lot of stress or even just a small amount of fear or worry - anxiety - it is easily within your ability to resolve these issues before they accumulate stress. Your ability to ‘let go’ of stress can have a great effect on every aspect of your day to day living. Having the ability to enjoy a healthy mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, all depends on your capacity to relieve stress.

For most of us, it is difficult to break away from stress altogether. That’s because we’re actually somewhat attached to it. Stress in itself is not a bad feeling at all. In fact, stress is a very natural process to experience. Stress is an natural response to environmental stimuli, present in all living creatures as a means of survival.

Wide ranges of both positive and negative feelings produce stress. When you feel danger or fear, you experience stress. Any situation such as an anticipation, worry, or nervousness will produce a level of stress that signals your body to respond. Even positive experiences in life can cause a form of stress; things like having a baby, getting a new job, or starting your own business. These are all examples of “positive related” stress.

Your body responds by gathering up all its necessary resources that cause both physical and psychological reactions. The response depends on the type and amount of that particular challenge or expectation. If the situation is not perceived as a threat or danger, you may experience very little response.

But if a particular challenge or expectation is perceived as dangerous or a threat to both your physical and mental well being, you will experience what is called “high stressed mode”. During high stress mode, your adrenaline is pumped, you feel tension in your muscles and your breathing accelerates.

You may feel sick in your stomach and tightening in your chest. Once you deal successfully with the challenge and no longer feel any danger or fear, you begin to calm down and your systems will return to its’ normal balance.

Prolonged stress can cause health problems by placing increased strain on your body. And even short term stress can effect your ability to effectively make clear decisions - even make poor decisions that result in overeating, alcohol abuse, relationship conflict - even depression.

That’s why it’s a vital important skill to learn how to ‘let go’ and to recognize the root cause of stress. The best way to do thing is to learn what is called “The Release Technique”. I’ve arrange a free five lesson course that explains the details of what stress really originates from - and what you can do about it. Life becomes much easier - much lighter and more enjoyable when you can prevent stress from accumulating by simply learning to “let it go”.

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To claim your free five-lesson course, visit http://www.stress-free.com

First described by Hans Selye is 1936, stress is the body s reaction to a wide range of strong external stimuli, either physiological or psychological. The effects of stimuli may vary from person to person in as much that a person may find a particular event quite stressful while another may not even be affected by the same event at all. Further, Selye described the general adaptation syndrome brought about by stress as to having three stages: alarm reaction in which the body perceives and identifies external stimuli; this is followed by the adaptation itself, in which the body applies the supposed measures to counteract the stressor; when the body begins to run out of defenses, then the body engages in exhaustion.

Stress is actually misconstrued to be bad for the body; what a lot of people fail to realize is that there are actually two types of stress, positive stress or eustress and its negative counterpart or distress. Although when the word stress is used, it commonly refers to distress. If not handled well, distress can actually greatly affect the body s functions since it raises adrenaline and corticosterone levels in the body which in turn increases heart rate, blood pressure, respiration that stresses the body organs and in the long run may be a factor that contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and other illnesses.

Stress is actually what the body experiences as a result to constantly adjusting to the changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects which may create positive or negative feelings. Good stress helps the body be alert and helps motivate the body to face challenges and solve problems. Eustress is deemed necessary in providing the push which drives the body. On the other hand, distress causes the body to create feelings of rejection, distrust, anger and even depression.

Perceiving the manageability of external stimuli is manifested by our bodily functions and its reaction to it. Handling the changes that occur in our daily lives must then be done optimally to alleviate the effect of distress.

Stress provides detailed information on Stress, Stress Management, Stress Reduction, Stress Tests and more. Stress is affiliated with Hypertension Symptoms.

Is the same tried-and-true exercise routine that used to work wonders for you not keeping your body in tip-top shape anymore? Have you gone on nutrition and exercise programs that worked great for friends, family, or co-workers, but it just didn t seem to work for you? The answer could be found in your stress level and how your body handles stress.

In this three-part article series, I ll explain how overlooked lifestyle choices come together to put a halt on achieving your fitness goals. In this first part I ll explain how stress leads to some unexpected effects on our fitness level. In part two, I ll show you what the latest research has to say about high levels of stress, inadequate sleep, and improper nutrition create a hormonal environment that lead us away from fitness. In part three, I ll conclude with my recommendations for the best ways to manage your stress level and how to make some critical adjustments in your fitness program in periods of high stress so you continuing reaching your fitness goals.

Researchers are beginning to uncover answers to how non-exercise variables including lack of sleep, inadequate nutrition and high stress levels can significantly affect hormone levels that impact exercise recovery, weight management and health. The results you receive from you re your exercise program can be affected by these variables that people often over look. To be at the top of your game, you must be aware of how you rate in these non-exercise variables and the best ways to manage these variables and adjust your fitness program for optimal results.

The topic of stress has received much attention over the last several decades, and there is much controversy over exactly what stress is. There are questions related to good stress versus bad stress and exercise stress versus non-exercise stress. Famed researcher Hans Selye s a definition of stress was “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it to adapt, whether that demand produces pleasure or pain.”

Within the exercise domain, the interaction between exercise and stress gets more complicated. While there are few black and whites within the complex way our body handles stress, it s generally believed that low-intensity exercise reduces stress, as compared with high-intensity exercise that tends to increase the release of stress hormones.

While the body s mechanisms for coping with stress worked wonders to keep us alive thousands of years ago, our body was not built to withstand the chronic stressors that humans face today. In today s high-stress world, people constantly have stress hormones over-stimulated in their bodies. Symptoms of stress are related to many of today s health problems including CHD, hypertension, cancer, ulcers, lower back pain and headaches. Scientific research now suggests that an overlooked physical symptom of stress may be weight gain.

As a fitness professional, it s been my experience that a client s lifestyle drastically effects exercise progress and researchers are beginning to support this notion. Clients who have chronically high-stress levels, inadequate sleep and poor nutrition will not be able to recover and adapt to exercise at the same rate that a person with optimal levels of stress, sleep and nutrition would. This is one possible explanation of why fat loss and fitness improvement may grind to a halt in some individuals, while other individuals continue adapting and progressing in their exercise programs. When I sit down for an initial consultation with a new client, I examine their lifestyle choices. After educating the new client on how their lifestyle affect their hormonal health and stress physiology, the client and I then develop realistic and exciting fitness goals that fit within the lifestyle they are willing to commit to.

In part two of this article, I ll dig into some of the latest science behind cortisol, stress physiology, nutrition, and sleep.

Doug Jackson, M.Ed., CSCS is the owner of Personal Fitness Advantage, a high-end personal fitness training business in Weston, Florida. Doug also publishes and is Editor-in-Chief of Fitness Empowerment, an industry leading electronic newsletter that accepts free subscriptions at http://www.personalfitnessadvantage.com. His forthcoming work, Family Fit Plan (http://www.familyfitplan.com) is geared towards helping families spend quality time together and get in great shape at the same time. For media stories, personalized consulting, or to attend one of Doug’s educational programs, visit his website at http://www.personalfitnessadvantage.com.