Have you been feeling stressed out lately? Too many people wear their stress like a badge of honor mistakenly thinking that it’s harmless and okay to live with so much tension and anxiety.

We often boast about how little sleep we need, our insane work hours, and the vacations that we sacrifice all in the name of being ambitious and goal-oriented.

Having goals is great, but somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten that our body is not indestructable. Yet we keep running ourselves to the ground, pushing our bodies far beyond their physical limits.

Stress: Your Body Has Something to Say

Maybe you’ve been so used to ignoring your body’s subtle signals attempting to get your attention that you don’t even recognize them as warnings. Your body is talking to you. Are you listening?

Are your body’s messages coming in the form of a gentle nudge, a thoughtful tap on the shoulder, a kick in the pants, or a slap in the face?

We have become so accustomed to popping pills and shoving things in our mouths and bodies to take the edge off.

Maybe you don’t think twice before searching for an Advil at the first sign of a headache or discomfort or having that extra cup of coffee to stay awake.

Have you been falling asleep on the sofa after dinner or waking up and starting your day at lunchtime?

These are all subtle signs that your body might not be functioning at it’s best. If you continue to ignore them, they only become more urgent and intense until one day you’re in the doctor’s office facing a diagnosis of an illness that you can’t ignore any more.

The amygdala is an almond-shaped part of your brain that acts like a warning bell letting you know when your body is feeling pressured.

Hard-wired to your survival instinct your body gets flooded with a cascade of stress chemicals whenever you’re under pressure. But because of the radical pace of living in a society filled with so much violence and fear, our internal alarms are going off 50-100 x a day. That means that your body is getting saturated with toxic stress hormones. And eventually that’s going to translate to you getting sick.

For many women our stress lives under the radar and we’re not even aware that it’s eating away at our body until we’ve developed an actual illness or disease.

Stress is no joke. We don’t give it the attention it deserves. It can actually kill you. In fact did you know that up to 80% of women working in America are either toxically stressed or close to that breaking point.

Toxic stress is when we are so insanely stressed that it spills out into our interactions with others. That’s when you find yourself chewing people’s head off for no reason, yelling at the dog, crying at the drop of a hat, picking arguments, always looking for a fight, feeling a constant rolling boil of anger towards the people you love, losing control and saying things you don’t really mean and feeling guilty and ashamed afterwards. It’s not pretty, but that’s the reality that nobody’s talking about.

24 Warning Signs Your Body is Stressed-Out

The following is a list of 24 types of symptoms and signs that your body is breaking down, crying out for help, urging you to realize that it’s time to handle the stress in your life. Which symptoms are yours?

Mental Stress

  1. unable to concentrate, short attention span
  2. irrational reasoning, racing and paranoid thoughts
  3. indecisive
  4. pessimistic and negative outlook on life
  5. compulsive worrying and fearful thoughts

Emotional Stress

6. prone to mood swings
7. short fuse, easily upset, jumpy, angry and easily agitated
9. feeling easily overwhelmed by circumstances
10. feeling lonely and alone
11. feeling sad and depressed

Physical Stress

12. body aches and pains
13. digestive issues ie, bowel problems, gas, diarrhea, constipation
14. nausea, dizziness, vertigo
15. chest pains, heart problems
16. lack of desire for sex
17. frequent cold, flus, viruses and infections

Behavioral Symptoms of Excessive Stress

18. eating more or less
19. oversleeping, insomnia
20. isolating yourself from people
21. procrastinating or ignoring important tasks and responsibilities
22. drinking, smoking, eating, or using drugs to relax or in excess
23. nervous habits like facial tics, stuttering, hair twirling, thumb sucking, lip biting, nail biting, scratching, obsessive hand-washing
24. self-harming habits like nail biting, skin peeling, cutting, hair-pulling

If you’re doing a lot of stressing out over the size of your changing body, aging and gaining weight, I recommend joining my FB group, The Juicy Woman: Confidence Coaching for Women Over 50. There you will get a chance to be surrounded by like-minded women and learn how to manage your stress and put your needs first so you can get healthier, live longer and be happier. Check it out:

The Juicy Woman: Confidence Coaching for Women Over 50 FB Group