Star’s Corner: The Power of Stress Awareness Month

Taking time out to enjoy life is one thing that helps manage stress.

Can you feel it? Your heart is pumping. Your adrenaline is flowing. You must make a fast decision. You choose correctly. Success is yours! So, what just happened? Stress… and, thankfully, the good kind! Yes, stress can be good! Yet, it can also be devastating. Since April is Stress Awareness Month, join me as we take a look at the power of stress.

Stress: It’s your body’s call for help. It can be caused due to a slight annoyance in life’s status quo, giving a presentation to a key client, assisting an ill family member or even from a happy life event. Your body’s stress warning signs alert you that something is out of sync, and according to the American Psychological Association, if you ignore the signs you could face a wide range of health issues such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes or damage to your artery walls. Yet, stress in small doses is good. It helps you overcome fear, while providing increased endurance and motivation necessary to accomplish important tasks with speed and accuracy. Here are some warning signs you’re stressed:

• Muscle tension in your neck or back
• Constant worrying
• Chest pains or rapid heartbeat
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Decreased appetite or overeating
• Frequent colds
• Lack of concentration or focus
• Memory problems
• Sense of loneliness or isolation

I strongly urge all of you to take control when stress strikes. Harness the power within you and turn stress into a positive. I know it’s not easy. It took me a long time to understand the warning signs of stress.  As any professional woman knows our days are go-go-go, overloaded with responsibilities and commitments, overwhelmed with life’s trials and tribulations, placing our own health on the back burner. However, it’s more than imperative that you pay attention to your body’s signals. I speak about front burner issues affecting women all the time – this is a top priority issue – I cannot stress it enough (pun intended!). Stress awareness is the first step in harnessing self-control to be the best you that you can be – but you must recognize the signs and listen to your body – only you have the power to do that. Educate yourself by visiting the website of the NAPW Foundation partner, the American Heart Association and take the Go Red Heart CheckUp while you’re there.

Let’s all take action and put the power of stress to work for us. Let the adrenaline rush inspire you to push your goals forward, to make a positive impact in your life and in the lives of others, to reach for the unattainable… because deep within yourself you have what it takes to succeed.

Learn all you can about stress during Stress Awareness Month. Share your knowledge with friends, family and your NAPW sisters. We’re all in this together, ladies, and it’s time we take control of our health!

So, can you feel it? Your heart is pumping. Your adrenaline is flowing. You must make a fast decision. You choose correctly. Health is yours!

Here’s to the power of stress – the positive kind!

How do you plan to make stress awareness a priority? Share your comments below.