Daily, we all encounter situations that create stresses, large and small. We may describe stress in the following ways:

Overwhelmed	Disorganised	Trapped
Coping with change	Burdened	Tense
Feeling lost	Depressed	Anxious
Hopeless	Overtired	Too busy

There are major stresses like bereavement, the break-up of a relationship or loss of employment, but the smaller, persistent stresses like, rush-hour travelling, meeting all the bills, too many emails, difficult relationships, environmental toxins (and the list goes on) all stack up to burden our systems. Chronic stress affects us on every level: mental, spiritual, emotional and physical, impairing our health to one degree or another.

My patients often talk about their stress and how they are 'just coping' (and sometimes not) and I am very aware how important it is that we are able to manage stress well for our health and wellbeing.

Symptoms of Stress
Physical	Emotional	Mental
pounding heart headaches sweaty palms indigestion skin breaks out shortness of breath holding breath sleeplessness sleep too much fatigue nausea diarrhoea tight stomach tight muscles pain	moody irritable depressed anxious abrasive hostile nervous emotionally erratic lack of sense of humour	forgetfulness loss of concentration poor judgment disorganized fuzzy perception confused lack of interest errors with arithmetic negative self-talk