At the most basic level, stress is anything to disrupts your physical, mental, and emotional balance. It is unavoidable in everyday life. It can come from negative sources such as losing a job, the death of loved one, conflicts with co-workers. Or positive sources such as starting a new job or getting married. Even the food you eat and air you breathe can cause stress on the body due to toxins or nutritional deficiency.

If stress is constant in your life, it can start to cause health problems including allergies, heart problems, digestive trouble, depression and many more. But before you start taking prescription medication with all its side effects, consider these natural remedies for reducing the effects of stress.

• Exercise: Be active for 25-30 minutes and stress-relieving endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin is released into your brain. Also helps counteract effects of a bad diet and strengthens bones and muscles to withstand the effects of stress.



• Take up a hobby: Find something you will enjoy doing that will take your mind off the stressful problems in your life. Gives you something to look forward doing. Can also bring you into contact with others with similar interests.



• Writing/Talking: Sometimes just talking to someone about your sources of stress helps reduce it instead of keeping everything bottled up. If you'd rather, write it out by keeping a journal.



• Change your diet: Load up on nutritionally dense food such as fruits, vegetables, lean meats. Limit your caffeine and sugary, fatty, processed foods which put stress on the body. Make sure you are getting enough of B vitamins. They work to regulate brain chemicals such as serotonin to keep you in a good mood and feel calmer.



• Get enough sleep: Not getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night puts extra stress on the body. The body needs this time to repair and rejuvenation of the body, particularly the brain. Sleep deprivation can lead to heart trouble, weight gain, and even make you more likely to catch a cold. If you have trouble getting to sleep, look at what you are doing at night. Limit caffeine late, don't work out before going to bed, keep bedroom as dark as possible. If you need a sleeping supplement, choose a natural one that won't leave you groggy in the morning.



• Herbal remedies: There is a group of 10 herbs called Adaptogens that are especially effective in reducing stress on the body. There were discovered in the 1940s by a Russian scientist, Dr. Nicholai Lazarov. They grow in some of the harshest environments on the planet and are able to thrive there due to their unique ability to maintain their internal equilibrium. They sense what effect stress is causing and respond with the opposite effect to regain proper balance. For instance, if stress causes your blood pressure to rise, Adaptogens will lower it. If your muscles tense up, these herbs will relax them.