Introduction 
This series is a release of the book chapters from Kate Cook’s Wellness Guide 2016. To buy the book click here: http://www.infideas.com/books/kate-cooks-wellness-plan/
In this chapter, learn all about the effect of finances and wellness.
Chapter 9
So you’re stressed? Be grateful. Stress makes life a lot sweeter when you learn to manage it right. Better sex, sharper mind, longer life – stress does all this. Which is why so many of us are addicted to it.
Nearly half of people claim to be more stressed today than they were five years ago; over three-quarters of people consider stress as intrinsic to their jobs. But let’s look at the positives. Some stress is good. Some stress is necessary. While chronic stress over a period of months is detrimental, feeling a bit ‘stressy’ once or twice a week could be just the ticket. Here’s what that level of stress can do for you.
Stress keeps you young
When you’re stressed your adrenal glands produce a hormone called dehydroepiandrosterone – known as DHEA to its friends – which has been shown to keep mice alive longer. It was also noted that the same mice had more luxuriant coats. The hormone is thought to build collagen and elastin (the building bricks of the skin) and this stimulates a younger-looking appearance. (The beauty industry has latched onto this and is trying to develop products that contain DHEA. You’re ahead of your game, you produce your own.)
Stress makes you smart
DHEA makes your mind sharper. Chronic stress makes you forgetful but short-term stress can make your brain work better for short periods.
Stress lifts your mood
If you’re feeling down in the dumps, a bit of stress isn’t necessarily terrible. It could be jus what you need to perk you up again. Stress forces you to make decisions and take responsibility. Experts believe this protects us from falling into a state of depression. A recent study found that short doses of the stress hormone cortisol protect some people against depression in the way that antidepressants regulate mood. Too much cortisol leads to extreme exhaustion, but just a little bit is fine.
Stress improves your sex life
Let’s hear it for our old friend, DHEA. Women with a low libido who were given doses of DHEA got more interested again. It turns out that low levels of stress are linked to control of sex drive. Moderate stress releases DHEA and this affects libido positively.
Stress keeps you alive
A study carried out at the University of Texas showed that people with few pressures are up to 50 per cent more likely to die within ten years of quitting work than those who faced major responsibility. People under regular pressure tend to take better control of their lives and as a result suffer fewer conditions linked to failing finances, poor relationships and employment problems.
Stress works in another way to keep us healthy and alive. Humans are designed to have short, sharp periods of stress every now and then. Stress gives us the ‘high’ that is necessary for psychological good health. If your life is free of stress you may look to get the highs elsewhere and as result indulge in what psychologists call ‘high-risk behaviour.’
Translation: extreme sports, dangerous sexual behaviour, fighting, drugs. One way of seeing each of these activities is a way of artificially introducing stress into an understimulated life. Stress keeps us from falling into bad or frankly, mad, habits.
You can’t stress-proof your life
Life is innately stressful – we can’t completely banish stress from our lives. Even if you lock yourself in your bedroom for the foreseeable future, stress will find you out. Stress is caused by change, and life changes even if you withdraw from it and hide under the bed. The ripple of change will still lap against your bedroom door. But by learning to manage stress, and use it to your advantage, you can find it motivates, energises and spurs you on to a richer and more fulfilling life. So whenever the pace of life is getting you down remember there’s only one thing worse for you than too much stress, and that’s too little.
You might find chapters 34, 35, 57 and 59 especially helpful.
More information
Kate Cook is a nutrition and wellbeing expert of over 20 years and author of 8 books – to read more please click here: www.katecook.biz
To book a call with Kate, please click this link: https://go.oncehub.com/KateCook
To buy the book click here: http://www.infideas.com/books/kate-cooks-wellness-plan/
Credit to Infinite Ideas Limited