Studies have shown that the effects of long term stress can lead to harmful inflammation. When you get stressed, this inflammation is your body responding to that stress.

You may be faced with an emotionally challenging situation. Or, you may feel overwhelmed and this can cause stress. No matter what causes the stress, your body reacts to it the same way.

The problem is that the inflammation that results because of the stress can lead to the development of certain diseases. Long term stress forces you to experience the fight or flight mode.

Your body gears up and gets ready to protect you. This is a natural occurrence. When it happens, your body begins pumping out cortisol. This hormone then gets to work focusing all of your body’s attention and energy on whatever the perceived threat is.

Everything in your body kicks into high gear as it prepares to save you. Your heart is going to beat faster, your adrenaline is at the max level and your pulse and blood pressure is elevated.

You start breathing faster and heavier. As all of this is going on, your body starts pouring out glucose as a way to get you ready to fight or run. While all this is a completely natural process, the fight or flight mode is meant to only occur when there’s a true emergency or threat to your safety.

But because your body can’t differentiate between everyday situational stress and the real deal, you end up with this unneeded reaction that leads to inflammation. The inflammation that develops as a response to the stress is felt in the body the same way you’d feel it if you were actually sick.

With a true illness, your body’s immune system gets busy producing markers to help you fight that sickness. These markers show up for work, then leave when you no longer need them.

But the problem is that stress causes these markers, known as pro-inflammatory cytokines, to stick around. These then begin to harm your body rather than helping it. You enter a state of inflammation as a result.

Stress is known to cause inflammation related diseases such as heart disease. That’s because long term stress causes the heart to work harder than it’s supposed to for longer periods of time.

Any inflammatory disease can be caused by chronic stress. Another example is gastrointestinal conditions, such as IBS. But it’s also linked to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as well.

An inflammatory form of arthritis known as rheumatoid arthritis is linked to chronic stress. The inflammation can also worsen other conditions, such as diabetes and migraines. To improve inflammation, set up a strategy to lessen the stress in your life or find ways to deal with it so that your health isn’t affected. 

Lifestyle Changes That Can Help Strengthen Your Back

Living with pain isn’t something that you just have to put up with. Especially not when you can take some steps to prevent and even end the pain in your back. By making some simple lifestyle changes, you can strengthen your back and stop being miserable.

Exercise will always be the quickest, easiest method to ending back pain. If you’ve ever sat for a little while, then gotten up and noticed that you were walking stiffly, it’s because your joints and muscles aren’t as limber as they should be.

Exercise is something that helps with this. When you work out regularly, it boosts mobility in the ligaments as well as in the tendons, which helps the muscles work better. By exercising, you not only protect your body from strain or muscle injury, but your back as well.

Lose weight for your back’s sake. If you’re overweight, this is putting a strain on your back. Your spine and your back muscles have a load limit that was never meant to be exceeded.

This is for both lifting and carrying heavy things. When you’re overweight, you’re forcing your back muscles to work harder than they were meant to. You’re also forcing them to carry additional weight.

Every single pound that you carry over your body’s weight limit can strain these muscles. Not only that, but being overweight can cause you to have more inflammatory markers, which also impact your back.... 

Starting your day off on the right foot can help you battle stress throughout the day. When you begin your day in a relaxing way, it can help set the tone for the hours that follow.

But if you jump right into things that stress you, you can expect that stress to continue because you’ll get caught up in a cycle of stress. You’ll brace yourself against stressful things and develop that tension throughout your body.

But if you focus on beginning your day the right way, you can turn everything around and stop the stress before it takes hold. When you get up in the mornings, don’t immediately jump into doing things.

You need to give yourself time to wake up. You also want to create a mood for your day. The best way to do this is to start with something that either relaxes you or makes you feel like the day is going to be exciting and positive.

To do this, you can begin your day with music. Music has long been advised by medical professionals as a way to destress. Music can work in a variety of ways. It can soothe emotions.

It can also make you feel relaxed or create an environment of positivity, such as causing you to feel happy and uplifted. Give your body a good soak first thing in the morning. Taking a warm shower can help you relax your muscles.

It can also be a great place to think about the positives that you’re looking forward to for the day. This can be something as simple as drinking your favorite smoothie or enjoying some time to read during your lunch break.

Fight off stress by making sure you don’t begin your day on an empty stomach. Your body needs fuel in order to function well. If you start out your day by skipping breakfast, that can make stress worse because you won’t have the energy to deal with stressors.

Suffering nutritionally can also compound any ill effects caused to the body by stress. If you’re really not a breakfast eater, even just grabbing a piece of fruit can help gear you up to face the day and handle stress.

Begin with good thoughts. There’s a lot to be said for the power of positive thinking. Where your thoughts go, so goes your body, too. If you start by thinking about negative, stressful things, your body will immediately take cues from that.

Start by writing down three thoughts that you’re thankful for. Or, you can list three things you’re looking forward to for the day. You can also jot down three small things that make you happy - such as a cozy, rainy day or listening to your favorite podcast on the way to work.

Get moving first thing in the morning. If you can exercise when you get up, this can help set the stage for fighting off stress. This might be something as quick as taking a stroll around your neighborhood. Establishing healthy and happy morning routines can set the pace for better days and help you eliminate stress in the process.

How to Cultivate an Abundance Mindset

For most people, living a successful life means to be happy. If you are happy with the work you are doing, the people you sound yourself with, and who you are inside and out, you will feel successful no matter how much money or things that you have.

Taking care of and believing in yourself and others while reaching your dreams can create that happiness. When you have an abundant mindset, you naturally create abundance because there is no other way to be.

Scarcity Mindset Vs Abundance Mindset

A scarcity mindset causes you to believe and act as if the world is limited, and you have far fewer opportunities than others to be successful. You see your future as bleak and full of failure. This type of harmful mindset creates negative results. An abundance mindset is the exact opposite. It is having an optimistic mindset about your future and abilities and filling your life with things and opportunities that lead to success.

Stop Comparing

Don't compare yourself to others and, most notably, what you don't have from others. Just because your friend has a big house, tons of friends, or what you think is the dream career doesn't mean they are just as happy as you would be in their position.

Use Your Time Efficiently

Don't waste your time on tasks that don't benefit you, your community, or your goals. Identify the things you are doing that don't provide much value. For example, if you notice that you spaced out on the couch for three hours yesterday, find ways to minimize your screen time and use it to achieve more of your goals.

Practice Gratitude

Living an abundant life is not about obtaining things. It's about acquiring the knowledge, skills, and tools you need to lead a fruitful, meaningful, and happy life. Actively engage in being more thankful for what you have and can accomplish through your knowledge and other resources. In addition, tell people how much you appreciate them and why.

Be More Generous

Generosity is more than just handing others money. It is about giving of yourself, including your knowledge, time, and skills to make the world a better place. Your generosity increases your gratitude and self-esteem.

Acquiring an abundance mindset can be simple and provide motivation to achieve your goals and gain true happiness. However, make sure that you share your abundance with others, otherwise it may turn into hording which inhibits abundance.

How Changing Your Mindset Can Help With Your Mental Health

If you are currently dealing with mental health issues, whether you have diagnosed anxiety or depression, anxious thoughts, or a lot of emotional stress in your life, working on your mindset can do wonders. This is not a quick fix or meant to replace professional help, but it does help a lot with managing your mental state on a daily basis.


How and Why Mindset Matters When it Comes to Mental Health

What is your mindset? Simply put, it is the pattern and way you think about everything in life, and the world at large. It can be as simple as what your thought process is on a fun night out with friends, and as deep as how you process severe loss and trauma. Everyone has a different pattern of thoughts and emotions tied into their mindset.

It is also possible to change your mindset which can ultimately improve your mental health. When it comes to mental health, you are going to work on your fixed vs growth mindset, which allows you to change how you think about progress and what can be improved in your own life.


You Have the Power Over Your Mindset

Yes, you can absolutely change your own mindset! But don’t let this be confused with taking blame for your mental health or mental illnesses. It doesn’t mean you are the reason you have stress or anxiety or depression, but that you can control how you handle it. It is also not going to be a cure or get rid of your anxiety completely.

With mental health, there is a middle ground between understanding it and accepting that you have this mental illness, and looking for ways to deal with it in order to treat it and manage it. This is a big part of nurturing your mental health.


Understanding Fixed Vs. Growth Mindsets

While there are many ways to change your mindset in order to improve your mental health, the fixed vs growth mindset is a great place to start. Many people develop a fixed mindset without realizing it. This means most of your beliefs can’t be changed – or not yet. You have certain beliefs and think that what you know and understand and experience is just what you were born with.

With a growth mindset, it is nearly the opposite. You understand that with the right therapy, education, and open-mindedness, anyone can change. That even with your mental health, you can look at things differently. That you aren’t stuck in this cycle. 

The Biggest Causes of Preventable Back Pain

The thing about the back is that most people never really pay it much attention to it until it starts to hurt. Then they realize just how much they rely on their back for everything they do.

Back pain can be pretty miserable, whether it’s short or long term. Though there can be many causes for the type of pain in this area of the body, most are preventable. There are several common causes of back pain that you can work on avoiding.

One of these is back pain caused by straining the muscles. This type of pain is nearly always caused by lifting things that are heavy. When you lift things that are heavy, it puts a strain on the muscles in your back.

The reason this is common is because most people don’t lift heavy things on a regular basis, so their muscles aren’t used to that type of load-bearing exercise. It’s easy to think that you can handle a greater weight than your body can deal with.

Lifting heavy things can put strain on the spine and can cause inflammation or back muscle spasms. The way that you lift things matters, too. If you lift the wrong way, you may be twisting your spine, especially if you’re at an awkward angle.

It only takes a second to injure your back this way. If you lift heavy things from the ground and you’re not aligned correctly, this can cause back pain because the weight of the item or items isn’t spread evenly across the muscles.

Sometimes, it’s not picking things up from the ground that cause back issues. The pain can also stem from reaching overhead to bring something down to you. You can cause a strain in your lower back muscles and have pain from that... 

How to Empower Yourself and Others

Empowering yourself or others means to enable or inspire the drive to achieve goals or aspirations. When you feel empowered you believe that you can achieve your goals and are in control of your life. Creating self-confidence and strength to handle any challenge life throws at you.

Ask for Feedback and Constructive Criticism

If you want to improve quickly, one of the best ways is to ask for feedback and constructive criticism from those who want you to succeed. Find a mentor or work superiors to gain new knowledge, skills, and ideas. Ask where you can improve and how they would do it if they were in your shoes.

Be Honest and Trustworthy

Always live life and every act with integrity. It would help if you were the example for yourself and others to inspire and keep people at their best. Integrity is about being honest and trustworthy, no matter the consequences. It's about the ability to be accountable to truly learn and grow.

Be and Spread Positivity

Empowerment is about encouraging others to achieve their goals and go after their life's dreams. Being negative will only repel people and make them believe it's not worth it. Be positive and spread positivity to inspire others to do the same.

Practice Kindness

Be kind to yourself and others. Allow people and yourself to make mistakes. Recognize that no one is perfect, and it is an impossible expectation. When you are kind, people will be more open to your advice.

Show Your Appreciation

Always show your appreciation for what others do for you by verbally telling people thank you. Let those around you that you appreciate their time, hard work, and efforts. This makes people feel valued and wants to continue to do and be a better person.

Be Confident but Not Egotistical

People love and attract confident people. It is inspirational to see others tackle what seems to be challenging situations with ease and no care in the world. However, it can easily turn egotistical and cause the opposite reaction.

Be careful with the information you provide and recognize your limitation. To empower doesn't mean to be an expert and gain an advantage over others. Only provide information you know to be true and encourage them to find additional reputable sources of information.

Making yourself and others feel more empowered can change more lives than you can imagine. When each person encourages others, the number of people that benefit from your gesture to share your empowerment increases greatly. Start empowering yourself and others today.

Stress is common in both men and women. However, women are faced with more chronic stress than men. The reason that it’s different has to do with how stress affects the body as well as how the person deals with the stressor.

Hormones play a huge part in the way that stress affects a person and women have a stronger response to the stress hormone than men do. Due to the hormonal makeup of women, they’re less likely to handle the influx without it affecting them.

Because stress causes both a physical and an emotional response, this also affects women differently. Plus, women juggle different aspects of life than men do. When there’s chronic stress in a woman’s life, she’s more likely to experience a high level of symptoms.

These symptoms can be ones such as gastrointestinal issues. Women are more likely to suffer from insomnia than men are when faced with ongoing stress. Women are also more likely to have changes in the way that they eat than a man does.

Many report a loss of appetite. The stress also takes a toll in the form of a complete mental and physical exhaustion in women more so than in men. The reason that stress affects women twice as much as it does men also has to do with the amount of pressure and the workload that some women face.

Many women hold full time jobs in or out of the home. They care for children as well as a spouse or significant other. Studies have shown more women than men carry a responsibility for another family member, such as a grandparent or parent.

In an effort to juggle all of their responsibilities, women develop chronic stress due to an attempt to handle too many issues at once. This stress can often develop as a result skipping healthy activities in order to try to gain some free time in their overloaded lives.

Some women will start to limit their sleep and as a result don’t get enough rest. Others will skip out on relaxation events, such as taking a day off or getting together with friends.

The ongoing stress faced by women can come from some of the same areas where a man also deals with stress. For example, some women tend to do more at work as far as responsibilities.

They’ll often step in to handle something for a coworker or accept a heavier workload without speaking up for themselves. They may work longer hours at the office. It’s not uncommon for many women who report stress to have the habit of working well over 40 hours a week to try to get ahead.

Even when accepting more work or more responsibilities, women have a harder time letting go or rearranging priorities to take care of their own needs over those they care about. So this causes the stress to continue to build until it begins to show up in physical aches and other health issues.

Diagnosing the Different Types of Back Pain

Back pain isn’t alike in every situation. Some types of back pain can be more serious. There are some autoimmune diseases that can cause long term pain in the back. This is something such as inflammatory arthritis and it needs to be managed by a doctor.

Continual lower back pain that doesn’t get better can be a sign of an infection, such as a kidney infection. But it can also be associated with endometriosis. If you have a stomach ulcer, this can cause back pain as well.

All of these situations would need medical intervention. If you have a fever associated with back pain, you need to seek help - or, if you have numbness or fever in connection with the pain.

If you have numbness in your arm, hand or foot but with no fever, this can be a sign of a pinched nerve in the back. If these symptoms don’t go away after a couple of days of home treatment, then you should seek care.

You can also experience what’s known as a bulging disc that can cause pain. This is when the jelly-like substance, which basically acts like a shock absorber, protrudes. These are often treated at home, though some can be more difficult to treat and need to be examined by a doctor.

However, the majority of back pain isn’t serious and can be treated and managed at home. That’s because most back pain stems from lifestyle decisions. If you’re someone
who has bad posture and you’ve never taken steps to correct it, eventually, this can lead to back pain.

When you don’t sit or stand correctly, what happens is your body weight is not evenly distributed across the spine. So you end up with areas of weakness due to the load the muscles are trying to support... 

Lower Back Pain Is a Big Problem for Both Men and Women

When you experience lower back pain, you may have a variety of symptoms. Some people will feel like they have a muscle ache or that the muscle in one area of the back is tender.

But other people may have pain that feels like something is burning beneath their skin. Common in both of these symptoms is that physical movement can make the pain worse.

You’ll find that you start limiting yourself physically. Or, it might cause you pain to stand, so you sit more often, which can actually worsen back pain due to the increased inactivity.

Lower bBack pain is common for both men and women. Between 50 to 70% of both sexes will, at some point in their life, have to deal with back pain. This type of pain isn’t just limited to adults, either.

Kids and teens can also have problems that cause pain in the back. There are certain physical conditions that can be labeled as the underlying cause of back pain if it’s not something like an injured muscle.

For example, in women, endometriosis can cause lower back pain. Men usually experience back pain due to a ligament strain from lifting more than they should or lifting in such a way that their back muscles are unsupported.

Regardless of what causes the pain for women or men, there are consequences when it does happen. When you’re in pain, it can make physical activity worse, so it can lead to missing days or weeks of work, which also means lost wages, causing stress in your life.... 

If you have a job that’s sedentary, just the act of sitting can be too uncomfortable. Studies have shown that between 80 to 90% of people who suffer from back pain end up missing a significant number of work days.

Dealing with lower back pain can lead to depression. One study showed that depression is four times more likely to occur when people struggle with back pain. This is because of the way the pain affects all areas of their lives.

For example, having this type of pain can make sleeping uncomfortable or even cause insomnia. This affects your mood because you’re exhausted from the lack of sleep. You may have issues with cognitive function and feel anxious as well.

When lower back pain is an issue, you can struggle from a lack of mobility. This can keep you housebound and limit the amount of interaction you would normally have with other people.

This lack of interaction leads to isolation, which can cause depression or deepen it. If you’re used to being able to take care of your own needs or those of your family members, being unable to do so can also cause depression.