Stress tends to dress up and hide. And usually when we think of stress, we also think that it's because of financial problems, overworking and family conflicts. We could say that these examples are the main reasons for stress. When we are in one of those situations we sometimes say "I'm so stressed out," "I need to rest" or "I need a massage", and we are well aware of the situation and know what we need to do to relieve our pain, but stress has other lesser known faces.

The above examples we can refer to them as "official" because we are accustomed to associate the word stress with problems and challenges, which sometimes we do not identify some situations as a problem or challenge and leave it out of the equation, such as hunger, lack of sleep, thirst, chores, and leaving home for a trip or for a walk.

"How is hunger stressful?" Well, let's remember that stress is a physiological response that is activated in situations that the brain identifies as an emergency. The brain identifies hunger -especially when we eat late- as an emergency, because the body literally begins to run out of energy. It triggers the production of adrenaline, the body becomes tense and the heart rate accelerates. These conditions can put anyone in a more irritable or hypersensitive state to external pressures and are put in a bad mood.

In our consultations, it is common to detect how some families or couples neglect these "small" physiological details, and how sometimes these fights or arguments often occur just before lunch time when we feel hungrier or at night when we are tired and sleepy; especially at this time, it is not a good idea to talk about sensitive issues. Fatigue and lack of sleep also generate stress and makes us irritable. Having a conversation that goes wrong is almost inevitable. We must be rested to talk about serious things.

What about housework? This type of work is highly demanding both physically and mentally. Preparing food is just like being a Chef. Getting to and from school plus childcare is just like being a driver and nanny at the same time. Having a clean house turns us into a maid. These are all activities that completely absorb the energy of anyone. If a housewife who does all this and does not take the time to rest sometime in the middle of the day, at the end of the day she will be one very stressed housewife.

What about leaving home for a trip or even just for a walk? In this case, the most common thing that usually happens is the conflict between what a man wants and what a woman wants. She wants to bring 10 suitcases, while a man only wants to take razor to shave. A woman takes his her time when on the other hand a man wants to leave in five minutes. There are always little things that are done at the last minute which in between running, driving, and moving up and down that generates the illusion of an emergency situation, which in turn creates stress and it can result in irritability and having bad unnecessary moments.

So pay attention to your physiological state: if you feel like you are "in a bad mood", you may be stressed out from being hungry, thirsty or sleepy. Take a break in the middle of your day and when they leave home, take your time.

But mostly be aware of the illusion of urgency that we tend to generate ourselves.

Editorial@sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@sandiegored.com