NATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY (N.S.A.D)

Millions of people all over the world experience stress in one way or another thereby causing a lot of damage to health and wellness as unnecessary stress can result in deficient mental physiological functions.

What then is Stress?

Stress is the body's reaction in dealing with pressure or a threat. When you are stressed, your body’s system releases stress hormones such as adrenaline. While a little amount of stress can be useful in motivating you to take action and get tasks done, too much stress can cause negative effects on your body such as feelings of discomfort, and dread. It can also escalate to physical attacks such as difficulty in breathing, sleeping, chest pains and high blood pressure.

This is why National Stress Awareness day was established: to enlighten society on stressors and how to manage these stressors.



ABOUT NATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY

Celebrated every first Wednesday of November, (this year 2022 celebration being on the 2^nd of November) National Stress awareness day aims to identify and reduce the stress factors in your life. The National Stress awareness day is a sponsored event by the International stress management association (ISMA), the association was founded by Carole Spiers, the Chairperson of ISMA. It aims to increase public awareness and educate people on how to recognize, manage and reduce the stress they are faced with in their day to day activities hereby devising policies and establishing schemes that provide comprehensive guides for people to manage their stress levels, care for their general welfare as well as increasing workplace productivity.

The failure to deal with persistent stress over a long period can lead to impaired living disorders such as depression, consistent fatigue, and sudden weight loss or gain, in more severe cases it can lead to long-term physical health problems such as broken heart syndrome, and secondary amenorrhea among several others, therefore, National Stress Awareness Day is of great importance to individuals, institutions and society at large as it enlightens people on stress management and encourages them to adopt relevant stress management procedures that increase the health status and longevity of an individual.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED IN NATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY

Getting involved in National Stress Awareness Day first begins with a personal decision to lead a stress-free life and actively promoting such motives. Some ways to get involved in National Stress Awareness Day include;

1. Participating in Active Awareness Creation:

 You can decide to post some simple stress-free tips on your social media handles or create a design on National Stress Awareness Day and upload it or organise a simple Stress Awareness seminar in the neighbourhood, enlightening individuals In some “Do You Know” on stress, sponsoring some persons in the neighbourhood or community on some stress-free program involving games, exercises, talk shows and basic activities that reduces pressure and improves general body well-being.



2. Creating a stress-free Schedule:  

Getting involved in National Stress Awareness Day is not something that is to be observed just for a day, it is an awareness aimed at building a deep sense of living a daily and consistent stress-free life in every individual. Society haven greatly neglected the role of good slumber and physical exercises in general well-being. There are 24 hours in a day and enough time for work and play, so participating in National Stress Awareness Day also involves individuals figuring out how much time should be given to each activity daily and in so doing a written schedule is to be designed outlining work time, leisure time, social activities and engagement time and most importantly participating in Physical Activity such as going to the gym, engaging In indoor yoga exercises or outdoor sports and having a really good and long slumber as a good sleep has great restoring power.



3. Figure out what works for you:  

The goal of National Stress Awareness Day is to improve healthy living therefore, it is expected of individuals to discover stress management strategies unique to them. It may include switching off your phone on a particular day to rest, consistently engaging in physical exercises, choosing appropriate working and learning patterns, and learning to laugh and socialize more often



Every day we are faced with abnormal behaviours and reactions from people, unknown to us that, these reactions are influenced by stress which we have failed to recognize, such behavioural abnormalities we take little notice of include snapping at people, itching on the skin, eating too much or too little, and crying among several others. Therefore, getting involved as an individual in National Stress Awareness Day is a positive step in supporting the vision of reducing the implications of chronic stress in society and serves as a means by which the ignorant masses are enlightened on effective means whereby we can engage in stress management principles and engagement.