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Using Self-Love to Conquer Stress
Stress Can Exacerbate All Kinds of Health Issues. A Little Self-Love Can Help.
Stress and anxiety are facts of life, whether you’re working hard to pass your finals, raise a family, climb the corporate ladder, or just get through the wedding season with your sanity and finances intact.
Stress can be sudden and unexpected (a health scare or layoff), or predictable and persistent (your morning commute, caring for an aging parent, ballooning home expenses).
And it can have further-reaching consequences than a migraine, a breakout, or fatigue.
Stress and your health
Leading healthcare organizations agree that chronic stress can have a long-term effect on your health. You’re probably familiar with some of the most common and immediate symptoms of stress. They include:
- Muscle tension
- Headaches
- Exhaustion
- Sleep problems
- Overeating or undereating
- Changes in your sex drive
But wait, there’s more
In addition to these common side effects, stress and anxiety can also lead to more serious health issues by weakening your immune system and leaving you more vulnerable to infections and viruses.
When you experience stress, your body releases a hormone called cortisol. It alters your body’s immune system responses, suppresses your digestive system, and increases sugar in your bloodstream.
Too much exposure to cortisol can disrupt almost every process in your body, increasing your risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, insomnia, and weight gain, to name just a few. Stress can even lead to a heightened risk of vaginal infections, including urinary tract infections (UTIs), yeast infections, and bacterial vaginosis.
Self-care to the rescue
Though stress can seem overwhelming at times, there are several steps you can take to reduce its impact on your life. One of the easiest is to practice self-care through acts of self-love.
Feelings of stress can arise when we don’t feel capable of overcoming certain challenges. However, when we care for ourselves and treat ourselves compassionately, we can feel better equipped to handle whatever life throws. Adopting an attitude of self-love can boost resiliency, keeping us mentally fit and helping us bounce back from setbacks.
Treating yourself has its benefits
Whether indulging in a spa day, taking a much-deserved getaway, or just engaging in your favorite pastime for an hour each day, treating yourself regularly has mood-boosting benefits. When you feel good, you can better combat stress and its adverse effects. You’ll find that keeping your stress levels low might lead to a more robust immune system, which means fewer infections.
When we’re in a good place mentally, we’re also better able to stay on top of goals like weight management because we’re less likely to over- or undereat.
Are you stuck on where to start? Here are some quick and easy ideas for practicing self-love:
- Snuggle up for a solo movie night with your favorite flicks.
- Buy an outfit you’ve had your eye on for a while.
- Bust a move during a 15-minute dance session.
- Buy yourself flowers.
- Take a few minutes to meditate.
- Draw yourself a bath complete with calming music or a good book.
- Compliment yourself.
How to treat the side effects of stress
Despite our best efforts, sometimes stress still gets to us. Suppose your chronic stress or anxiety has resulted in an illness or weight issues. In that case, getting ahead of the problem as soon as possible is essential to return to feeling your best.
SheMed can help. We’ve developed a series of convenient and affordable kits that test for some of the most common infections, including UTIs, bacterial vaginosis, and yeast infection — all health issues that can arise when our immune systems are weakened.
Each test is shipped directly to your home and can be completed in less than 20 minutes. If your results indicate an active infection, you’ll be prescribed treatment to get over your systems faster and return to living your life.
Whatever issues you’re struggling with, remember it’s okay to ask for help. We’re here when you need us. In the meantime, show yourself a little self-love now and then — it can go a long way.
To purchase or learn more about our Women’s Health Kits, go here and follow us on Instagram to keep caught up on new product launches, exclusives, women’s health tips, and more. @SheMed_official.
This following story is a 100% true cautionary tale about my dear friend whose family vacation was somewhat compromised due to her yeast infection not getting properly solved prior to departing America.
During my friend’s last week at home before departing to Europe for over a month, she spent ample time sunbathing and swimming as wanted to look and feel her best for the journey ahead.
Since she was leaving for such a prolonged time it also meant she had to soak up as many moments with her boyfriend as she could. Unfortunately this combination of nonstop swimming & swooning led her to develop a yeast infection. She knew something was wrong so she went to her gynecologist to receive tests for a UTI and a yeast infection.
Sadly, the gynecology office took over a week to get back to her and it wasn’t until multiple days into her travel that she received the news of a positive yeast infection test.
She felt uncomfortable, itchy, and overall sick, though she didn’t want to spoil the rest of the family’s plans so she kept quiet assuming they couldn’t notice, until one day, the infection made itself known.
The yeast infection had started to spread and my friend’s entire body was soon covered with a red uncomfortable rash. She was not only experiencing physical symptoms by this rash but she was also embarrassed to be out in public looking this way.
It was a complicated and long process to try and receive the correct medication for her situation. She tried a cream at a nearby Italian drugstore, and when that did not work she went to five other local drug stores near and far, with her father, trying to find an alternate solution while showing her diagnosis.
It wasn’t until her family moved locations to a larger city, two whole weeks later, that she was able to consult with a hospital. Even then, they were not sure what to prescribe and she had to do her own research and ask for a specific medication.
This story truly highlights the urgency of getting both tested and treated immediately when you are feeling onset symptoms to prevent spreading, and prolonged pain. Going forward, my friend has since been stocked up on our yeast infection tests, so she will never leave the country before receiving instant access to care again and treatment.
Google can be very misleading with at home remedies.
That is a lesson I have learned countless times before with at home hair dying, face masks, and more; but nothing solidified that lesson further than when my best friend and I turned to douching.
We both had serious boyfriends at the time and were having sex frequently. We were very open to talking about our sex lives and we would always share tips and tricks to improve the experience. One thing we were always conscious about was odor and cleanliness. We never wanted to feel embarrassed and always wanted to feel confident so we turned to the internet and tried many different outlets that were in our reach at home.
One day as we were walking the aisles of CVS together we saw douches and remembered seeing them as a great option to keeping your vagina at its healthiest state, so of course, we decided to try it. From the packaging, our understanding was that it just gives a thorough clean, and there are no real downsides to trying it.
We were wrong!
After we got back to our dorms we were excited to try our new product so we went to the communal bathrooms and were dying of laughter from a few showers away about how we get so easily persuaded into these things.
The next morning is when we realized that we made a big mistake.
We were both dealing with the itchiest, most uncomfortable situation we have ever endured. We texted each other during class so confused what happened and wondering if we did something wrong.
It turned out that douching can actually cause an overgrowth of harmful bacteria that can cause you to develop a yeast infection.
After class we made our way to the health center and had to sheepishly admit what we had done as well as call our moms so they were aware what the medication charge was for.
Thankfully any young women who get bold with online suggestions can now purchase SheMed’s Bundle and be prepared for any aftermath from the comfort of your own home.