Healthy Lifestyle Tips For Stress Due To Technology And High Fashion

We all are very fashionable and great technology users but have you thought about what it is doing to you. Let’s understand what is stress, how high fashion and technology causes stress and also learn everyday healthy lifestyle tips for your busy life.

What is stress?

Stress is basically the muscular uneasiness which turns into chronic (been there long-term) pain and aches.

The nature of stress is such that it comes when we’re unable to cope up with the external changes with ease.

This physical discomfort for the long-term leads to stress and if still continued turns into mental stress too.

Effects of stress:

It impacts breathing, normal functioning of organs and leads to poor posture if the body is under stress for a long time. You also need to focus on the importance of good posture and practice the posture correction techniques.

The physical manifestations of stress include these stress symptoms checklist: Tense muscles, Insomnia, Stress Headaches, Heartburn, Rapid breathing, Pounding heart, Missed periods, Low sex drive, Risk of heart attack, Increased depression, Fertility Problems, Erectile dysfunction, High blood pressure, High blood sugar, Weakened immune system

The psychological effects of stress include: Anxiety and Restlessness, Lack of motivation or focus, Feeling overwhelmed, Irritability or anger, Sadness or depression

The behavioural symptoms of stress include: Overeating or undereating, Angry outbursts, Drug or alcohol abuse, Tobacco use, Social withdrawal

How to reduce stress?

We all know there is no stress free job in the world. There is always a situation in your most easy job that gives you stress.

We have to learn how to reduce stress by working on simple lifestyle practices and workout on our body with pranayama and yoga.

Here are some of the forms of stress relief techniques to handle stress in your daily life.

The Forms Of Stress Relief:

There are many forms of stress relief techniques you can follow. I feel these three are the main stress relief practices that make you stress-free for life

1. Lifestyle Changes
2. Everyday Yoga for stress
3. Pranayama techniques

1. Lifestyle Stressors And Fashion Alternatives With Healthy Lifestyle Tips For Stress Relief:

The conveniences like using a phone, high fashion of five to six-inch heels or one-shoulder bags are a great pleasure. But these are only for the time being because they cause the most unnecessary and unseen stress in the body.

Stress and technology have become common in the modern lifestyle because of the way we use it and we don’t know when to stop using. Like long phone usage cause Sleep disorders, depressive symptoms.

Here are some of the lifestyle stressors and healthy lifestyle tips for stress relief.

Heavy Purse Syndrome: 

The heavy purse syndrome may occur when you continuously carry a heavy bag on your single shoulder. There are many effects of carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder like shoulder pain after carrying heavy bag.

This creates muscular imbalances between the sides of the body. The shoulder, neck, and back are affected in this case.

Healthy lifestyle tips for heavy purse syndrome:

• Prefer sling bags, wear it diagonally across the body.
• Frequently change sides.
• Do not forget to adjust the strap according to your height and weight of the bag.
• Consider carrying the laptops on your back.

Effects of high heels on feet:

There are many effects of high heels on feet when they are in elevated position for long durations. There can be stress fracture from high heels in worse cases.

High heel effect on feet causes tightness in many muscles of the lower limbs along with joint stresses, back, and hip pains.

Men also face problems with footwear, not that they wear high heels but hard sole office wear etc.

Healthy lifestyle tips for high heel effect on feet:

• Select heels wisely, preferably low height heels or if heel height is more don’t be in them for long durations.
• Keep a pair of occasion friendly comfortable shoes as back up and give some rest to your feet.
• Be mindful with the shape of the footwear.
• Wear the right size with a comfortable sole with enough room for the feet rests naturally.

Texting neck syndrome:

Smartphones compelled us to forget the importance of good posture, especially with the neck. Texting neck syndrome is not just a neck problem but also develops chronic pain shoulder, back, elbow, wrist, and thumb.

Long hours of using phones, laptops with your neck bent abnormally causes many problems.

Healthy lifestyle tips for texting neck syndrome:

• Position the screen at eye level maintaining back of neck and spine alignment.
• Set up work desk properly (height of the table, screen, seating distance)

How to relieve tension in neck and shoulders:

Worried about how to relieve tension in neck and shoulders that is already present. Here are some common neck pain stretches:

• Push the chin gently back with the fingers and hold for a few seconds.
• Push the back of your head into palms clasped behind your head and release.
• Gently press the side of your face into the arm held up at shoulder level and release for both sides.

Also, take up outdoor activities that keep you active some sport you’re interested in or learn some art etc. Divide your time of the day separately for work and people and stick to it to switch off periodically. Favor yourself from the bad impact of functioning and mobility in the long run.

If you are living in a neighborhood surrounded by trees and shrubs, with birds chirping all the time, there are fewer chances for you to suffer from anxiety or stress, a new study has revealed.

According to researchers at the University of Exeter, the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of Queensland, lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with the number of birds people could see in the afternoon.

The study found benefits for the mental health of being able to see birds, shrubs, and trees around the home, whether people lived in urban or leafier suburban neighborhoods.

“This study unpicks the role key components of nature play for our mental well-being. Birds around the home show promise in preventative health care, making cities healthier places to live,” said Daniel Cox from the University of Exeter.

Take Away:

If you’re stressed about what you are doing, you’ve got two options to make your choice:

1. Quit doing what stresses you, if that is not what you actually want to do.
2. And if what you’re doing means the most to you, make your body and mind such that it goes through the situation (that causes stress) effortlessly by practicing healthy lifestyle tips, pranayama, and yoga for stress relief regularly.

I hope you’re not slouching right now while checking this out. We’ll see how necessary it is to know the importance of good posture and look at how to fix bad posture problems in your life. As the bad posture leads to stress, you can first address the stress through healthy lifestyle tips, pranayama for stress and yoga for stress.

Poor posture while working on the computer can lead to fatigue, increased muscle tension and even injury to the vertebrae over time, a study has found. Sometimes, you might find it difficult to turn your head.

Researchers tested the effects of head and neck position. First, they asked 87 students to sit upright with their heads properly aligned on their necks and asked them to turn their heads.

Then the students were asked to “scrunch” their necks and to jut their heads forward. 92% reported being able to turn their heads much farther when not scrunching.

In the second test, 125 students scrunched their necks for 30 seconds. Afterward, 98% reported some level of pain in their head, neck or eyes.

The researchers also monitored 12 students with electromyography equipment and found that trapezius muscle tension increased in the scrunched, head forward position.

What Is Good Posture:

Correcting bad posture is only possible when you know and experience what is good posture. A good posture definition is a way you hold your body with minimum effort and less strain in the back, limbs.

Bad Posture Side Effects:

The bad posture side effects include back pain, stain on limbs etc. This muscle uneasiness when continued for the long term, it turns into chronic stress.

Most of us are unaware of or should I say that we’re unconscious about the inconvenience the body bears because of our bad postures.

The inconvenience is not just physical as we think and take it easy, as we ignore the importance of good posture. It can lead to different mental and physical health issues and further into emotional imbalances like depression.

There are numerous benefits of good posture that half of the ailments just vanish just by maintaining good posture.

But how to have a good posture after the damage is on. Here comes the importance of good posture and good posture exercises to revert to good posture.

Importance Of Good Posture:

The continuous muscular stress while the basic sitting, standing, walking or sleeping in a bad posture is one of the sources of irritation. These are to be done in a certain way to access the full functionality of the body. Here’s a detailed explanation of why good posture is important.

“When your posture is tall and erect, the muscles of your back can easily support the weight of your head and neck —as much as 12 pounds,” said Erik Peper, a professor at San Francisco State University in the U.S.

“But when your head juts forward at a 45 degree angle, your neck acts like a fulcrum, like a long lever lifting a heavy object,” Mr. Peper said.

Common Bad Postures And Good Posture Tips:

Here are the most common mistakes we make with our body and how to make good posture a habit with good posture tips.

A good posture benefits saving our body from extra burdens. These are the daily practices you need to follow.

1. Slouching:

You’ll do this while you sit or stand. This leads to stress and pain in the neck, shoulder and back muscles. The neck region has the extension of the spine connecting the brain and other body parts.

The stress in neck affects the spine and abdominal muscles. 

Now the muscle weight of your head and neck is the equivalent of about 45 pounds. It is not surprising people get stiff necks and shoulder and back pain.

Here’s how to improve posture while sitting and standing. A correct posture while standing is shown below.

Posture correction practices for slouching:

• Rotate the shoulder back and down to correct the forward droop (with the arms resting on the side of the body).
• Sit up tall when seated. Keep the legs relaxed, bent at knees with the feet resting flat on the floor.
• Maintain the natural curve of the spine with a small cushion between your lower back and the backrest if necessary.
• Pull yourself up while standing (but watch out for the forward hip thrust).

The forward hip thrust happens when you thrust the knees back and stand. You can see the correct posture while standing without hip thrust.

2. Standing with the Hip thrust to one side:

This impacts hip muscles by creating an imbalance between the two sides of the body.

Posture correction practices for standing with the Hip thrust to one side:

• Shift body weight to another leg periodically.
• Stand with legs wider to increase base support.
• If leaning against something, make sure the back is tall and hips are balanced of body weight.

3. Sleeping Incorrectly:

If you have any inconveniences in the back for no reason or when you wake up in the morning, check out your sleeping posture and the sleeping surface.

Bad sleeping posture affects the spine and the muscles alongside.

Here’s how to improve posture while sleeping.

Practices for bad sleeping posture correction:

• Use a firm mattress that doesn’t give under bodyweight and flip or rotate it periodically.
• Support the curve of the neck with a pillow when sleeping sideways. Also, keep a pillow between the legs to support alignment.
• When sleeping on the back keep a pillow under the knees.

Above are the basic daily practices you need to follow understanding the importance of good posture and habituating it, like a first aid. You must also go for good posture exercises or hatha yoga for good posture in the for speedy betterment and faster progress in life.

Good Posture Exercises:

Good posture exercises include stretches to improve good posture.

1. Planks: To strengthen the core muscles the obliques and transverse abdomen, as well as your shoulder and back muscles, so that the body gets ready for the good posture alignment.
2. Back extensions: Strengthens the spine and low back muscles.
3. Pilates swimming: Strengthen your back to help ensure the proper sitting posture.
4. Reverse Dumbbell fly: This is how to improve the posture of rounded shoulders by strengthening their upper back.
5. Shoulder rows: This simple stretch relieves tension and helps to get correct posture.
6. Kneeling strength: The kneeling stretch combats tightness in a number of important muscle groups.  you’ll find it much easier to sit and stand with a straight spine.
7. Crossover: Works on all the core muscles, focusing on the obliques.

Hatha Yoga For Posture Alignment:

Some of you might not be good exercise doers and must be thinking of an alternative. You can opt yoga for posture alignment.

If, will yoga fix my posture is your question, I would say from my experience yoga for posture correction is a great option. You can check out your posture before and after yoga after a few days of practicing it.

The yoga for posture and flexibility helps ease the body and maintain good posture. Here is the Hatha yoga for posture correction.

1. Bhujangasana: Also known as cobra pose. It stretches the spine, opens the chest and the shoulders, strengthens the diaphragm. 
2. Tiryak Bhujangasana: Stretches the spine and the lower back muscles, opens the chest and shoulders, strengthens the diaphragm.
3. Makarasana: Also known as crocodile posture. his posture encourages the vertebral column to get back to its normal shape and release the compression of the nerves.
4. Ustrasana: Also known as Camel Posture. It opens the chest and the shoulders increasing the lung capacity. Good at correcting rounded back and drooping shoulders.
5. Shashankasana: Also known as hare posture. It relaxes the body and calms the mind. It releases the pressure on disc by the backward bending posture and the spine stretch.
6. Gomukhasana: Also known as cow face posture, it helps to remove the stiffness from the neck, back and the shoulders, stretching the hips. You can avoid a headache from neck pain or any other pains due to stiff muscles.
7. Kumbhakasana: Also known as dolphin plank, this asana strengthens the arms, shoulders, abdominals and especially the lower back.
8. Marichyasana C: Want to know how to improve posture for rounded shoulders, this is the best. It opens the chest and stretches your spine. The intercostal muscles are also stretched helping you to breathe deeply. 
9. Supta Padangustasana: Also called as reclining hand to big toe pose, this posture is the best for lengthening hamstrings, and opening the hip without putting pressure on the lower back. In case if you have any lower back pain problems don’t go for Parivrtta Suata Padangustasana.
10. Parivrtta Supta Padangustasana:  This pose is also called revolved reclining hand to big toe pose, this lengthens the hamstrings and stretches the lower back to help get correct posture while standing without hip thrust.
11. Shava Udarakarshanasana: Also called the universal spinal twist, this posture helps to realign the hips and releases the spinal tension.

Posture Correction Therapy Accessories:

Thinking of how to improve posture fast, you can take help of accessories. But you must still do exercises for the complete fixing of bad posture. Accessories are also first aid like the good posture tips as mentioned in the beginning.

Or, if your bad posture is severe and can’t wait for the results from exercising, you can go for posture correction therapy back braces, belts etc for immediate relief and work out the above exercises.

So if you suffer from headaches or neck and backaches from computer work, check your posture and make sure your head is aligned on top of your neck, as if held by an invisible thread from the ceiling.

“You can do something about this poor posture very quickly,” said Mr. Peper. To increase body awareness, Mr. Peper advised purposefully replicating the head-forward/neck scrunched position.

“You can exaggerate the position and experience the symptoms. Then when you find yourself doing it, you can become aware and stop,” he said.

Other solutions include increasing the font on your computer screen, wearing computer reading glasses or placing your computer on a stand at eye level, all to make the screen easier to read without strain.

Take Away:

Practicing posture correction, in the beginning, is a bit hard but it will help improve the health conditions and make you energetic for life in the long term. Hope the importance of good posture is recognizable and you work out for good posture.