Have you ever had a stress migraine? I have, they suck. It’s crazy to think that stress can have a physical effect on us, not just an emotional or mental effect.

But migraines aren’t the only effect that stress can have on your body. According to the Mayo Clinic, many people attribute the symptoms they experience to some kind of illness, when, in fact, it is actually stress. Stress is not just a “feeling”, its a chemical reaction in your body.

Here are 10 ways Stress Affects Your Body:

1. Fatigue. Stress literally sucks the energy right out of you. The more stressed you become, the more energy you expel, and so the more tired and weak you feel.
2. Muscle Tension and Pain. Stress releases chemicals that cause you pain. Quite the opposite of things like exercise or sex that release good chemicals (endorphines) that causes us to be happy and energetic. You will often have muscle tension and maybe even pain.
3. Heart Problems. One of the muscles that is easily affected are the chest muscles or even the heart. Sometimes, things become extremely serious because stress can even cause heart attacks, strokes, palpitations, rapid pulse, and hypertension.
4. Lowers Sexual Drive. Maybe its the muscle tension or the fatigue, but stress just takes the mood right out of you. What’s worse is that sometimes, even if you still have the drive, stress affects your ability to “perform” up to par. In women, stress can cause your monthly visitor to become irregular or extremely painful.
5. Lack of Sleep. Stress causes insomnia, night tremors, etc. Its like a dirty trick: stress makes you fatigue but doesn’t let you get the good, deep REM sleep your body needs to refuel. What happens when you have to wake up and go about your day and you are tired? You get stressed even more easily. Its a vicious cycle.
6. Digestion Issues. According to the American Institute of Stress, there are many digestive problems caused by stress including: GERD, peptic ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, upset stomach, and ulcerative colitis. It can also cause either an increased or a decreased appetite (which can lead to extreme and undesired weight loss or gain). If the stress becomes bad enough, it may even cause you to lose your lunch (gross…).
7. Skin problems. Stress can causes rashes, itching, hives, acne, even goosebumps. There’s nothing like a giant pimple in the middle of your forehead to relieve stress, right?
8. Communication Problems. Stress can cause your speech to become rapid, slurred, stammered etc. You may sigh a lot unknowingly. Trying to lead a meeting when you can’t get two words to come out right is not going to go well.
9. Breathing Problems. Stress can cause you to breathe rapidly, possibly even hyperventilate. This can cause panic attacks for some people.
10. Lowered Immunity. Stress lowers your ability to fight viruses off, so you will find yourself sick more often with frequent colds and infections. I don’t know about you, but I truly cannot afford to be sick, especially not sick all the time.

If you are experiencing some or all of these symptoms, I encourage you to mention it to your doctor. Also, subscribe to my blog because next week I will start discussing ways you can fight stress so that you can focus better and be more productive. If you missed last weeks blog, I gave you the mental/emotional symptoms to be watching out for, you can check it out here.

All I want is to see each and everyone of you get the most out of your day, to be the super productive entrepreneurs I know you can be without feeling stressed out at the end of every.single.day. Stress will kill your productivity. You can control your stress though, it just takes the right mindset. Productivity is just 50% mindset, 50% action. You can do this!

As someone who always made people ask, “How does she do it?”, I had to learn how to fit more into my day without completely losing my mind. Now I’m excited to share how I did that and what I’ve learned with everyone else. I just want to see people able to live the life they want, doing the things they want, without the stress they think is normal. I want everyone to experience Peace of Time.