One of the most recent breakthroughs when it comes to stress management deal with emotional intelligence. It is therefore important to understand this concept and how you can utilize it to maximize stress relief results.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is basically a type of skill that enables anyone to control their emotional state. For anyone dealing with stress, you are probably aware how emotions can worsen or relieve the stressful situation you are in. According to research studies, people who have managed to boost their emotional intelligence skills are better able to reduce stress levels in their lives.

Stress and Negative Emotions

Upon the onset of stress, the body undergoes various physiological changes that are later on manifested in physical form of symptoms of stress. But what is the ultimate source of stress that you are experiencing? Basically, it comes as a result of the negative emotions that is developing inside you. It comes as a result of the pressure that from your workplace, at home, or amongst your peers.

All of these emotions trigger biochemical events inside your body such that it is prompted to release cortisols or stress hormones, as well as adrenaline. The buildup of negative emotion can therefore either be a cause or effect of stress. Either way, it is unhealthy for you. In fact, it poses one at risk of developing serious conditions such as high blood pressure and an increase in heart rate. You can therefore get additional motivation to combat the signs of stress.

Enforcing Positive Emotions

Now that you realize the potential harm brought about by the presence of negative emotions in your life, it is important to transform them into something positive. This will serve to counteract the effects of negative emotion in your health and social relationships.

You can do this by promoting positive emotions. While negative emotions can risk you of developing harmful health conditions, promoting positivity can boost the supply of DHEA or anti-aging hormone in your body. This is produced out of the same precursor that will respond to the emotional state of the body. So, whether you are suffering from a positive or negative emotion, it will its own corresponding effect on your physiological and emotional state.

Enhancing Emotional Intelligence Skills

Although the benefits of enhancing emotional intelligence in stress management has been established, actually doing this is a different thing altogether. This is challenging with the constant assault of stressors in one’s everyday life. Here are some techniques to help you boost emotional intelligence:

• Take time to establish direct awareness of your body parts each day. This will help establish more awareness about what you truly feel inside.

• Set aside time to meditate. You can develop high emotional intelligence with constant practice of meditation.

• Adapt a healthy diet and lifestyle. When you are physically healthy, it becomes easier to deal with your emotions.

• Write a journal. This is a great method for exploring your emotional state to see patterns and be able to have more control over how you feel.

Make sure you practice the above techniques often to boost your emotional intelligence skills and attain effective stress management ability.

Wondering if these are stress related illness?

Keep reading to find out the answer and see if you have fallen victim to the top physical illnesses related to stress.

Are there times when you were working on a task and racing to complete it on time and start to feel that cramp in your stomach? Or what about the time when you have to chase after the last train to get to work on time and felt your heart racing, pulse rising, and totally out of breath…

Or did you ever find yourself stewing over a failed relationship and ended up indulging in food, just to realize you feel worst than before you ate. If so you are actually experiencing what I call "stress related illnesses."

Top on the list is for stress related illnesses is cardiovascular disease. The relationship between stress and your heart isn’t that clear cut but most experts do agree on the following points:

• Studies have reported over 40% of people who suffer with some form of heart disease have high level of stress in their lives.

• Stress contributes to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other cardiac risk factors (e.g. smoking, overweight, etc.) in many individuals.

Thus, if you’ve recently had a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular condition, it is reasonable to assume that stress may have played a role in causing your illness to occur.

Bowel disorders like irritable bowel sydrome or IBS in short is another common complaint among people who are under constant pressure or strain. Though it’s something that not many people would like to talk about, there are several theories about the connection between IBS and stress. Although psychological problems such as anxiety do not cause IBS, people with IBS tend to be more sensitive to emotional troubles, the so called mind and body connection to stress and this may make the mind more aware of spasms in the colon. The effect of stress on the immune system may also trigger off an attack of IBS in some individuals.

Following closely is one of the most commonly reported problem and also what most people will be very concern about: "Stress Weight Gain" or "Stress Weight Loss". Under the influence of stress, there may either be a weight loss or weight gain depending on the individual affected. Some people under pressure tend to indulge in comfort eating and end up putting on extra pounds while others simply may lost interest in food totally resulting in weight loss.

Gastric ulcers is another stress related illness. The gastric excretion tend to increase when a person is under pressure and this in turn causes erosion of the stomach lining leading to painful gastric ulcers.

Though a direct relationship between stress and physical illnesses is difficult to established, research findings done so far have logically reasoned that as the amount of stressful life events increases, an individual’s susceptibility to these health problems also would correspondingly increase.

Wondering if there are more to the list? Then head over to the section on "How Ill Can You Feel With Stress" and see if you could identify any of it that closely relate to yours

With everyday pressure from both home and at work, Lynette makes sure that she does not succumb to the negative effects of stress and letting her health suffers as a consequence. Determine to remain healthy and stress free, she has found some fabulous "Stress Management Techniques" to share with you. Make sure you check it out.