Have you ever felt like you were on the verge of a nervous breakdown that suddenly came out of nowhere? Panic attacks and bouts of anxiety and depression seem to sneak up on us so fast that once they are done, we are left trying to figure out the thing(s) that drove us to that point.

If you are reading this article then it’s more than likely that you belong to my generation, millennials, and surprise, we are considered to be the most stressed-out generation. Why is that? Well, it has a lot to do with the social and economic time that we are growing up in as young adults. As millennials, we are having to pick up the pieces of our parents’ generation without much financial or emotional support on top of trying to keep up with and mentally process the very fast and ever-changing world of the internet and social media.

With so much going on in the world, we barely have the time, strength or energy to really pay attention to much of anything that’s going on externally in our lives let alone internally. That’s why it seems like when we do become overwhelmed emotionally we are taken by surprise because we haven’t been paying attention to the signs that our bodies have been trying to show us!

When you are under stress it affects every single system of your body: central nervous and endocrine, respiratory and cardiovascular, digestive, muscular and reproductive. However, before any of your systems begin to negatively affect you, your body shows you in subtle ways that you are stressing out.

If you are experiencing headaches frequently, irritability, insomnia, random soreness or pain in your muscles and bones not attributed to exercising, irregular bowel movements and anxiety that you can’t seem to shake then you might just be stressed out. These occurrences that might be going on in your body can at times seem insignificant but they are just the beginning of a greater issue that could be developing.

I saw a quote on Pinterest that said, “If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness,” and I never read something more true. Some may think this is just fluff but, your body loves you enough to let you know how it is feeling so that you don’t have to suffer while you are living in it. When you take the time to listen to what your body is saying, you will begin to develop a relationship with it and that relationship will help you pay attention to what it is trying to communicate with you and you will thank yourself for it.