Stress often shows up in your body before it shows up in your thoughts: tense shoulders, an unsettled stomach, headaches, a racing heart, trouble sleeping. Many people seek help for the symptoms without connecting them to stress, while others assume everything is stress when the body is actually saying something else.
Your body can be calmed. In a randomized trial, participants did twenty minutes of either muscle relaxation, deep breathing or guided imagery. All three produced a clearly stronger sense of relaxation than just sitting, and muscle relaxation and imagery also calmed the body's measurable arousal.
Choose what suits your body:
- Muscle relaxation if the stress sits in your shoulders, jaw or neck.
- Breathing if your pulse and breathing are fast.
- Guided imagery if your thoughts won't let go.
- Twenty minutes a day if you want to go further.
A first step today: tense your shoulders up toward your ears for five seconds, release, and notice the feeling for ten. Do the same with your hands, face and stomach.
Physical symptoms can also be caused by illness. If you have chest pain, shortness of breath, feel like you might faint, or have symptoms that don't go away, see a doctor. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
Stress isn't just in your head. When your body goes on alert, your muscles tense, your pulse and breathing speed up, digestion gets put on hold, and your sleep gets lighter. It's a system built for short bursts of strain. When it keeps going, it shows up as symptoms: tense shoulders, headaches, an unsettled stomach, nausea, a racing heart, trouble sleeping. This article helps you recognize the symptoms, explains what research shows about releasing tension, and gives you four ways to start. Why the rhythm of the stress hormone matters is covered in cortisol and stress.
How stress shows up in the body
Symptoms differ from person to person, and most people have a few that keep coming back. Common signs include:
- Muscles: tense shoulders and neck, a clenched jaw, headaches.
- Stomach: an unsettled stomach, nausea, less appetite or more snacking.
- Heart and breathing: a racing heart, shallow breathing, a feeling of not getting enough air.
- Sleep: trouble falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, waking up tired.
- Mind: trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, irritability.
The tricky part is that symptoms can appear without you feeling stressed. Your body can stay on high alert long after your mind has decided everything is calm. That's why it's worth getting to know your own signs, the ones that tend to show up first.
Stress or something else
The same symptoms can also be caused by illness. Chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint, dizziness that doesn't go away, unexplained weight loss or stomach pain that won't let up should be checked by a doctor, not explained away as stress. The same goes if you're unsure. Better to go once too often than to have something missed.
On the flip side, many people see a doctor for symptoms that turn out to be linked to stress. It's not in their imagination. The symptoms are real, even when the cause is long-term strain.
Your body can be calmed
In 2021, Toussaint and colleagues randomly assigned sixty students to twenty minutes of relaxation with recorded instructions: progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense and release one muscle group at a time; deep breathing; or guided imagery, where you picture a calm place. A fourth group simply sat still.
All three methods produced a clearly stronger sense of relaxation than just sitting. Muscle relaxation and guided imagery also calmed the body's measurable arousal, measured through pulse and skin. Deep breathing first caused a brief spike before the body settled again, perhaps because the unfamiliar breathing itself took effort. The study was small and involved young, healthy adults, but it shows there are several paths, and none of them is the only right one.
Four ways to release tension
Choose what suits your body and your situation.
Muscle relaxation. For you if your stress sits in your shoulders, jaw, neck or hands. Tense one muscle group for five seconds, release, and notice the feeling for ten. Start with your hands and move on to your arms, shoulders, face, stomach and legs. First step: do it with your shoulders, hands and face now, before you read on.
Breathing. For you if your pulse and breathing are fast. Breathe in calmly through your nose and let the exhale be longer than the inhale. If it feels strange at first, that's normal, and it passes as you get used to it. More variations are in breathing exercises for stress. First step: take ten slow breaths with long exhales the next time you notice your pulse rising.
Guided imagery. For you if your thoughts won't let go. Close your eyes and picture a place where you've felt calm: how it looks, sounds and smells. Let the image take over your attention for a while. First step: take five minutes tonight and picture the place in as much detail as you can.
Twenty minutes a day. For you if you want to go further, and this is the most demanding path, since it takes time every day. Choose one of the methods and do it for twenty minutes a day for two weeks, ideally with a recording. Note how your body feels before and after. First step: choose a time and method today and put the fourteen days in your calendar.
Where to go from here
Once you've found a method that works, use it before the symptoms get strong: before a meeting, after a hard day at work, before you go to sleep. Notice which signs tend to come first for you, so you can act earlier. Symptoms are your body's way of saying the load is too heavy, and they ease best when the load also gets lighter, which is what managing stress is about.
If your symptoms last for weeks, or you're unsure what's causing them, talk to a doctor or health professional.
A first step today: tense and release your shoulders, hands and face, one at a time, and notice the feeling for ten seconds after each.
If your stress slides into worry that won't let go, the next part of the series is about anxiety.
This is the understanding and a first step. Atlas is where it becomes a habit. Under Inner State you'll find Calm breathing, five calm breaths in time with a circle, and Inner weather, where you rate how things feel inside and see which times and days tend to be heaviest. Try Atlas free for 7 days, and cancel whenever you like.