by Dr. Serena Wadhwa
For most brides, planning a wedding can be an exciting, yet daunting experience. While preparing for your big day, it is important to incorporate stress-reduction techniques to prevent potentially harmful effects to your immune system, skin, and sex drive. After all, you don’t want to walk down the aisle with facial blemishes, a cold, and no “oomph” for your wedding night!
From the moment that engagement ring slips on your finger, visions of a perfect wedding swirl in your head. The gown, the cake, the reception—you want everything to be perfect. But the more you think about your ideal day, excitement builds, and so can stress. Although stress is normal, prolonged periods can have a profoundly negative effect.
You may be wondering how a positive life-event, like a wedding, can elicit such an adverse reaction. Regardless of the source, when the body experiences extended periods of stress, without time to recover or resolve the stressor, a chronic response ensues. You begin to draw upon more resources to cope, causing you to extend yourself beyond your capacity. When these resources are depleted, your body continues to react to this imbalance by releasing more stress hormones. Over time, this can result in undesired effects like fatigue, headaches, depression, anxiety, and weight gain, to name a few. These physical and emotional feelings can result in an increase in the use of stimulants such as nicotine and caffeine, as well as the use of alcohol. These symptoms and resulting behaviors can greatly impact how you look and feel on your wedding day. Here, we share seven ways to de-stress before slipping into your dress.