We know that stress can affect our physical, emotional and mental health. But so often we overlook our spiritual health. Our spirits can suffer from the effects of too much stress and the negative consequences of that are rarely covered by conventional medicine and therapy.

The word spiritual is often linked to religion, but we are all spiritual beings. Our spirit is the essence of who we are. It is our spiritual side that loves, experiences peace and joy. And stress has a very negative effect on our spirit.

*Difficulty expressing love-during periods of stress, we experience a reduction in our ability to express and feel love. We usually snap at and are irritable towards those closest to us.

*Lack of joy-this is particularly true with longer periods of episodic stress and chronic stress. It is hard to be joyful when you are continually stressed out.

*No peace-stress is the opposite of peace, and so  when stress is present, there can be no peace.

*No patience-when stressed, we tend to be much more impatient with others.

*Less kind and good-there was a study done that showed that when under stress, people were much less likely to help out another person in need. Empathy, caring, kindness and goodness are all reduced in the presence of too much stress.

*Less gentleness-because we tend to me more short tempered, and more easily irritated and angered, the ability to be more gentle becomes a challenge.

*Lack of self control-when we are stressed, especially once we go past our stress tolerance threshold, we lose self-control. This leads to overeating, spending too much money, smoking too much, drinking too much, taking drugs, gambling and more.