Tips for Keeping Stress at Bay
Whether it's your professional life or your personal lifeor boththat has you in knots, the long-term effects of stress can be debilitating. Increased levels of stress experienced over a period of time have been linked to immune deficiency, heart disease, and even memory loss. Although single, high-stress incidents don't seem to share the same link, knowing how to cope with life's stress can go a long way toward your physical, not to mention your mental, health. If you're feeling stressed, try the following stress-busters. They won't eliminate stress. But you'll be calmer.
• Emulate those who seem impervious to stress.
Everyone has a friend or neighbor who seems permanently unruffled in the face of stress. Are they? Or are they just copying someone else's behavior? Either way, studies have shown that people who focus on the immediate issuethe crisis before you rather than the global pictureare less affected by stress. The perpetually calm also have found ways to rationalize stress-causing factors: "If I couldn't take it, it wouldn't have happened to me," for example.
Moreover, people adept at coping with stress take an "explanatory approach" toward life whereby they assume their troubles are temporary rather than permanent and view them as specific as opposed to universal. In other words, having a bad day is just that. It doesn't mean your entire life is cursed. Lastly, when using this approach, people internalize their success rather than externalize it.
You need not be a Zen-master to be calm. It's something you can learn. By acting as though you hold these beliefs, you will be perceived as calm, and with a little practice may even come to believe it yourself.
• Take a holistic approach.
Meditation and massage have both been shown to help people reduce their levels of stress. Both trigger physical responses that help the body cope. Meditation, for example, lowers a person's blood pressure and heart rate, as well as the flow of stress hormones. No one knows exactly why massage works, but studies on premature babies have shown that those receiving it gain weight faster (47% more in 10 days) than their nursery mates.
• Work it out.
It's the old standbyexercise. Everyone knows it's good for combating stress, but unfortunately, many of us are too stressed and have too little time to even consider it. Scientists have conducted studies whose results show that after 30 minutes on a treadmill, young men scored 25% lower on anxiety tests and showed favorable changes in brain activity. The best advice is if you're feeling that you don't have enough time, exercise is one thing you should make time to do.
• Write it down.
No one likes to be micromanaged, but when it comes to handling stress, making a list and checking it twice can do wonders. Experts advise making a to-do list at the start of each day. Prioritize the list, and note which items are and aren't within your control. Then start chipping away at it. Distractions will happen but having the big picture before you can help keep you focused and help keep you calm.
• Let's do lunch.
Whether it's taking a walk with your spouse, heading for the confessional, or simply chatting about your life over lunch with a friend, studies have shown that talking about what makes you stressed can ease your mind. Not only does the act of talking force you to put some order to your thoughts, but you might even get some sound advice.
Tips for Keeping Stress at Bay. Altern Med Alert 2005;8(12):S2.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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