Stress Management Techniques You Can Use Right Now Articles | Stress

By: Alex Whittle

Stress is a big problem in the developed world and a it is a problem that is simply getting bigger all the time. Recently in Britain, work absences due to stress became the biggest single cause of absenteeism, and insurance companies believe that stress is likely to become the greatest emerging risk to business in the 21st century. In the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health publish surveys that estimate that between 26 and 40% of all workers feel that stress is a significant burden.

In the past 20 years, research studies have investigated the relationship between stress and a variety of diseases. Mood and sleep disturbances, upset stomach and headache, and problematic interpersonal relationships are examples of stress-related problems that are frequently seen in these studies. The effects of stress on chronic diseases are more difficult to identify, however, evidence has been gathered to suggest that stress plays an important role in several types of chronic health problems including heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and psychological disorders.

In my practice, I see many people who suffer from psychological disorders caused, one way or another, by stress.

What can you do?

If you can, it is wise to reduce or remove (or remove yourself from) some external situation that is causing your stress. Often times, we are unable to leave a stressful job or to put the kids on eBay, for example, no matter how tempting the idea might be. Perhaps it may be possible to distance ourselves from a toxic person in our lives.

It is always possible is to change your response to stress.

Here is a tip that can help you deal with stress that is particularly useful if you know you are about to have a stressful situation. I learned this through studying martial arts.

Find somewhere quiet where you can sit for a few minutes. Take a deep slow breath, and feel the breath going deep into your abdomen. Actually put your hand on your stomach and feel it expand as you breathe, counting to 7 while you inhale.

Now hold that breath for a count of 5, then slowly exhale, while counting to 7. Repeat this slow breathing for three minutes.

This exercise relaxes a part of your brain called the amygdala, which is part of your so-called reptilian brain. It is responsible for controlling your most primitive emotions. If it is triggered due to stress (and the experts think it learns to recognise stressful situations and prepares us for a fight), if triggered it will flood your body with stress hormones that will make you feel tense, anxious and unable to concentrate. Once the amygdala is activated, there is not a lot you can do to reduce the effects on your body. The effects of those stress hormones can last for hours.

Here is another tip on reducing your stress response.

Often times, there are many factors and situations that add up to your experience of feeling stressed. It's not that there is one big stressor in your life, it's that lots of small and medium things contribute to your sense of stress and overwhelm. In this situation there is a good way to handle things. Neuro-Linguistic Programming theory tells us that our conscious minds can only process 5 to 9 chunks of information at once, and if your life is throwing more than that number at you, you will not be able to process them. Hence, reducing the number of stressful items will improve your ability to cope.

Step 1: Write down all the things that are causing you stress in your life. You really need to write the items down.

Step 2: Find any item in your list that you can actually do something about. Even the little things are useful.

Step 3: Do something to eliminate that single item. Delegate it to someone else. Handle it yourself. Make a plan to do something about it.

The key to this process is that as you remove things from your "stress list", you get more capacity to handle the other things. That's why it makes sense to start with the small items.

That one tip cost me about $500 in therapy fees to learn.

Another approach is meditation. Meditation trains you to develop brainwave patterns (Alpha brainwaves) that promote relaxation and provide a type of resilience to stressful situations. The idea behind meditation is to consciously relax your body and focus your thoughts on a single thing for a time. This occupies your conscious mind, diverting it from the problems that are causing you stress. It gives your body time to relax and recover, and to clear away stress hormones that may have accumulated.

There is nothing mystical about meditation. On the contrary, it is something that you can do quite easily by following these steps:

* Sit or lie down somewhere quiet and comfortable where you will not be disturbed.

* Close your eyes.

* Progressively relax the muscles of your feet and work up your body relaxing all your muscles.

* Focus on your breathing, taking deep slow breaths as described above.

* Count your breaths, and say the number of the breath as you let it out (this gives you something to do with your mind, helping you to avoid distraction).

Do this for fifteen minutes at the start and end of each day. If you find it difficult to still your mind using this approach, I recommend purchasing self hypnosis tapes.