How to Reduce Stress

Here are some tips for alleviating pressure created by too much stress....

Having a heart-pounding, nail-biting, blood-pressure skyrocketing kind of day? Or week? Or past several years? It's time to learn how to reduce stress.

 

Leaving your high-stress levels unchecked can lead to the following health problems:

 

• Chronic hypertension
• Heart disease
• Gastrointestinal disorders like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Tension headaches
• Skin disorders
• Sexual dysfunction

 

If IBS and sexual dysfunction don't get your attention, perhaps this sobering statistic will: stress is widely regarded as the number one killer in the U.S.

 

Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases are, for the most part, attributed to stress, be it lifelong-lifestyle choices like poor nutrition, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

 

High-pressure jobs, combative relationships with family and spouses, white-knuckle commutes and financial burdens are also major stressors. Perhaps it's impossible to magically make these stressors disappear, but it's mostly how we deal with stress that will determine our health.

 

To deal with the bad stressors in life (as well as the good; stress is stress to the body), you'll want to:

 

• Practice breathwork and meditation at least once daily
• Engage in moderate-intensity exercise daily
• Eat three balanced whole-food meals at regular times daily
• Gain a new perspective on the important things in life
• Learn to express emotions without acting out on anger

 

Easier said than done, but if left unchecked, your stress could slowly — or quickly — subtract years from your life.

 

I'm too busy to meditate. What should I do?

No matter how many kids you have to whip up an omelet for in the morning and whisk away to school, you can always wake up 10 minutes earlier and find a quiet place to focus on slow, meditative breathing. This will calm the mind tremendously.

 

If it's absolutely impossible to meditate in the morning, make sure you leave some time in the middle of the day, when all the kids are at school. Even if you have a demanding job, say personal assistant for a Fortune 500 executive, go to your car if that's the only place that affords you privacy and focus on slow deep breathing, paying no mind to extraneous thoughts about life's problems.

 

Evening, before getting in bed is critical to managing stress levels. Don't let the stressors of the day flood your mind and body, possibly leading to a bad night's sleep. Find somewhere quiet with no television or Wi-Fi devices or bright lights to focus on doing nothing but concentrating on slow, full-belly and chest expansion breathing. Thoughts will come into your head but pay no mind to them.

 

What's the best exercise to combat negative stress?

Many people go to the gym for a workout that gets the stress out of them, but some workouts actually lead to more stress. The popularity of boot-camp style workouts are an example. Sure, they'll whip your butt into great cardiovascular shape, but potentially at the risk of adding more stress.

 

If you're a "type A" personality focused on financial goal motivations first and foremost in life, you'll want to, besides considering changing your perspective on life, pick an exercise routine that will relax you instead. Moderate yoga (such as Hatha) offers the benefits of focusing on controlling the breath, while simultaneously getting your heart rate up (but not too high) and strengthening muscles and bones.

 

If you absolutely have to do triathlon-style training, be sure to complement with relaxing and rejuvenating moving-meditation type exercises like Qi Gong or Tai Chi.

 

Why does stress make my belly ache?

If you've gone the past few decades in life eating much refined carbohydrate, white-flour and sugar-laden foods, you may have a weakened gastrointestinal system. Eating bad foods, including to those that you are sensitive (wheat, soy, corn) can compromise the mucosal barrier in your gut, which is your body's first line of defense against pathogens. Most of your immune system lies within your gut, so eat the wrong foods year after year, and you may end up with more than just a tummy ache.

 

What can I do to control my anger? My boss is a complete jerk!

Learning to express how you feel without letting your emotions get in the way is as difficult as learning Swahili: difficult, but not impossible. Just getting the basics can be life-transforming.

 

There are plenty of classes and workshops on Non-Violent Communication (a.k.a. "compassionate communication"), possibly led by facilitators in your area. The major steps to learning how to express your anger include:

 

• Making an observation (My boss yelled at me today)
• Stating calmly how the observation makes you feel (It made me feel angry, upset, stressed-out)
• Declaring your needs (I have a need for respect and kindness)
• Formulating a request (I request of my boss to stop yelling at me and talk to me in a calm tone)

 

Most negative stress is caused at either the home or workplace. Learning to communicate feelings is indeed like learning a second language, but doing so can extend your life and reduce stress.

How to relieve stress

Has your life become like a country song lately? Lost your job? Spouse walked out on you? Truck broke down? Dog ran away? Fret not, partner; it’s not the end of the world. Here’s how to relieve stress.

 

Whether it’s emotional, mental, physical, environmental or social stressors, the following tips will help you deal with — and eventually overcome — whatever roadblocks life has overwhelmed you with.

 

To combat stress, you’ll want to:

• Eat more
• Meditate
• Exercise
• Rest and re-evaluate
• Balance hormonal levels

 

I’m already overweight — and stressed out. You’re telling me to eat more?

Yes. Many people who lead stressful lives tend to skip meals and binge. Skipping meals results in the body undergoing more stress. Skipping breakfast or going several hours (more than five) between meals results in your metabolism screeching to a halt and blood sugar levels dropping to less-than-ideal levels.

 

To relieve stress, you’ll want to fuel your body regularly. Make sure to eat at least three meals a day and have a snack in between meals, if necessary to regulate blood sugar levels. As much as possible, avoid high-starchy foods like pasta, pastries, breads and any foods loaded with white flour. Flooding the body with foods like these will spike blood sugar levels and won’t help you relieve stress.

 

Stress zaps the body of energy. Resupply yourself with balanced meals and snacks that always include protein, natural fats and low-starch carbohydrates. Indulge in a little piece of milk or dark chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth.

 

I’m going through a divorce. How is contemplating my navel going to help pay alimony?

Meditation won’t miraculously erase your stress overnight. But over time, setting aside as little as 10 minutes in the morning and evening for meditation can help you relieve stress. There are many forms of meditation.

 

To combat stress, one of the best forms is to focus on one thing: your breathing. Throughout our hectic day, we forget to take deep breaths. We hold on to our breath and bottle up the stress inside.

 

Our chest and upper back muscles get tight. Sitting still (can be in a chair; doesn’t have to be like Buddha cross-legged) and focusing on inhaling and exhaling deeply, each lasting about a 3-Mississippi count, can have a profound relaxing effect.

 

QUICK POLL

How do you relieve stress?

 I exercise.

 I nap.

 I eat or cook.

 I listen to music.

 I meditate or pray

 I read (MNN, of course).

 I don't do anything. I'm so stressed!

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Try to not think about the stressors in your life, but it’s OK if you do. Think of bad thoughts as dark storm clouds quickly moving through the sky (your brain). Let stressful and negative thoughts come in one ear and quickly out the other.

 

Focusing on the flame of a lighted candle, while concentrating on breathing, also helps put stressful situations in perspective. Seldom are our problems as serious as we think they are — in the grand scheme of the universe.

 

I already do triathlons, but I’m still stressed out. How can exercise help me?

Most people know that exercising regularly can help deal with stress. If you have a stressful job, say slaving away on Wall Street for the big bucks, maybe you’re already hitting the gym to get the stress out of you. But working out too intensely can actually make you more stressed out. How? High-intensity workouts can flood the body with cortisol, commonly known as the stress hormone.

 

The more cortisol coursing its way through your system, the more your adrenals will become fatigued. Your adrenal glands, which rest on top of your kidneys, release the hormones that help you battle stress. Too much cortisol will leave your body struggling to battle stress. High-intensity workouts may add to sluggish adrenals.

 

If you have lots of stress in your life, pick an activity that will help balance your already hyper mind. Yoga or Pilates are just two examples of exercise modalities that may help relieve stress.

 

Are you really held captive eternally to your stressful life?

If you’re determined not to have a stressful life, make changes that remove yourself from stress. Do you have a friend who stresses you out and unloads all her drama on your lap? Distance yourself from that friend, no matter how long a history you have with her. Wall Street slave: do you really need to make as much money as you’re earning, at the expense of all that stress? Quit and find a less stressful job.

 

Unemployed and can’t find work in your field? Scour the Web for outside-the-box opportunities. Become a caretaker for an estate in another country. Pack up your family and move to a less stressful environment. The confining and debilitating walls of stress will only box you in if you let them.

 

Decades of stress can wreak havoc on your health. Balance hormones to counteract it.

All that cortisol flooding your system over the years can throw your hormones out of whack, compromising every system of your body. Seek a medical professional like a naturopathic doctor to help you reestablish correct and balance hormonal pathways.

Occasional Unplugging is Crucial for your Sanity

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and man, do I feel awesome.

I've just returned from a nearly-month long sabbatical to Southwest Colorado, where I camped, often for free in National Forest land with raging whitewater rapids roaring right by my tent.

I took a horseback ride up harrowing switchbacks past 10,000 feet in Ouray (the "Switzerland of America"), where I also hiked the Horsethief Trail up to the "Bridge to Heaven", where the summit was over 12,300--by far the highest I've ever been. (The last 45 minutes were exhausting! Lesson learned: eat more when hiking; you burn so many calories at high altitude and steep terrain, you have to frequently refuel.)

I whitewater rafted (with an outfitter) down some fun class III rapids. I was in wide open green spaces surrounded by 13 and 14,000-foot peaks with no houses and hardly anyone in sight. I connected with nature in a way that I haven't in quite some time.

Totally cleansed of any stress I was holding on to, my challenge now, will be to hold on to that spiritually-renewed feeling. Not that my life is too stressful; I've chosen to lead a stress-free life and have created just that, but any stress I was having completely melted away. Even if I had lots of stress in my life, this trip to Colorado would have profoundly changed me.

I'd be lying if I said I never checked my email while I was away for a few weeks. I did in fact check occasionally, but I unplugged from my complete dependency on electronics. The cell phone was switched off most of the time, and I barely used my laptop. Emails were checked in funky Internet cafes.

Connecting with nature, disconnecting from the grid, camping....I recommend this for everybody to do at least once a year for two weeks.

Easier said than done if you have young kids, but I saw plenty of nouveau-hippies (new agers who don't indulge in drugs or smoke cigarettes like the old-school hippies) with toddlers camped out.

Wellness newsletters have become too saturated with marketing, scaring us much of the time with the new health scourge of the week. Some people may be accustomed to getting in the inbox a health email with a subject line such as: "Why Taking This Supplement Will Kill You".

Maybe some readers of this post couldn't care less about my camping trip to Colorado; maybe they'd rather read about eating organic and if it's really better for you.

But taking a break from your normal day to day routine like I did can profoundly change your state of wellness for the better--mentally, spiritually and even physically.

I was so relaxed throughout the trip that even though I always emphasize yoga and stretching in my wellness routine, I didn't even stretch once or do a lick of yoga. I didn't need to; my muscles weren't holding on to any stress.

Besides hiking, I gave my muscles a rest. I thought I'd lose muscle tone and gain fat if I didn't do any upper-body strengthening exercises, but I discovered that if I stick with my metabolic type nutrition lifeplan, then I don't have a thing to worry about.

If I fell off the wagon and had hot dogs (with bun) cooked over the campfire and roasted marshmallows for dessert, I didn't worry that I wasn't "eating healthy". I just made sure that the rest of the time I was eating high protein and high fiber foods and drinking lots of water.

I had a realization that if you invest some time (everybody is different, but I'd say at least two years) into strength training and eat properly for your metabolic type, you can go for extended periods of time without exercising and not put on any weight. In fact, you will preserve your muscle tone and may even get leaner.

I'm already looking forward to my next trip in the woods. If it's been a while for you, make a plan to get there soon.