Stress and Stress Reduction

Each of us has the same bodily responses to sudden stress, the “fight or flight” response to danger – elevated pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate, tensing of muscles. But it’s the reactions to long‐term stress that can be harmful and varies between persons. Chronic, constant stress can cause the bodily response to continue even if true “danger” is no longer present. Then the continuous fight‐or‐flight physiological processes can negatively affect digestion, sleep, immunity to viruses, reproductive efficiency, cause digestive problems, headaches, irritability, anger, or sadness. Ultimately this can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression or anxiety.

So it’s important to know how to manage stress.

Consider these tips from the American Psychological Association and the National Institute of Mental Health:

Know your own responses to stress. Do you sleep poorly? Become easily angered or irritated? Do you turn more to alcohol? Are you having more frequent colds? Maybe you always feel tired or dejected?

Try to identify what it is causing the stress, then take a break from the stressor. Deliberately walk away from it for 20 minutes. Some proven things to try during a break, that will reduce the body’s bad reactions to the stress for up to several hours after your break:

Exercise: even a 20 minute walk, dance session, tai chi or yoga benefits your mind as much as your body.
Meditate: meditation or mindful prayer have been shown to cause the Relaxation Response, which is the opposite physiological reactions from “fight or flight”, that is, a decrease in pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and stress hormones and an evening out of brain wave activity.
Breathing exercise: When you focus for several minutes on what your breath feels like, you take your mind off stressors. There are many good breath focusing techniques. One of the simplest is counting the four parts of each breath:
- 1) The Inhalation
- 2) The slight pause and transition before Exhalation
- 3) The Exhalation
- 4) The longer pause after you breathe out and before the next natural inhalation occurs.

A good online resource: the beginner’s 20 minute video “Jon Kabat‐ Zinn Breathscape and Bodyscape guided Meditation” ‐ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXUAg5tA0s

Smile and Laugh! Scientists call it the Duchenne effect: when we genuinely smile, the positive emotion brings about many of the Relaxation Response changes. So hang out with someone funny during your break, listen to a comedian, or read a favorite cartoon series.

Set Goals and Priorities. Learn to say NO. Decide what must get done and what can wait, and say no to new tasks if they are putting you into overload. At the end of the day, focus on what you have accomplished, not what you have been unable to do.

Stay connected with people who can provide emotional and other support. To reduce stress, ask for help from friends, family, and community or religious organizations. But avoid those that cause you stress!

Try Resilience training. Resilience is your ability to adapt well and recover quickly after stress, adversity, trauma or tragedy. If you’re not someone who naturally recovers over time, there are programs that can actually help learn, practice, and become more resilient to stress. Coaches and counselors are valuable resources for learning coping and resilience strategies as well. Seek out a stress management clinic or expert near you.

Ask for help. If you feel you cannot cope, are using drugs or alcohol to cope, are having suicidal thoughts, or are simply overwhelmed, contact a doctor. Also, you can find a mental health provider by visiting www.nimh.nih.gov/findhelp.

If you or a loved one is having thoughts of suicide, call the toll‐free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (suicidepreventionlifeline.org) at 1‐800‐273‐TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is available to anyone. All calls are confidential