Stress can take its toll on your health, with chronic stress leading to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma and more. While you cannot avoid stress in your life, you can do something to control your levels of stress throughout the day to mitigate these effects. Here are some ways to manage your stress levels right now.
What is stress?
Stress is a term that we often use today to describe the pressures or strain of daily life. The term stress however only started to be used as a result of the work conducted by Hans Seyle, a researcher who defined a condition known as the general adaptation syndrome. He found that, when exposed to stress, a person would go through three phases: an alarm reaction, followed by a phase of resistance and then by exhaustion.
Not all stress is bad. In fact, there are different terms to refer to good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress). Stress reactions helped people survive in the past. Let’s say you’re in a forest and you meet a wild animal. A stress reaction will help you run faster and escape the danger or, in other words, survive. Nowadays, having acute reactions to stress, like when you have to take an exam, will help you mobilize and study and even have better attention during the exam itself. However, the problems arise when you are constantly subjected to stress.
The body actually has two pathways to respond to stressors, in other words factors that cause stress.
A fast pathway
This will lead to a higher heart rate, a higher blood pressure, higher glucose levels, more alertness, and will inhibit the digestive system. The result? A better fight-or-flight response to help you survive that encounter with the wild animal in the forest we were mentioning earlier.
A slower pathway
This occurs when the body is subjected to chronic stress levels and the cells are exposed to higher levels of cortisol than normal over time. We were not meant, from an evolutionary perspective, to be under chronic stress. After all, you may encounter the wild animal in the forest once in a while, but once the threat is out of the way you are ready to resume your life. Modern lifestyles have made exposure to chronic stress common, whether it’s work-related stress, or needing to perform according to increasingly complex social standards.
You might be wondering why stress is such a bad thing if it can help you survive after all. Wonder no more – long term exposure to stress has been shown to:
- Cause or worsen asthma
- Increase your risk of mortality
- Increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes
- Cause cardiovascular disease
- Play a part in several skin conditions, like psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, acne and alopecia areata
- Lead to systemic inflammation, even when the chronic stress occurred in the person’s childhood
These are just some of the potential consequences of chronic stress on your body. When faced with longer exposures to stress there are several coping methods you can adopt. One of the simplest ones is problem-focused coping, meaning you tackle the problem rather than your reaction to it. Let’s say you have a very stressful job and you get offered a better job, with less responsibility for equal pay. Taking on the new job would be an example of problem-focused coping.
However, you might not be able to solve every stressful situation in your life by addressing the problem. Let’s say you have a sick relative that you have to care for, you yourself have a chronic condition or that you have to care for your children while also working full-time, as a result of a stressful divorce. In situations where the problem causing the stress cannot be fixed, you can use emotion-focused coping. This refers to how you perceive and react to that particular context and what you can change within yourself to decrease your stress levels.
Here are nine stress management methods you can apply:
1. Progressive muscle relaxation
Also known as Jacobson’s relaxation technique, progressive muscle relaxation involves recognizing muscle tension in various parts of your body by tensing each muscle group. Usually, the person starts from the head and continues downwards, contracting and relaxing various body parts but it can be done in reverse, from the feet upwards. Each muscle group may be contracted and relaxed several times in a session. Also, the person may sit or lie down. This method was shown to be effective in managing stress levels in young adults, in increasing comfort among postpartum women and decreasing depression risk, and in reducing stress in the workplace.
You can check out this video to get a better image of what doing progressive muscle relaxation looks like and if it would be a good fit for you:
2. Autogenic training
Autogenic training was invented by a German psychologist called Johannes Heinrich Schultz with the aim of reducing stress. This method has been shown to be effective in managing stress in adults, by lowering levels of anxiety and depression, while also potentially improving headaches. It is similar with progressive muscle relaxation, in that it focuses on different parts of the body. However, instead of tensing and relaxing muscle groups, the person doing autogenic training should focus on calming breaths and on repeating certain phrases like “My leg is heavy. I am completely calm”, while gradually going from one body part to the other.
3. Deep breathing
Deep breathing is a technique meant to change shallow patterns of breathing during times of anxiety or stress to deeper breaths, sending your body a signal of calm. Deep breathing has also been studied in a series on contexts, and it can not only lower stress, but also lower heart rate and cortisol levels.
You can find out more about deep breathing from this quick exercise:
4. Biofeedback
Another way of reducing stress is biofeedback, which is exactly what it sounds like – receiving feedback from yourself in order to be able to recognize and control some body functions, such as heart rate, muscle contraction, breathing or other. The feedback is provided by a machine but eventually you may be able to do it without this external input, as you get used to recognizing what you feel in your body at different points. Biofeedback has been found to help reduce both occupational stress, as well as self-perceived stress and heart rates.
There are many devices and apps that are based on biofeedback, ranging from more ubiquitous ones that are used primarily for other purposes, such as the Relax feature integrated with Fitbit, all the way to hundreds of gadgets specifically built for providing biofeedback.
If you feel like you would benefit from biofeedback, research the product you’d like to get before and check for any studies conducted on its validity. One paper has shown that few of the products on the market have actually been validated through independent research. So even though biofeedback is effective, it might be worthwhile to do your homework before investing money in it, since the technology used for providing the feedback might not be.
5. Guided imagery / visualization
This technique uses visualization to relax. You can imagine a scenario that is associated with something positive for you and try to transpose yourself in that situation. It is essentially a form of purposeful daydreaming. While you might seek a professional to help you with guided imagery, you can also do it by listening to guided imagery exercises you can search for online. Studies have found that guided imagery can help with pain, anxiety and length of stay among adult ICU patients, physical distress and mood disturbances among workers on sick leave, with nightmares, and even with lowering distress and cortisol levels among mothers with preterm infants in the NICU.
You can see below what doing guided imagery looks like:
6. CBT
Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT for short is considered the “golden standard” in psychotherapy for many conditions. Studies have shown that CBT can help children by lowering cortisol reactivity, thereby preventing a sensitization to stress, and that it can help reduce stress levels and symptoms of exhaustion disorder among employees on sick leave. While you need a mental health specialist to get the classical experience of CBT therapy, there are currently many apps and platforms offering computerized versions of CBT with or without access to a licensed psychologist.
One other thing you might consider is learning more about the topic and understanding what CBT can help with. For instance, you might benefit from learning more about the concepts of irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions. If you manage to identify some in your own thinking patterns, you might try to become aware of the thought process and replace that thought with one that results in less stress.
7. Yoga
While the practice of yoga has been around for thousands of years, it has been only in the past few decades that yoga has gained popularity in the western countries as well. Many people practice yoga for relaxation, and that is a good thing, since scientific findings also suggest that it can decrease distress. For instance, yoga can reduce stress among women affected by infertility, as well as in the general population. There are however many types of yoga out there, from laughter yoga, which can buffer the endocrine response to stress, to Hatha yoga, Kundalini yoga, Bikram yoga and many more. The good news is that most types of yoga are able to lower stress levels so you just need to find the right type of practice for you and start relaxing!
8. Meditation
Like yoga, meditation has been around for thousands of years and there are many types of meditation you can start doing right now, such as transcendental meditation, mindfulness meditation, buddhist meditations or focus meditations, among others. For the presence of meditation in the western part of the world and the science behind it, thanks are mainly due to Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, and to Richard Davidson, who studied the way in which meditation changes the brain of both regular people and buddhist monks.
Many studies have been conducted on the effects of meditation, and so far meta-analyses have indicated that meditation can indeed benefit people, by lowering stress levels, and cortisol levels even in people with physical conditions. Meditation was also shown to perform better in treating anxiety than relaxation therapies alone.
You can even combine meditation with other practices. For example, mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy are part of what is known as the third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy, combining certain aspects of meditation within a CBT framework.
If you’d like to know more, you can listen to Richard Davidson talk about the benefits of meditation here:
9. Exercise
Exercise can not only improve your physical health but also your mental one. Exercise has been found to decrease symptoms of stress-related disorders, as well as anxiety. Dancing sessions may help you lower your cortisol levels, while other aerobic exercise programs have been shown to lower occupational stress and even help you recover emotionally from a subsequent stressor that may occur.
Find a program that fits your lifestyle and time availability, whether it’s running in the park or doing pilates at home, and remember that you can incorporate smaller workout sessions in a busier work schedule as well.
You may find that some of these techniques will appeal to you more than others. With so many methods to choose from, it’s great to be able to experience what works best for you. In the long run, as with any other healthy habits, consistency is key. Healthy practices such as exercising or maintaining a balanced diet usually need months to yield the results you’re looking for and for you to incorporate that new behavior into your routine. Similarly, stress management techniques need to be applied regularly over a longer period of time to show their effects in how you deal with stressful situations.
However, this is not meant to replace seeking the help of a medical practitioner. Remember to consult with your doctor before starting any of these techniques. If you feel like your stress levels, symptoms of anxiety or depression are not going away or that they are impacting your life in a negative manner, see a healthcare professional who can offer the help that you need.
In the meantime, stay safe and relax, even for a few minutes!
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