Effective ways to overcome stress....
Today's Post: Friday, 10-9-2009
1. Exercise. Many health writers include exercise. But I’ve just found out they massively undersell exercise as a way to reduce stress and overcome it.
One of the most challenging aspects of severe stress is that it can get in the way of doing the things necessary to solve the problems that created it. Your perception of the severity of the stress creates such a fight or flight reaction it gets in the way of thinking straight or with any flexibility. It even can cause memory lapses that also cause more problems.
Sometime last week, I think in an email from a Dr Wascher, I read of an extremely significant study. Two groups were under stress they perceived as severe.
One group exercised & one did not.
At the end of the study all the people who didn’t exercise still had the perceived severe stress.
Meanwhile 60% of the exercisers no longer felt their stress was severe. The exercise either increased their feelings of efficacy or turned off the stress over-reaction or both.
Clearly the causes of the stress were still there in both groups.
Second, sometimes chronic stress causes depression which in turn causes low energy & less action to solve the problems causing it. We now know that exercise is reliably good at helping reduce or turn off depression.
Third, vigorous exercise demands enough of your attention it can completely turn off your worries mentally just like drinking enough alcohol. Giving it a rest can really help; & even if it’s brief, vigorous exercise does the job. In fact, it is one of the fastest depression reducers known.
2. Only drink alcohol moderately. This one can be a bit tough to do when you are stressed enough. But drinking more than 2 drinks a day for men or one a day for women can cause health problems while drinking a lot more than that in one day often causes accidents and other even worse problems that can multiply your stress. Plus it gets expensive.
Even worse, your problems that were stressing you are still there when you recover.
Drink some if you drink at all. Some is actually good for stress relief. But for more stress relief than some alcohol, force yourself to do something else. Exercise, solve the problems causing the stress if you can, or do something else on this list.
3. Eat right. Eating foods that support your health gives your brain the fuel to help you solve your problems. Eating or drinking junk foods causes your thinking to be foggy or adds extra mood swings. So avoid that to the max.
4. Relax a bit daily in some way. Read one of your favorite books even if only for 20 minutes. If you already know how, do Tai Chi because it’s both exercise AND stress relief. Meditate if you do that if only for 5 minutes. Take a brief nap if you need one and have the time.
5. Make well organized efforts to solve or escape the problems causing your stress if you can. And, research some things that might work if you know of no useful solutions. You might succeed. And, you’ll feel more in control and less stressed by doing this.
6. Remind yourself of what you do well and previous success in the past. That forces your brain to include some actual assets & the more assets you remember you have the less overwhelmed and stressed you feel.
7. Get social support and recruit actual help.
a) Just talking to people who you know or where you care about them or vice versa calms you down and focuses your mind away from worry just like exercise. And, it also has strong anti-depression effects just like exercise.
b) You may not even know how to solve the problems you face that are stressing you. BUT, you may know or be able to find someone who does. In fact between who you know and who the people you know know or know of, you probably do.
If you ask people for help or advice and are willing to accept whatever they are comfortable supplying whether it’s exactly what you need, some advice that might help, or nothing at all, but you DO ask & you ask many people, you can often create miraculous solutions.
8. Start your day with a positive. Do some exercise that makes you feel good. Do something nice for someone you can do something nice for. Take a step towards solving your problems that might work. Read a bit in a favorite book. Pray if you find it helpful. (Interestingly, this can really help even if you are not much of a believer.)
Today's Post: Friday, 10-9-2009
1. Exercise. Many health writers include exercise. But I’ve just found out they massively undersell exercise as a way to reduce stress and overcome it.
One of the most challenging aspects of severe stress is that it can get in the way of doing the things necessary to solve the problems that created it. Your perception of the severity of the stress creates such a fight or flight reaction it gets in the way of thinking straight or with any flexibility. It even can cause memory lapses that also cause more problems.
Sometime last week, I think in an email from a Dr Wascher, I read of an extremely significant study. Two groups were under stress they perceived as severe.
One group exercised & one did not.
At the end of the study all the people who didn’t exercise still had the perceived severe stress.
Meanwhile 60% of the exercisers no longer felt their stress was severe. The exercise either increased their feelings of efficacy or turned off the stress over-reaction or both.
Clearly the causes of the stress were still there in both groups.
Second, sometimes chronic stress causes depression which in turn causes low energy & less action to solve the problems causing it. We now know that exercise is reliably good at helping reduce or turn off depression.
Third, vigorous exercise demands enough of your attention it can completely turn off your worries mentally just like drinking enough alcohol. Giving it a rest can really help; & even if it’s brief, vigorous exercise does the job. In fact, it is one of the fastest depression reducers known.
2. Only drink alcohol moderately. This one can be a bit tough to do when you are stressed enough. But drinking more than 2 drinks a day for men or one a day for women can cause health problems while drinking a lot more than that in one day often causes accidents and other even worse problems that can multiply your stress. Plus it gets expensive.
Even worse, your problems that were stressing you are still there when you recover.
Drink some if you drink at all. Some is actually good for stress relief. But for more stress relief than some alcohol, force yourself to do something else. Exercise, solve the problems causing the stress if you can, or do something else on this list.
3. Eat right. Eating foods that support your health gives your brain the fuel to help you solve your problems. Eating or drinking junk foods causes your thinking to be foggy or adds extra mood swings. So avoid that to the max.
4. Relax a bit daily in some way. Read one of your favorite books even if only for 20 minutes. If you already know how, do Tai Chi because it’s both exercise AND stress relief. Meditate if you do that if only for 5 minutes. Take a brief nap if you need one and have the time.
5. Make well organized efforts to solve or escape the problems causing your stress if you can. And, research some things that might work if you know of no useful solutions. You might succeed. And, you’ll feel more in control and less stressed by doing this.
6. Remind yourself of what you do well and previous success in the past. That forces your brain to include some actual assets & the more assets you remember you have the less overwhelmed and stressed you feel.
7. Get social support and recruit actual help.
a) Just talking to people who you know or where you care about them or vice versa calms you down and focuses your mind away from worry just like exercise. And, it also has strong anti-depression effects just like exercise.
b) You may not even know how to solve the problems you face that are stressing you. BUT, you may know or be able to find someone who does. In fact between who you know and who the people you know know or know of, you probably do.
If you ask people for help or advice and are willing to accept whatever they are comfortable supplying whether it’s exactly what you need, some advice that might help, or nothing at all, but you DO ask & you ask many people, you can often create miraculous solutions.
8. Start your day with a positive. Do some exercise that makes you feel good. Do something nice for someone you can do something nice for. Take a step towards solving your problems that might work. Read a bit in a favorite book. Pray if you find it helpful. (Interestingly, this can really help even if you are not much of a believer.)
Labels: 8 effective ways to cure stress, how to think well even when stressed, overcome severe stress, overcome stress, stress relief, why exercise helps overcome stress
posted by David at 2:31 PM
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