Healthy
Living
Harnessing Stress
Stress has
become a fact of life, and for some, the
daily norm.
Although occasional stress can help
improve our
focus and performance, living with chronic
stress can
backfire by causing anxiety, depression, and
serious
health problems.
Understanding
who we are, knowing our major struggles,
putting them
in perspective, and taking action
can help us
deal with stress. The following strategies
can also
improve stress tolerance and help lessen the
effects of
stress on our health.
Think Positively
Adopting the
right attitude can convert a negative
stress into
positive, said Hans Selye, author of the
groundbreaking
work around stress theory. When optimism
is hard to
muster, cognitive-behavioral therapy,
which trains
people to recognize negative thinking patterns
and replace
them with more constructive ones,
can also
help reduce the risk of chronic stress and
depression.
Get Out and Enjoy Nature
While modern
civilization has made our lives more
convenient,
it has deprived us of an essential source of
stress
relief connection with nature. Studies show
that
interacting with nature can help lessen the effects
of stress on
the nervous system, reduce attention
deficits,
decrease aggression, and enhance spiritual
well-being.
Smell the Roses for Better
Mood
Aromatherapy,
or smelling essential plant oils, recognized
worldwide as
a complementary therapy for managing
chronic
pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and
stress-related
disorders, can help you unwind. Orange
and lavender
scents, in particular, have been shown to
enhance
relaxation and reduce anxiety.
Relax with a Cup of Tea
During
stressful times, coffee helps us keep going. To
give
yourself a break, however, consider drinking tea.
Research
shows that drinking tea for 6 weeks helps
lower
post-stress cortisol and increase relaxation.
Habitual tea
drinking may also reduce inflammation,
potentially
benefiting your heart health.
Laugh It Off
Humor
relieves stress and anxiety and prevents
depression,
helping put our troubles in perspective.
Laughter can
help boost the immune system, increase
pain
tolerance, enhance mood and creativity, and
lower blood
pressure, potentially improving treatment
outcomes for
many health problems, including cancer
and HIV.
Humor may also be related to happiness,
which has
been linked to high self-esteem, extroversion,
and feeling
in control.
Build a Support System
Relationships
are also key to health and happiness,
especially
for women. Women with low social support,
for example,
are more likely to increase blood pressure
under
stress. Loneliness may also contribute to stress
in both men
and women, also leading to poorer outcomes
after a
stroke or congestive heart failure. On the
other hand,
active and socially involved seniors are at
lower risk
for dementia and Alzheimers disease. Social
support also
helps cancer patients to boost the
immune
system and maintain a higher quality of life.
Employ the Relaxing Power of
Music
Music,
especially classical, can also serve as a powerful
stress-relief
tool. Listening to Pachelbels famous
Canon in D
major while preparing a public speech
helps avoid
anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure,
which
usually accompany public speaking.
Singing and
listening to music can also relieve pain
and reduce
anxiety and depression caused by lowback
pain. Group
drumming also showed positive
effects on
stress relief and the immune system. Music
therapy can
also elevate mood and positively affect the
immune
system in cancer patients and reduce fatigue
and improve
self-acceptance in people with multiple
sclerosis.
To help
people deal with stressful medical procedures,
music can
help reduce anxiety before surgery. When
played
during surgery, it can decrease the patients
post-operative
pain. Aiding recovery, a dose of calming
music may
lower anxiety, pain, and the need for
painkillers.
Calm Your Mind
In recent
decades, many forms of meditation have
gained
popularity as relaxation and pain relief tools.
Focusing on
our breath, looking at a candle, or practicing
a
non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts and
actions can
help tune out distractions, reduce anxiety
and
depression, and accept our circumstances. In cancer
patients,
meditation-based stress reduction
enhances
quality of life, lowers stress symptoms, and
potentially
benefits the immune system.
Guided
imagery, such as visualizing pictures prompted
by an
audiotape recording, also shows promise in
stress
relief and pain reduction. Based on the idea that
the mind can
affect the body, guided imagery can be a
useful
adjunct to cancer therapy, focusing patients on
positive
images to help heal their bodies.
Enjoy the Warmth of Human
Touch
Just as the
mind can affect the body, the body can
influence
the mind. Virginia Satir, a famous American
psychotherapist,
once said that people need 4 hugs a
day to help
prevent depression, 8 for psychological
stability,
and 12 for growth. While asking for hugs may
not work for
some, massage can help us relieve stress
and reduce
anxiety and depression. Massage has also
been shown
to reduce aggression and hostility in
violent
adolescents, to improve mood and behavior in
students
with ADHD, and to lead to better sleep and
behavior in
children with autism.
Massage has
other therapeutic properties, as well.
Regular
massage may reduce blood pressure in people
with
hypertension and may lead to less pain, depression,
and anxiety
and better sleep in patients with
chronic
low-back pain. Compared to relaxation, massage
therapy also
causes greater reduction in depression
and anger,
and more significant effects on the
immune
system in breast cancer patients.
Give Exercise a Shot
To get the
best of both worlds, affecting the mind
through the
body while getting into good physical
shape, try
exercise. In one study, a group of lung cancer
patients
increased their hope due to exercise.
Exercise can
also reduce depression and improve
wound
healing in the elderly. Tai chi, which works for
people of
all ages, may enhance heart and lung function,
improve
balance and posture, and prevent falls,
while
reducing stress.
No matter
what stress-relief methods you choose,
make it a
habit to use themes pecially if you feel too
stressed out
to do it. As someone once said, the time
to relax is
when you don't have time for it.
For more
information on health and safety visit the Ontario Chiropractic
Association
Web site at
www.chiropractic.on.ca or call 1877-327-2273.
Dr. George
Traitses, 416-499-5656, www.infinite-health.com
