By Damien Rider
Stress is the shadow that follows us and stares over our shoulders during the most challenging times of our life. Its menacing glare makes us feel criticized, uncomfortable, and tense. It distracts us from the present and steals our energy. Like the “monkey mind” in the previous blog, stress tells us stories that interrupt our day and throw us off our path.
In this blog, we’re going to shine a light on stress to learn about why we experience it, the problem with prolonged stress, and healthy coping strategies. By exploring this topic, you’ll feel more prepared to take care of your mental state proactively, and you’ll have a firm foundation to build on in our next blog about trauma.
What is Stress?
Stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” The mental and emotional tension described here is something everyone experiences at some point in his or her life. Maybe past experiences with stress are what brought you to this book.
Stress can influence your well being, so self-awareness is critical for promoting your resilience against adverse effects of stress and knowing when to seek help.
Some people worry and stress about managing the weight of school, work, family, and other day-to-day obligations.
Some stress about losing jobs, being separated from loved ones or falling ill.
Some experience stress because of traumatic events where they were harmed or saw someone being seriously hurt in front of them.
Most people can recuperate and adapt to stress, but others may have physical and psychological injuries from the amount of stress they’ve experienced.
Whether you experience a stressor as a one-time, transient event or something recurring and long lasting, your body and mind are going through a biological and chemical response. Unless we bring a conscious, reprocessing action to the event, it makes it hard to really lose the weight of each stressful moment and to clear what’s negatively layered on it throughout our day and life. It just continues to bury deeper and deeper attaching itself to our subconscious irrational and emotional actions and reactions. Meaning how we preserve what’s happening today may be controlled from what has happened in the past.
Why Do We Experience Stress?
Our bodies were designed for survival.
Long ago, our caveman ancestors walked the earth alongside predatory animals, so they had to stay alert in order to stay alive.
Thousands of years later, stress still alerts our body to either get ready to confront danger or escape to security. This response is known as “fight, flight or freeze” and is caused by the sympathetic nervous system (part of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates breathing and other automatic body responses).
In dangerous circumstances, your heart rate increases, your muscles tense, and your cerebrum utilizes more oxygen so that you have the endurance needed to survive.
In non-perilous circumstances, the high energy of stress can propel individuals to strive to overcome a challenge, such as getting promoted at work or reaching a goal to make top marks in school. It can also add the exhilaration of a new challenge such as skydiving.
Whether to survive or thrive stress is a biological response.
In a healthy biological rhythm, we’ll adapt to stress, feel safety again, and the sympathetic nervous system will regulate and take a backseat. As this happens, the parasympathetic nervous system should be able to step into the driver’s seat to begin the “rest and digest” mechanism.
However, if the wellspring of prolonged stress continues for too long or recurs too often, the body may not understand that it’s able to operate normally again. When the body stays stuck in “fight, flight or freeze” mode, these otherwise lifesaving responses can result in stomach and digestive issues, migraines, restlessness, insomnia, night terrors, panic attacks, short temper, or mood swings.
By finding a healthy, effective way to deal with your stress, you can diminish the danger of negative well-being impacts and improve the quality of your life.
So, “how do I make sure stress and anxiety don’t take a toll on my health?” you might ask.
Here are 10 straightforward tips for reducing stress and anxiety in a healthy, productive way:
1. Abstain from Caffeine, Alcohol, Nicotine, and Refined Sugar
During times of stress, stay away from nicotine, caffeine, and alcoholic beverages. Science shows us they may do more harm than good when it comes to our mental health.
Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants; through this mechanism, they can speed up your heart rate and increase your anxiety. It is important to avoid these before performing any meditation practice to optimize the calm mind and body state.
This is why I suggest breathwork in the morning to set the pace for the day ahead rather than a traditional meditation practice. While travelling the world working at Wellness Retreats, I noticed it was very common for the retreat to offer morning meditation. The problems I saw, however, were clients waking up, having their cup or two of coffee, sitting for meditation and wondering why their mind is active and not clear. The other usual part of meditation is to help calm the mind and body. After having a restful 8 hours sleep of calm mind and body, why is there a need to go straight back to that process? This is when movement is needed, to set the pace and awaken the sensory and body connection for the day. Traditional meditation as mentioned previously is beneficial just before lunch and at end of a workday. This helps to break up the load under pressure and press the reset button and clear the mind to create space in the mind for new job tasks and active mental processing.
Alcohol is a depressant when taken in large amounts, but it can act as a stimulant in smaller quantities. By lowering your inhibitions, you might feel temporarily distracted from your troubles, but you’re really just avoiding them. Utilizing liquor as an approach to mitigate pressure isn’t useful if you want to achieve your best level of mental health.
Refined sugar creates a high in your blood sugar levels, before crashing down and causing fatigue and irritability. If you eat a lot of sugar, you won’t feel as strong and vital throughout the day.
Trade highly caffeinated or alcoholic drinks for water, tea, kombucha, and electrolytes. Hydrate your body to keep fatigue and headaches at bay.
Still playing at 43 and regarded as the GOAT, Greatest Of All Time in NFL, Tom Brady regards his daily hydration (water) and electrolytes intake and no caffeine regimen as key factors to his sustained athletic abilities. Lowering inflammation in the body through hydration and selected foods, creates less stress in the mind.
Eat whole meals made of nutrition-rich foods, such as fresh vegetables, lean meats and proteins, and whole grains, so that your body can sustain your daily activities and better adapt to challenges.
2. Enjoy Physical Activities
Unpleasant circumstances can increase stress hormones in the body, such as adrenaline and cortisol. These are the “fight or flight” hormones that development has hard-wired into our minds so that we can shield ourselves from danger.
When you work out, your body will release “happy hormones,” such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. After an energetic stroll in the fresh air or taking time for your favorite physical movement, you’ll feel more positive, focused, and relaxed.
Physical exercise can relieve pressure, balance hormones, and re-establish health in our bodies and minds, so invest your time in your health by moving every day.
3. Get More Sleep
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” -John C. Maxwell
A sleep-deprived body and mind are a breeding ground for stress. Sadly, stress often interferes with people’s ability to get a good night’s sleep.
If you’ve ever had a sleepless night with anxiety whispering in your ear and painful memories pushing you to stay awake, you’re not alone. Instead of reaching for over-the-counter medicine to make you fall asleep, spend more time relaxing before resting. Create a calm space in your room– an oasis from the rest of your life that is free from distraction and tokens that remind you about the things that cause you stress. Turn off the TV, keep your school or work bag in another room, and even trading your phone for an alarm clock.
You should also plan to have your new nighttime routine at a similar time every night, so your psyche and body can become acclimated to an anticipated sleep schedule and connect to your slow, calm breath. Like how the morning breath work sets the pace of breath through the day, so does the bedtime breath connection help set the calming breath mind and body through the night. This is also important in recovery from physical exercise through the day. It promotes healthy oxygen to repairing muscles.
One Breath Meditation Example:
Closing your eyes.
› Begin to breathe calmly with nothing forced.
› When you breathe in, your breath draws in through your nose and all the way down until your belly inflates, then allow it to flow unforced through your mouth.
› Your chest or shoulders shouldn’t be rising and only with minimal movement.
› Breathe in through your nose all the way down inflating your belly, then it turns around and flows unforced through your mouth.
› Breathe in through your nose all the way down inflating your belly, allow the air to flow all the way out, through your mouth.
› Think about the air as it travels through your nose, all the way down, it turns around and is gently released through the soft mouth as your belly deflates.
1 breath
› You are going to connect back with one breath, inhale deeply through your nose to inflate your belly.
› Hold for two beats…
› And release gently through a soft mouth with nothing forced.
30 seconds / 3 breaths.
› Calm your breathing from inhale to exhale, making a seamless transition from inhale to exhale.
› Focus only on your breath and how smooth you can make it.
4. Set an Intention to Relax
Find your sense of calm every day by setting an intention to feel more peaceful and at ease. You can do this by using your self-created positive affirmation, reminding yourself of what you have achieved, why you should be proud and your many things to be grateful for. Whichever word or saying you choose should resonate with the feeling you want to create in the intentions, purpose and goal of your life.
Have a strong breath connection while focusing on that word or expression. Say it out loud and write it down so it becomes owned and a part of your subconscious forward thought process.
Every time you catch your mind wandering towards negative or harsh thoughts, dismiss them, and return your breath connection and the intention you set. Over time, this practice will become easier, and you’ll naturally feel more positive and relaxed throughout the day.
5. Chat with Someone
“If we share our story with someone who responds with empathy, shame can’t survive.” – Brene Brown
Talking with another person about your stress and anxiety can help you examine your thoughts with an outside perspective and redirect your train of thought from continuing down a potentially destructive path.
Stress can cloud your judgment and keep you from being able to view your life in a fair, objective way. Being able to talk to a companion, trusted associate, or counselor can assist you with discovering answers and a new point of view.
6. Take Control
Stress can be activated by a challenge that you’re having difficulty tackling. As you get closer to the challenge, you may feel overwhelmed, which can cause stress, procrastination, and avoidance. Instead of falling into this stress trap, create a logical action plan and weigh out your options.
Identify the challenge ahead of you, think about similar situations and events you have overcome in your life, process the tools available at your disposal to conquer these challenges and use these positive thoughts to move past and beyond. Doing these beneficial steps will alleviate the overwhelmed thought and unnecessary stress it can cause.
Create an action plan from past learnt experiences for every movement you’ll need, including when that step will take place, what resources you’ll need, who you need to communicate with, and where this will happen.
7. Manage Your Time
“Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create.” – Jana Kingsford
Have you ever felt drained and overburdened by your calendar and an insurmountable to-do list? It can be easy to allow your obligations to spiral out of control. Take a moment to understand that you can’t do everything at once and that it’s ok to prioritize your tasks.
Create a list of everything you need to do, then organize and rewrite the list in order of genuine need. Notice the difference between what is truly important and what is a distraction, as well as what activities can only be done by you and what can be delegated to others. Think about job tasks and if they fit within the flow of your intentions, purpose, and goal moving forward.
8. Learn to Say No
A common reason for feeling an excessive amount of pressure is from agreeing to do too much within too short of a timeframe. Think of a time when you’ve already had a full schedule, but you still agreed to accept additional tasks when asked instead of declining or delegating. Maybe you felt a sense of obligation, wanted to avoid conflict, or wanted to make someone else happy– but either way, you did this at the expense of your stress level and then felt anxious and exhausted.
Learning how to respectfully, but concisely say “no” and have boundaries for your time can make an incredible difference in your well-being. You’ll feel less stressed, and you’ll also gain more confidence from being able to assert yourself and prioritize your mental health.
Through a connection to your breath and vibration and building confidence with your new approach to life, you will become clear and focused on your own purpose and goals, and you will quickly understand which suggestions or requests from others you will be confident to decline.
Every time you respectfully decline, you’ll feel a little more self-assured and become more attuned to the workload that’s right for you.
9. Give Yourself Permission to Rest
When you’re feeling fatigued from stress, give yourself a chance to rest and heal. Not only will this help you honor the signals your body is sending you, but it will also help you recuperate quicker and stay healthier overall.
Rest is a period of integration when all the hard work you’ve been doing had a chance to settle in. If you never take the time to pause and enjoy your life as it is, you’ll have difficulty really appreciating the progress you make because you won’t feel well.
Instead of pushing through illness and fatigue, just give yourself the chance to relax, connect to your breath and maintain your health.
The Takeaway
Prolonged stress and chronic anxiety prevent you from living your healthiest life. The symptoms you can face from these conditions can take a toll on every aspect of your life, including your relationships, work, and health.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 31% of adults in the US will experience some kind of anxiety disorder during their lifetime and that nearly 7%will suffer from PTSD. We’ll continue learning about these conditions in our next lessons.
By integrating smart, effective strategies into your life daily, you can curb the negative effects of stress and proactively take care of your health.
