Stress
What is stress and what can we do about it?
What is stress?
Stress is anything that causes your system to adapt to adversity.
While some amount of stress is normal and positive as it can cause us to learn and grow but too much stress can be dangerous to your health.
Without proper management of your own stress levels you may experience substantial negative affects on your neurology and psychology and physiology.
Stress can even create high blood pressure and reduced overall health.
Low lying consistent stress like many of us are experiencing during difficult times in life can cause an adrenaline trickle that does not get used up in a typical fight or flight response.
Added tension from this kind of stress reduces your energy level and your ability to cope with the regular ups and downs of life.
What kind of benefits do we get from finding ways to let go of unnecessary stress?
By reducing stress you may notice you can sleep better, get sick less often, get better faster if you do get sick, have less muscle tension, be in a better mood and get along better with family and friends.
What can we do about it?
Thankfully there are quite a lot of things we can do to let go of unnecessary stress in our lives.
Firstly I will show you four physical techniques that can be used quickly and easily just about anywhere to reduce stress from your body in just a few minutes or less.
Before you begin any of these techniques, do yourself a favour and check on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad your stress feels. This way, by checking in afterwards you will show yourself how much a particular technique has worked for you.
Medical professionals, clinicians and counselors alike acknowledge the usefulness of a system called Subjective Units of Distress or SUDs for short.
Both physical pain, emotional pain, stress and anxiety etc. are experienced internally and we ourselves are the best to note how bad it feels.
This is a good place to note that I am NOT a medical professional.
I am NOT qualified to diagnose or treat mental illness.
If you find yourself worried about your stress and mental health in a significant way please talk to your doctor and or reach out to your EAP.
There are government funded programs you may have access to if your Dr sees fit.
A few I am aware of are Bounce Back BC and Bcalm/Art of Living Mindfully and a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based program.
Note the SUDs (Subjective Units of Distress) you feel now.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 being Super chill and I feel great to 10 I am totally overwhelmed in discomfort or pain.
Exercise 1
The Diaphragmatic Breath
Simple and effective the diaphragmatic breath
Sit upright in a relaxed posture
take a deep breath but as you do, push your lower abdomen outward gently so that you fill your lungs from the very bottom
continue to expand your chest in the same breath
and finally elevate your shoulders slightly filling the top part of your lungs.
Again make sure you do this carefully without straining when your lungs are filled pause, hold your breath for two or three seconds but don’t go beyond the comfort zone
Then exhale fully through your mouth or nose which ever feels best
As you exhale try to squeeze out the last few gaps of breath and then repeat.
Four or five of these deep breaths with a two or three second pause in between is enough to really reset and relax your system and let go of a lot of stress.
Note the SUDs (Subjective Units of Distress) you feel now.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(Super chill) (twisted mess)
Exercise 2
7-11 Breathing
7-11 breathing
Here I will make a note about the autonomic nervous system as an explanation as to why this technique is helpful.
The autonomic nervous system comprises two parts- the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system activates the fight or flight response during a threat or perceived danger, and the parasympathetic nervous system restores the body to a state of calm. When we breathe in, our sympathetic nervous system is activated
and when we breathe out, our parasympathetic nervous system is activated.
7-11 breathing helps relax your body by staying on the out breath longer than you stay on the in breath.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(I'm feeling good) (feeling bad)
begin the exercise
Using good diaphragmatic breathing you have learned in the previous example
take a good breath in while counting to seven in your head.
Pause for a moment if it’s comfortable for you and then
release your breath to a count of 11 or more pausing again before your next inhalation if it’s comfortable for you.
It may help to gently purse your lips to slow your out breath as its best to relax as much as you can on you’re out breath.
Note the SUDs (Subjective Units of Distress) you feel now.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(I'm feeling good) (feeling bad)
Exercise 3
Clinch and Relax
Clinch and relax **do not hold your breath**
Use your physical body to reduce tension with this method.
In just 10 seconds you can release a lot of muscular stress.
Sit in a comfortable position
Breathe normally
Begin to gradually clinch your hands into fists and at the same time start to press your toes against the soles of your shoes.
Follow the same gentle clinching moving up your arms into your shoulders and chest while also following up from your feet though your legs and trunk.
You can also gently clinch your jaw and press your toungue against the roof of your mouth. Remember to keep breathing normally.
Then suddenly relax everything allowing all muscles to go limp and relaxed at once and repeat.
Take a few deep calming breaths and notice the relaxation.
Notice how by tensing the muscles tightly and by consciously controlling them you were actually able to relax them more fully.
Now that you have used this technique check in in your SUDs now (Subjective Units of Distress).
How much better do you feel now?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(I'm feeling great) (feeling bad)
Excersise 4
Head Hanging Technique
Head hanging technique
This works to relieve tension in upper back and neck.
Sitting up in your chair lean forward from the waist letting your arms hang so they touch the floor. Stay in this position for 30 seconds to a minute.
As you near the end of the time there, gently move your head a little from side to side to help relax your neck even a little more.
This will gradually release tension in your neck and upper shoulders. once you sit up after 30 seconds to a minute, take a few gentle diaphragmatic breath‘s gently exhaling fully. Notice how much tension has let go from your upper back and neck.
This is easy to perform a few times throughout the day when you notice tension building in that area of your body.
Note the SUDs (Subjective Units of Distress) you feel now.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(I'm feeling great) (Feeling bad)
Now you have 4 simple ways to reduce stress using your physical body.
In the next document I will show you ways to let go of stress by using your memory and your imagination in the next section.
Great work!
I’m sure some of these techniques have already begun to help you.
Let go of your unneeded stresses regularly.
These next 4 methods use your imagination and move your body
Again quickly reduce stress in a few minutes with more activities that make you feel good in healthy ways
This might sound strange at first but if you think about it it makes quite a bit of sense. Since we know that stress is something that’s manufactured within us within our minds and our bodies that is meant to be helpful to us it should not be that strange to imagine that we can make positive changes the same way.
Feel free to check your SUDs before and after doing these so you can really notice how well it works for you.
Exercise 5 Positive memory recall
Bringing back a good memory
You probably want to close your eyes to do the daydreaming or imagination exercise as it will help block out some of the external stimulus.
Take a moment to remember a time when you felt calm, at ease, empowered, free, light or peaceful, happy or good feelings etc.
This could be a memory of being somewhere with a friend or a pet or someplace by yourself that you find a calming rejuvenating place or experience.
Now that you have something in mind,
take a moment to remember or imagine you can remember.
The trick to this is putting yourself into this memory as much as you can by using your senses to enrich the memories.
This lights up pathways neurologically in your mind and will bring back positive sensations and feelings associated with the memories fairly reliably.
See, hear, feel, taste or smell.
Take a few good relaxing breaths as you go.
Allow yourself to let go of your stress and maybe even allow a smile to your face while you do this because you can allow lightness into you and it is to your benefit.
What are some things you “see” in this memory?
Imagine looking around you what do you “see”?
What can you “feel”?
Can you “feel” wind or the sun on your skin, something else?
Is there a “smell” or a “taste” that you can recall?
Are some things you can ‘hear”?
Can you “hear” the wind blowing or the sound birds singing, music, people talking?
Exercise 6 visualize future goodness
Imagine a positive event in your future
This is a lot like the last exercise but you get to imagine something you may not have even done.
It might be imagining getting to see a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
It might be imagining taking a vacation someplace beautiful.
It might be imagining it’s the weekend.
It might be going out to see a concert.
It might be a peaceful walk to a magical garden, it’s your imagination!
Have fun with this.
Again, take the time to use your senses and imagine or pretend what you would see feel and hear around you.
Exercise 7 Get some exercise
Get out and move.
This excerpt is from the mayo clinic
“Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your step every day. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity may help bump up the production of your brain's feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.”
Exercise 8 Change your posture
Just change your posture to shake off a negative state of mind
Stand up and walk around.
Cast your eyes up a bit as if things are literally looking up.
You can look off into the distance victoriously if you like!
Stand with your legs apart a bit and your hands on your hips a.k.a. adopt a confident stance.
See which kind of posture change works for you to diminish your stress?