Proven techniques to decrease stress

BY DR. VIKAS PURI

When you think of stress, you may automatically recall your heart racing during a period of emotional or physical strain. Stress is your body’s reaction to a certain challenge or demand, and it can make you emotionally or physically anxious. However, not all stress is bad. The American Institute of Stress highlights that any definition of stress should include good stress known as eustress.  Eustress can improve our performance while distress can cause it to decline. Thus, learning to decrease negative types of stress (maintaining eustress) is necessary and healthy. The current COVID-19 pandemic has us all panicked, stressed and uncertain. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with stress and different things work for different people.

Here are six common techniques to decrease your stress level:

Mental escape – pictures: From the smell of freshly cut grass to the sight of a sunrise peeking above a tropical horizon, nothing can replace spending time in the great outdoors. But simply looking at photographs of nature for as few as five minutes can have a similar, calming effect on the brain.

“There are studies that show that looking at pleasant images can provide a type of mental escape for individuals during times of moderate stress,” said Sandra Sgoutas-Emch, a psychological sciences professor at the University of San Diego.

Looking at relaxing imagery can also be viewed as a form of mindfulness meditation that activates the parasympathetic system, she added, referring to the part of the nervous system that helps us relax and “quiet the areas of the brain that are involved in fear and anxiety.”

Take control: The act of confronting the problem is in itself empowering. Passive thinking like “I can’t do anything” will only make your stress worse. If you are stressed, the first step to feeling better is to identify the cause and begin to think of solutions.

Be active: There is good evidence that exercise has a link to greater self-esteem and well-being through chemical changes in the brain, like giving off endorphins and providing better sleep. We don’t need to spend hours in the gym either. Less than two hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week (such as fast walking or yoga at home) can do the trick.

Be mindful: Be aware of your thoughts and feelings, and when your thoughts take over the present moment, remember these are simply mental events that do not need to control us. Be aware, even as we go about our daily routine by appreciating the journey of life or taking breaks for ourselves.

Keep learning: Gaining new skills can give us a sense of achievement and confidence. Try signing up for a cooking course, learning a new musical instrument, reading an inspirational book, or learn dancing. Instead of focusing on gaining qualifications, use the experience as mental stimulation. Setting targets and hitting them can create positive feelings of achievement. Challenge yourself, whether at work or in your personal life.

Breathe: It might seem intuitive, but so many of us end up holding our breath, especially when we’re stressed. Breathing exercises work with the cardiac muscle to shift our vagal tone toward a parasympathetic balance – in other words, simply breathing takes our body from a fight-or-flight state towards a calm and balanced state. Even a few minutes a day can have amazing benefits.  Here is a simple technique:

• Breathe in, expanding abdomen then chest, while counting how long your inhalation takes
• Hold your breath for the equal amount of time
• Breathe out slowly through the mouth for the equal amount of time

I hope these tips help you and your family in getting through this stressful time.