Effectively reducing stress with Stress Management: Sleep, Relaxation, Biofeedback, Meditation, Massage.

A friend of mine was reminiscing with her 78 year old mother. She asked her, ‘What was the happiest day of your life?’ Her mother said, ‘Today.’ My friend said, ‘But I thought your wedding day was the happiest.’ Her mother said, ‘It was then. But I can’t live in the past. Today is my most important day, therefore, today is my happiest day.’ The daughter asked, ‘What about tomorrow?’ Her mother said, ‘If it comes, I’ll make it the happiest day.’

I wonder if the mother had a problem with stress. Stress is as much a part of life as eating, drinking and sleeping. Learning stress management is often ignored by many people. Fortunately, stress management is not difficult to incorporate in one’s life. It can be as simple as learning to relax or as complex as using biofeedback to regulate one’s own heart rate. Here are some popular techniques used for stress management.

Sleep

If you are normally alert, feel healthy and are in a good humor, you are probably getting a sufficient amount of sleep. No stress management program would be complete without understanding the importance of sleep. The phenomenon of sleep has never been completely understood, but it has been aptly named the ‘great restorer.’ Sleep is essential to the vital functioning of the body, and natural sleep is the most satisfying form of recuperation from fatigue. Revitalization of the body takes place during sleep, as well as the building of new cells and tissue repair; although these last two also occur during waking hours, the time during sleep allows these processes to take place more easily.

There is no clear cut amount of sleep that people need to achieve complete recuperation. The usual recommendation for adults is eight hours, but some individuals need more and more function very well on less.

The repeated loss of sleep over a long period of time can cause a variety of harmful effects, such as poor general health, nervousness, irritability, inability to concentrate, lowered perseverance of effort and serious fatigue. Under normal conditions, a night of sleeplessness followed by a period of prolonged sleep will restore the individual to his normal self. Sleeping is not always restful. Certain conditions influence the quality of sleep. These include: mental anguish, worry, hunger, cold, boredom and excessive fatigue.

Relaxation, Biofeedback, Meditation and Massage

The stress reduction management techniques of meditation and biofeedback can be considered as relaxation techniques. Relaxation is essential in relieving the tensions encountered in daily life. It can be achieved through massage, meditation, biofeedback, and other relaxation techniques that allow the muscles of the body to relax, thereby allowing the mind to be quiet.

The theory in meditation is that if the mind is at ease, then the other systems of the body will be more readily stabilized. The integration of relaxation and meditation makes up the theoretical basis of biofeedback. It is believed that the brain has the potential for voluntary control over all the systems that it monitors. This interaction between mind and body has provided the mechanism through which one can learn voluntary control over biological activity.

The stress response is such a powerful physiological reaction that an equally powerful physiological response is necessary to counter it. This counter reaction is called the ‘relaxation response’. But relaxation is a learned skill that takes practice. The simple truth is that many people don’t relax because they don’t know how. Learning the relaxation response can be accomplished through simple conditioning and habit formation.

One method of relaxation is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). Because all muscles, to some degree, are in a constant state of tension, one must learn to recognize this tension in order to learn to relax the muscles. The objective of PMR is to induce deep muscular relaxation by gradually releasing tension from various parts of the body, one part at a time.

There are three different positions that can be used to facilitate any relaxation exercise, including PMR. These are:
Lying down on one’s back,
Lying Prone,
Sitting in a semi reclined position

Any of the three positions can be equally effective, but beginners may benefit more from lying down. Regardless of the position chosen, comfort is an important aspect of achieving ultimate relaxation. Pillows should be used under the head, knees, arms, pelvis or feet depending on the position used. Any chairs should be comfortable and soft. Some people also find that listening to classical music helps them concentrate and eliminate outside distractions.

To help yourself relax, take your shoes off before getting into one of the three positions. Close your eyes and concentrate on the body’s different muscle groups one at a time. You may want to repeat the following self instruction as you try to relax: I’m falling into a nice, relaxed state; I’m breathing deeply, slowly and smoothly. As I breathe, I’m becoming more and more relaxed… relaxed… relaxed. My toes are becoming numb; I feel a tingling sensation as the muscles in my toes become more relaxed and tension free. The numbness is beginning to creep up from my toes to my feet.

This self instruction takes the person all the way up the body from the toes to the head. This is only one example of self instruction – anything can be used as long as it provides a pattern of gradual relaxation throughout the body. The following instructions are given to enhance this technique.

1. Always make comfort the starting point of relaxation.

2. Speak to yourself in a slow, rhythmic monotonous manner.

3. Breathe slowly and rhythmically.

4. Use soft words like relax, soothing and smooth. Avoid words that are harsh and make you feel tense.

5. Don’t go to the next body part until the part you’re working on is relaxed.

6. When your body is completely relaxed, allow yourself to remain that way for several minutes before getting up to stretch.

This technique has been very successful in relieving such stress related illnesses as hypertension, migraine headaches and ulcers. But for those people who do not suffer these ailments, it still may be necessary to use this technique several times a day during severe stress situations.

Eventually relaxation becomes easier and spontaneous. When a person recognizes how a muscle should feel when relaxed, it becomes a matter of habit and allows a person to relax his or her muscles whenever it’s desired. Some find it difficult to learn how a relaxed muscle feels because they have no standard for tension. To alleviate this problem, there’s the Tension-Relaxation technique, a system that incorporates conscious tensing of muscles followed by relaxation to teach the difference between the two.

The Tension Relaxation technique is performed in the same manner as the PMR technique. In the Tension Relaxation technique, individual muscle groups are tensed during separate exercise sessions. The sessions are broken down into the following groups: hands, arms, legs, chest, back shoulders, neck and forehead. After the separate groups are mastered, the technique can be used to relax the entire body in one session. Furthermore, the tension part of the exercise will be removed as the body is conditioned to recognize the relaxed state. It’s important to have the ability to recognize tension versus relaxation.

Practice Session No.1 – Hands Tension

With hands at your sides, clench your fists as tight as possible. Keep them clenched for at least 10 seconds. At first, you may want to tense only one hand at a time.

Relaxation

Release your hands and let your fingers slowly uncurl and go limp at your sides. Repeat this exercise 3 times. After 3 sets, keep your hands and body relaxed and rested for 20 – 30 minutes.

Tension relaxation technique will allow and individual to recognize even small degrees of tension that occur in the muscles. Like PMR, this technique has been successful in treating a variety of illnesses, such as hypertension and migraine headaches. In 2 weeks to 2 months relaxation will become a spontaneous habit that will become stronger every time a person relaxes.

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Managing your stress however can be really tricky if you are inside the office. The work environment limits the ways that you can manage your stress. For instance, if watching TV or movies relieves your stress, you cannot very well do that inside the office. Neither can you play badminton or sing with a karaoke. The most that you can do is to play some quick computer game, hoping that somehow it can relax you. For some people, this is enough; but for others, it is not.

But there are ways to relieve the stress while sitting on your office chair. Often, the trick is to not wait for the stress levels to go up. As they say in medicine, an ounce of prevention is more than a pound of cure. Don’t wait to get stressed, avoid it like the plague! Here’s how.

1. Eat healthy

People who are basically healthy will have more energy levels on which to work on. They are more able to withstand late nights and are more able to keep up with long brain activities as compared to people who are not. To do this, you’ve got to eat healthy foods especially those that are rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins. Besides, having all the energy that you need will help you cope better with stress when it happens.

2. Sleep

Sleeping provides the body the rest that it needs. Brain activity and bodily functions slow down when people are sleeping. Muscles also relax. When the body lacks sleep, energy levels go down and the brain becomes disoriented. This results to poorer concentration, which in the long run can become detrimental to your job functions. Thus, one way to avoid stress altogether is get the requisite 8 hours or more sleep. It will do you good.

3. Exercise

Another way to combat stress and to prevent it from happening altogether is to have a daily run or an exercise routine. Experts say that a person must work out 30 minutes each day to successfully keep the body in shape and healthy. Exercise strengthens our resistance and surprisingly increases the energy levels. It helps keep the stressors at bay as it relaxes the muscles and keeps the air flowing freely through breathing techniques.

4. Manage time

Nothing can make you more stressful than not managing your time well. Just ask people who are used to cramming for exams or for work assignments. Planning your time right and doing what you are supposed to do on time will help keep the stressors away. Besides, by doing your assignments and work load piece by piece allows you to relax while doing it and gives you enough time to really work on it should the boss decides to have it real early.

5. Smiling

Being happy and optimistic is the number stress buster there is. Do you know that smiling can help keep the muscles in the face relaxed? It actually uses less muscles than when you are frowning. So laugh on the job and keep it cool.

People are always fearful of change that happens in their lives. That is maybe why some people become stressed by it.  Maybe it is the unexpected that can stress out people whenever change happens in their lives. And there are different ways and phases that people react to change that happen in their lives.

The most common reaction to change is shock and surprise. When confronted by unexpected situations such as accidents or other unplanned events, surprise seems to be the immediate reaction for many people. Such situations make people realize that certain plans and patterns one has made in life can reach some unexpected changes. The realization that nothing is permanent can be a source of stress for some people as change may come as a surprise.

Some people react to change with denial and refusal to accept change. Some people even try to bring out certain values in order to support that any change is not necessary. This may be a secondary reaction to change after the surprise and shock phase.

At times, people move on from surprise and sometimes denial to a rational understanding of change. People may see that change may actually be needed in certain situations and that there are reasons why changes happen. Through this, people begin to learn how to find ways on how to deal with the situation. But at this point people may still not be willing to have change affect their behavior but rather find some means to remedy the situation instead.

Change can sometimes lead people to react in two different ways. At certain points, change may reach a certain level where it becomes a crisis. At this point, people may either accept it or totally avoid it. When people learn to accept the change, no matter how unpleasant, they are not affected by the stress that comes with it as much as the ones that may wish to avoid or ignore change. Avoiding evident changes, especially the unpleasant ones, can sometimes lead to additional stress to people.

Trying to fight one’s own way in dealing with change other than accepting it can sometimes be a lost cause. Conflicts, both internal and external may arise and give considerable stress to people. It is only after learning how to accept the changes that will help release some of the burden that denial and refusal to accept change brings along.

Stress management works by being able to understand and learn about how people deal with changes. Knowing the different reactions and the phases that people go through with change can help people get a better grasp of dealing with the results of change with less stress.

Studies show that women get easily stressed due to so many factors in their everyday living. This is why—compared to men—they need effective stress management for them to stay vibrant, youthful, and positive towards life.

Ever since, women and beauty has always been intertwined. In fact, maintaining beauty—in all its aspects—has even become one of the most effective stress management means of most women. This is because most women in the society believe that their physical beauty can inspire despite all the stress that they experience.

Stress management for women nowadays includes beauty because they believe that despite all the stress that they go through, they can withstand all these if they look good physically.

What women need

The modern times have been offering women a lot of options to look beautiful. In fact, there are so many companies now that come out with various beauty products, services, and treatments in order to help women achieve the physical beauty they desire. Stress management for women involves skin care, hair maintenance, the use of proper cosmetics, and nail care.

No matter what other people say, beauty is skin deep. Many beauty experts believe that the condition and overall appearance of the skin is the major indicator not only of beauty but of the woman’s health as well. When the skin is healthy, it means that women were able to manage stress well.

Luckily, there are many ways women can do to improve the health and appearance of their skin.  The best skin care tip is to make it a routine to take in lots of fluids especially water—at least 8 glasses of water daily—is ideal for to help aid skin hydration and healthy cell formation as well as removing the waste products in the body. Also, applying sunscreen to protect the skin from the sun’s harmful rays and wearing clothes that are appropriate to weather conditions.

Hair is another major aspect that women who gets easily stressed should pay attention to. This is because this will be their crowning glory despite their negative environment. If women who are targeted by stress want to look beautiful, they should always choose a hairstyle that would complement the shape of their faces. Having the best style of mane can be easily achieved by going to a salon and by asking for a stylist’s advice. Straight, curly, long, or short hair cut with different styles would definitely bring out the best in you. You can also be experimental and daring by asking the stylist to do hairstyle variations such as putting color or highlights on your hair that would complement your complexion.

Maintaining a beautiful set of nails is also a part of women’s stress management strategies. This is because manicured and nest nails are always a part of women’s beauty. To care for the nails, make sure that you trim and file the edges of the nails regularly to ensure they will look neat and clean all the time, push back the cuticles to help healthy nails grow out. Women should also know how to choose the right colors of nail polish to complement their skin tone.

Lastly, the use of proper cosmetics should always be a part of a great stress management approach. Since not all women are born with perfect features, cosmetics are a must to conceal imperfections and enhance natural features of the face. Knowledge in the proper use and application of eyeliner, eye shadows, lipsticks, blush ons and foundations can help you flatter your features and enhance your overall aura if done properly.

Office work can be really stressful especially if you have one of those jobs that require you to submit on deadlines or have an infuriatingly tireless boss who does not seem to know the meaning of the word “rest.” To complain is to lose your job in an instant so the only option is to manage your stress as much as you can.

Below are some of the ways on how to manage your stress while at the office. The beauty of this is, you can do this even while sitting at your desk and doing your deskwork. Read on and let these techniques help you.

1. Head turning exercise

One of the best ways to relieve your stress is to relax the source: the muscles. You can do this by stretching your muscles and turning your head and arm from side to side. You can do this while you are standing or even by sitting down.

2. Comfortable chairs to sit on

One of the best ways to manage stress is to prevent it from coming or at least lessen it. You can do this by making sure that your work area is comfortable to work on. Start with your chair. Can you relax when you are sitting on it or do your muscles get stiff? Why is it not comfortable? Once you determine what makes the chair uncomfortable to use, it will be easier for you to solve the problem. Often, pillows and some cushions will answer your need. Other times, especially when the chair is already broken, you will need to completely replace the chair. Remember that working with a bad posture heightens the stress that we feel in the muscle areas.

3. manage your time

Managing your time properly and not cramming can spell a whole lot of difference in your stress levels. Start doing your work ahead of time. Don’t wait for the last seconds to do that report. Start the research. This will make you more prepare and more able to deal with potential stress incidents such as your boss asking for that report way ahead of schedule. At least, if you have started on it on time, you will be able to at least give him some notes.

Also, managing your time well will mean that you won’t have to go against the clock. You can work at a leisurely pace knowing that you have enough time to finish the job. Besides little stresses like this can build up and lead to a heightened stress level.

4. take a break

Taking time out from your work will help you a lot when in decreasing that stress level. As much as you can, take short minute break and just close your eyes. Resting the eyes and closing out your senses for a second helps a lot in centering your spirit and in bringing back the energy.

5. laugh

The best way to lose the stress is to loosen up. Don’t be too serious with that job. Laugh with friends at the office and join in on the fun. If you can’t do that, laugh all by yourself by reading some funny comics or books. The important thing is smile! Smiling relaxes the muscles. In fact, it uses far less muscles than frowning.