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Health & Nutrition : Stress Management : Dealing with Stress

"Meeting sales targets, keeping your boss happy."
"Competition at work."
"Juggling work and home."
"Relationship trouble."

Sounds Familiar?  These are stressful situations for anyone. Stress is a sign that we need to look more closely at our lives. Like pain, stress should also be viewed as a warning. If you are extremely tense and anxious, you should try to establish why. It might be your job, your parents or your relationship. Whatever it is, the chances are your stressful feelings are telling you to make changes. It is important to identify the cause of the stress and tend to it.

Symptoms of stress
Stress manifests itself in many different ways - there are literally hundreds of symptoms. If you feel stressed, you'll certainly have some of the following.
• Bowel problems
• Eating disorders
• Period pains
• Indigestion
• Frequent minor respiratory troubles
• Loss of libido
• Erectile dysfunction
• Skin complaints
• Dizziness
• Dry mouth
• Clammy hands
• Racing heart
• Feeling 'tight', like an over-wound clock
• Constant tiredness
• Migraine
• Tearfulness
• Insomnia

One of the more debilitating symptoms of stress is panic attack, which can be really frightening and take over your life if you don't learn how to deal with them. Panic attacks seem to becoming more common - chiefly affecting women, but also some men.

Some symptoms are more to do with our behaviour than our physical state, such as:
• Irritability
• Vagueness
• An unkempt appearance
• Poor concentration
• Fidgeting
• Difficulty in making decisions

Stress management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress. Stress management is effective when a person utilizes strategies to cope with or alter stressful situations.

The 10-minute chill out
This entails sitting or lying down quietly for 10 minutes to clear your head of clutter and fill it instead with pleasant, tranquil thoughts. You shouldn't read, watch TV or walk around. Just be - and let your mind drift.

Hypnosis
Hypnosis helps people relax. It also buoys them up so that they feel better about themselves. Many practitioners believe that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. In other words, you're really hypnotising yourself - even under someone else's instruction. This means going into the deeply relaxed altered state that we call hypnosis is a matter of choice. The hypnotic state is a natural one that many of us lapse into daily. When you walk to the local shop and can't remember crossing the road, you've really been in a hypnotic state: your mind has been elsewhere while your body has been working on autopilot. There are people who find they can take themselves down into a deeply relaxed state.

Meditation
There are several different kinds of meditation - some of which have strong religious overtones. The essence of meditation is to bring total relaxation to the person practising it. The deep relaxation that can be achieved through meditation is very similar to the hypnotic state. Different methods vary, but often meditation requires you to sit for 20 minutes twice a day and focus on the present while repeating a mantra to clear your mind. A mantra just means a special word of your choice. The word is usually a sound that has no particular meaning.

Massage
Massage is wonderful for ridding the body of tension. It's also useful for people who are unhappy. The feel and touch of someone's healing hands on your body can make you feel cared for and lift your mood. Many beauty salons, hotels, gyms and spas offer massage. There are different types and you can choose between something soothing or a session that is more rigorous such as a sports or deep tissue massage.
Often they can recommend someone who practices in the same building or nearby.

Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is based on the healing properties of essential oils. They can be used as part of a massage or you can dab the oils on your skin, pillow to help you sleep etc. Whether or not you believe the oils can actually cure physical problems, there's little doubt that vast numbers of people enjoy the feel and fragrance of them. Aromatherapy is now used in hospitals and hospices as well as in health clinics and gyms.

Homeopathy
There are medically qualified and (much more commonly) non-medically qualified homeopaths who can help you relax by prescribing judicious doses of soothing remedies. You can also buy homeopathic relaxing aids from health food shops and from many chemists. If in doubt, ask your local pharmacist what she/he would recommend to help you relax.

Yoga
Yoga is a form of exercise that's quite demanding. Some of the positions aren't easy, but it does leave those who practise it feeling very refreshed and relaxed afterwards.
Yoga tones up the body and helps make it suppler, but it also has a spiritual dimension and most people who do yoga regularly do seem to become more poised.

Certain yogic techniques to combat stress
Breathing Techniques helps relax train the respiratory organs to cope-up with technique of peanayanra breathing.
(a) abdominal
(b) thoracic
(c) cavicular
Either in lying or sitting posture, close the eyes, place one palm or abdomen, absorb the rythmic breathing the abdomen should raise (bloat) when you breath & suck in where you breath out 3-5 rounds. Same 3-5 rounds the placing the palm on chest & at throat.
Relaxing joint exercises - slow i breath awareness do the all round joint movements from neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, fingers, spinal stretching, knee movements, ankle movements/stretches.
Instant relaxation technique - lie down comfortably on a carpet bring legs together, hands by the side of thighs. Now tighten one by one consciously & quickly the ankle, calf muscles, knee joints, thighs, buttocks, low back, abdomen, chest, neck, back of neck, facial muscles, hold the breath, tighten the whole body & let loose the whole body at a stretch and relax. Deep breathing.

Ten tips to combat stress.
1. BELIEVE IN YOUR ABILITY TO COPE
Embrace your strengths. Remind yourself that you can influence the outcome of events in your life. Create action plans to address problems at work and at home.

2. LEARN RELAXATION EXERCISES
Try deep breathing, visualization and meditation. A hot bath, a walk in the park and stretching exercises are also good stress relievers.

3. GET A GRIP ON GUILT
Guilt robs you of your energy and motivation. Be realistic about your expectations of yourself at home and on the job. It's neither possible nor desirable to try to be a perfect parent or employee.

4. TALK TO A FRIEND
Talking about problems can help you blow off steam and give you the perspective you need to solve problems more easily.

5. DEVELOP LEISURE ACTIVITIES
Practice a craft, learn to play a musical instrument, join a community choir or a weekly bridge game.

6. ESTABLISH A REGULAR EXERCISE ROUTINE
Stress produces chemicals that make you feel tense. Exercise helps move these chemicals through your body. Try to get at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week. Choose a fun exercise you'll enjoy and stick with.

7. GET PLENTY OF REST
Most people need seven or eight hours of sleep at night to feel renewed and refreshed. If you have trouble sleeping, increase your exercise routine. Take a warm shower before bed.

8. EAT A BALANCED DIET
Stock up on bread, cereal, rice and pasta. Include lots of fruits and vegetables in your diet. Add calcium, in the form of milk, yogurt and cheese and two to three servings per day of protein from meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs or nuts. Use fats, oils and sweets sparingly.

9. IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Learn to ask for help when you need it. Defuse misunderstandings before they occur by talking things over with your coworkers, spouse and children.

10. LEARN TO ACCEPT AND ADAPT TO CHANGE
Change is a fact of life. Major work and life changes are common. Whether you welcome or dread these changes, they can all be extremely stressful unless you learn to adjust to them. Take time to recover, refocus and regenerate during a major change such as promotion, relocation, parenthood or divorce.

In the words of George Burns "If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it."