10 Ways to Conquer Stress

Last week I wrote about stress, its origins, and how our body negatively reacts to it, so it only seems logical to discuss how best to deal with stress in our increasingly stressful lives. Obviously, the best way to avoid stress is to eliminate its causes, but that is next to impossible. Hell, just watching my kids pitch or come to the plate at local baseball games causes me stress. Sure, I could simply stop attending games, but I suspect I would create a new source of stress to replace the one I just eliminated. Since that is probably true for most of us, let us examine ten ways to help cope with the stress in our lives.

1. Aerobic exercise on a regular basis, which means most days of the week. And, as always, that doesn’t mean swimming two miles per day or running ten. For those of you who have forgotten, aerobic exercise means “with oxygen,” or easy to moderate exercise where you provide your muscles with the oxygen they require to function properly. Walking 30 minutes five days per week counts, as does riding a stationary bike.
2. Muscle relaxation techniques to loosen those tense muscles caused by the release of adrenaline and cortisol due to stressful situations. Take a few minutes during your busy day to stretch, get a massage (from a spouse or masseur) or take a nice soak in a hot tub or bath.
3. Deep breathing when stress is getting the better of you is a simple and easy stress reducer. Try to find a quiet spot and moment, sit or lie down, close your eyes, visualize your peaceful place (for me it is the Maine coastline), then slowly and deeply breath in and out for five minutes or so. You’ll be amazed how this relaxes you.
4. Eat well (or better) with a balanced diet of veggies, fruit, whole grains and lean protein and do not skip meals to avoid that hangry (hungry and angry) feeling which puts you in a bad mood and causes irritability.
5. Schedule some downtime into your day, every day. Like a muscle, your mind requires rest each day and that can be achieved with meditation, yoga, tai chi, prayer, listening to music (NOT while working) or spending time in nature (and your backyard counts).
6. Find a hobby that makes you happy. It always helps to occupy your mind with something you find stress-free for a solid 30 minutes at a time. The choices are endless with the most important component being that the hobby be something that causes no stress. For me, it’s the timeless game of Plants vs. Zombies.
7. Talk it out with a friend, family member, clergy, or therapist. Keeping your stress bottled up inside can exacerbate all those negative health consequences I discussed last week. Discussing your stress-inducing situations with someone brings re-assurance and support. As Lloyd Braun stated in Seinfeld, “Serenity now, insanity later.” (season 9, episode 3)
8. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good to the point that nothing, then, is ever good enough. Perfectionists spend most of their time in the “stress zone” as they are constantly chasing an unreachable goal. One of the most common adages out there is “nobody’s perfect,” and there’s a reason for that…it’s true! Accept that fact and you have just created a stress-reducer.
9. Laugh as much as you can. According to the Mayo Clinic, laughter increases your intake of oxygen-rich air which stimulates your lungs, heart and muscles and releases feel-good endorphins in your brain. As they state, “Laughter is a great form of stress relief, and that’s no joke.”
10. Identify and avoid your stress triggers if at all possible. Just the other day, my teen-age son accused me of “being triggered,” which I assumed was analogous to being mad. But it got me thinking about what, exactly, caused that anger? What was the trigger? In this case, it was the simple fact that someone on television questioned the basketball prowess of Wilt Chamberlain. Anyway, I would have been better off had I not heard that comment. Once you identify the causes of your stress, work to limit your exposure to them.

I understand that all stress can never be eliminated. As I stated previously, once we eliminate one source of stress, we create another. I’ve since accepted that fact and now work to control my stress through a combination of some of the above tips. I think you will find that a few of them will work for you as well. Serenity now!