Using Stress and Stress Reduction Tactics to Manage Stress

Author Aldous Huxley said it best when he wrote, "The twenty-first century is the age of noise." In his book, he pointed out that "the din penetrates the mind filling it with a babble of distraction - new items, mutually irrelevant bits of information, blasts of music, continually repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, merely create a craving for daily emotional purging." (Silence, Liberty & Peace; 1946; p. 56)

Thus, life provides us with many twists and turns, and it is up to us to figure out how we will deal with them. Stress is something that most people look at as a pain they don't want to deal with, but it is possible to use your stress positively. First, it is important to understand there are two types of stress; e.g., one comes from life, the other comes from mental and emotional disorders.

In this guide, our focus is to help those with life stresses, but if you have emotional and mental disorders, this guide can help you as well. Understanding stress, stressors, stress response and consequences of your decisions can help you see more clearly how to avoid stressors that cause you stress.

Stress, stressors, stress responses and adverse health consequences

Read the information below. In the next worksheet write out what you understand about stress, stressors, stress responses and adverse health consequences of stress. Next, name your stressors. Consider solutions for managing your stressors or eliminating them one-by-one to reduce stress.

Stress - occurs from physical and emotional changes, environment or imagined psychological resulting from stressors.

Stressors - Stressors develop from environmental changes, which may involve changes, such as "patterns, routines, or interactions." (Thompson, Conseling Techniques Second Edition, 2003) P. 333.

Stress Response - Responses include our behaviors, emotional responses, mental responses, physical response, "or cognitive responses" we experience "in an attempt to cope, adapt, or survive". P. 333.

Adverse health consequences -"These consequences usually develop from increased susceptibility to physical illness or emotional disorders."

Stressors can develop from the people we interact with, from debt, our own decisions, environment, etc. We can reduce stress by eliminating stressors. What it takes is for you to make better decisions and solve your problems immediately, rather than allowing them to consume you. Putting off your problems only leaves room for more problems. Moreover, we can reduce stressors by making good choices as to whom we welcome into our lives. Let's face it, those people who wallow in misery, love misery, and if you choose negative people to associate with, you can guarantee some stress developing in your life.

We must choose good friends and make decisions that allow us to reduce stressors. Stress can occur psychologically when there are unanswered questions that develop from our misconceptions we learnt throughout our time growing up. In some situations, we cannot avoid stressors. On this note, then we must learn how to strive to use our stress and stressors as a guide to help us take control.

Stress, in short, is unavoidable to some degree. Finding a way to cope with stress and using it as a positive tool is a good idea for each of us.

Symptoms of stress

By practicing meditation, you can learn how to manage your stress. Check out the practice below to begin your meditation process. Meditate daily or more often for the best results.

Meditation Practice

Deep guided meditation often helps us to balance our thoughts and become friends with our discomforts. It is useful for reducing anxiety.

Meditation - start by finding a quiet area in your home. Recline in a relaxing position. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing and body sensations. If you notice yourself tensing, let it go without fighting it. Notice your discomforts, and focus on your breathing. Breathe in, exhale, and continue until the discomforts ease. Next, take a mental journey into a peaceful garden. Notice smells senses, etc and listens to bird chirps as the warm summer breeze grazes your hair. Picture yourself walking toward a beautiful waterfall and observe the smell, feel, touch, tastes, as you move closer. If you feel uneasy, breathe in and exhale again repeatedly until you find some relaxation.

We can also consider PMRT therapy, which is "progressive muscle relaxation training" (p. 337) that involves the use of several very useful techniques known as biofeedback. Biofeedback requires the use of monitoring devices, which record information in regards to your bodily functions, which you may not be normally consciously able to control, e.g. your blood pressure or heart rate. Biofeedback is useful for helping you to learn ways to control your functions consciously. Thus, you can pick up biofeedback products at affordable rates online. PMRT also includes rhythmical breathing coupled with exercise.

Let's do another meditation practice using one of the tools from PMRT therapy.

Meditation Practice

Get in a relaxed position. Imagine yourself in a quiet area. If you have a hard time with visualization, you can focus on one object in your room. Keep your focus on that object until you feel relaxed. Once in position, notice your toes. Focus on your toes, using rhythmic breathing. Now, close your eyes and imagine that you are in a quiet garden. Notice the sounds of birds chirping. Feel the wind breeze through your hair. Smell the flowery fresh garden scents surrounding you. Allow your body to response naturally. Notice your toes, move to your ankles, next to your calves.

Now, move to your thighs, and other body parts while acknowledging your bodily functions. If you feel discomfort, do not fight it; rather, allow it to come in, and welcome it as your friend. Each time you use meditation with PMRT and biofeedback, you will become more aware of your bodily functions, which gives you more control. If this practice does not work for you the first time, practice it daily until you start to see improvements.

Conclusion

In this guide, we used a variety of techniques to help you manage stress. We also informed you about stress, stressors, stress responses and other specifics relating to stress to help you understand more fully how it develops. We have educated you on issues that cause stress and took time to add a group of worksheets, practices, etc in the guide for you to adhere to. By now, you should have a comprehensive understanding of stressors and stress, and how you respond to it. You should have used enough of the practices daily to help you manage your stress. If you did not adhere to the guide, likely you still have stress. You may want to take time to redo the guide, and follow the advice as recommended.

Help is available online - use the links below to learn more or to take a test.