Tips for Creating Your Own Stress Management Programs

You already know that life challenges like losing your job incur stress, but happier experiences also bring on stress and stress management is an important part of staying healthy. Getting married, for example, is a celebration of your relationship, but everything involved with wedding planning-invitations, seating charts, family upsets-still impacts you emotionally and physically.

Positive and Negative Stress
When you experience stress of any kind, your body automatically releases biochemicals and hormones designed to prepare our bodies to meet the demands in front of us. When stress is acute and short in duration, this response is often referred to the "fight or flight" response. Prolonged or chronic stress is detrimental to your health as it wears on you physically, leading to illness like hypertension or heart disease. It also wears on you emotionally and may be related to varying degrees of depression in some individuals.

Most of us think of stress however, as the impact our life experiences have on our physical and emotional well being. Stress may be brought on by increased demands on our time or responsibilities at home or in the workplace. Negative stress is something we all recognize: job loss or other challenges in the workplace, marital and relationship issues, the death of a loved one or moving to a new city.

Positive stress comes in many forms too: accepting and starting a new job, selling and buying a house, getting married, beginning a family and even getting ready to travel abroad for vacation. Just because the event is joyful or exciting, doesn't mean it takes less energy or involve the same release of hormones that negative stress doe.

Tips for Managing Stress
Learning how to manage your stress can help limit the negative effects stress is having on your well being, including increased vulnerability to illness, fatigue, anger, depression, weight gain or loss and sleep issues.

Walk it off. Exercise is proven and effective stress buster and is often a central component of any stress management program. A 30-minute walk is enough to start your endorphins flowing. Any form of exercise offers this benefit, but walking is something you do just about anywhere, at any time. In other words, walking is a stress reducer you always have with you.

Talk it out. Confide in a trusted friend or family member, seek the advice of the counselor or talk to your journal (writing can sometimes be as effective as talking). In some cases, the listener may offer valuable solutions or an alternate perspective, while in others cases you might simply benefit from talking and receiving empathy or sympathy from someone who cares about you. People who seek social or other outside support are also less likely to manage their stress by turning to drugs and alcohol or behaviors like overeating or oversleeping.

Breathe deeply. One of the first things we're often reminded to do in times of crisis is to take a deep breath. Eastern medicine has long promoted controlled breathing as a way to manage stress, but you don't have to wait for a crisis to apply this technique. Practice breathing control throughout the day by inhaling slowly through your nose for a count of 4 and holding for a count of 7 before exhaling slowly through your mouth for a count of 8. Imagine the stress and anxiety leaving your body on each exhale. Envision yourself as calm and centered.

Make a plan. You may feel less anxious if you come up with a plan for managing the cause of your stress, especially if that stress is coming from more than one place. Make a list of everything that's contributing to your anxiety and then write smaller lists of solutions or possible outcomes for each item on the list. Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper, including the worst-case scenarios helps clear your mind so you can focus on the demands in front of you.

Stretch. When we're experiencing stress, we often contract our muscles in response which can lead to headaches and muscle spasms. A good stretch can help melt that tension away. Make an effort to take regular breaks throughout your day to stretch or better still, find a yoga class near your home or office. Not only will your help your muscles relax, but depending on the class you take you'll get your blood pumping enough to trigger an endorphin release. The practice of yoga also includes a variety of breathing techniques, making it three stress-management techniques rolled into one.

Watch your diet. When you're under a lot of pressure, one of the first things to go is eating a healthy diet. One of the risks associated with chronic stress is the impact it has on your immune system. Make sure you're eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and drinking enough water. Eating healthfully can help you feel stronger, more alert and fight off illness.

Get a massage. Touch is healing and when we're under stress, we respond to touch even more strongly. Schedule a massage to help release tension and toxins that have built up on in your muscles and work out any knots that could be hiding in your neck and shoulders, causing headaches.

Take a nap. Depending upon how much stress you're dealing with and what's causing it, you may need extra rest to boost your immunity and resist illness. Whether you nap or simply start going to bed a half hour earlier at night, you'll benefit from prioritizing rest until the pressure subsides. Be mindful that you're not sleeping too much however. The tendency to oversleep is often associated with symptoms of depression and may an indicator for you to visit your doctor.

Love your pets (and let them love you back). Studies show that petting your dog or cat or otherwise spending time with pets or other animals lowers heart rates and blood pressure. Additionally, the unconditional love that comes from our furry and feathered friends helps us find peace in times of stress.