Stress Relief: Taking Control

People have unique personalities and react to stress differently. You probably know someone who can let everything roll off his or her back, and someone else who is quite the opposite. Some of that difference is thought to be genetic, but much of it is learned. While there are situations that we would all agree are stressful, there are many others that are personally stressful to you. So remember, it does not matter what would stress your husband or your best friend; what stresses you, stresses you.

The fact is that stress is here to stay. So we need to learn how to manage our response to the stressful situations and events in our lives. Cutting edge medical research is constantly revealing new ways to defend against the damaging effects of chronic stress.

Over the past several decades, medicine has made discoveries about mind-body connections in health and illness. We now know that our feelings, thoughts, beliefs and stress all have a major impact on health and wellbeing. Research has demonstrated that those who learn and practice skills such as mindfulness meditation, biofeedback, and relaxation exercises are likely to have a better health outcome than those who do not. Positive psychology has shown that the more we appreciate the positive and experience gratitude in our lives, the better able we are to deal with adversity. Particularly, the ability to focus attention can promote deep relaxation in the body, and the ability to be more mindful in each situation can help break the destructive reactions to stress. Some benefits include:

• Reduces chronic pain
• Increases positive emotions
• Increases empathy
• Increases curiosity, confidence and openness to change
• Prevents depression relapses
• Causes the part of the brain associated with wellbeing to enlarge!
• Boosts the immune system
• Improves cognitive function, focus and performance
• Improves coping
• Decreases anxiety
• Improves mood
• Helps with weight loss