Reduce Stress

Just Relax!

By Frederic Luskin Ph.D.
Published: September 24, 2006

Stress is your body’s normal response to a threat of any kind, and the “danger” does not have to be huge: It can be running late for a meeting or having an argument with a friend or colleague. Even if the danger is small, our bodies release chemicals that have a galvanizing effect on every cell. Many Americans today—facing long hours at work, financial pressures and problems with spouses and children— constantly are under stress. Even childhood is not as simple as it once was, and adolescents have a full vocabulary of stress.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can learn simple techniques to keep a clear head, reduce your stress and put less strain on your body.

1. Take a deep breath or two
The most direct way to de-stress is to take two or three slow, deep breaths whenever you notice that you are anxious or under strain. That is not as easy as it sounds, because when you experience a threat, the center of your breathing moves from your belly to your chest, and your breathing becomes quicker and shallower. Your body then sets in motion the sympathetic branch of your nervous system, which releases the stress hormones and suppresses the parasympathetic branch, which triggers the flow of chemicals that have a calming effect.

The good news is that, by paying attention to your breathing, you can switch off the stressed part of your nervous system and return to a state of calm. As you inhale, imagine that your belly is a balloon and you are slowly filling it with air. As you exhale, make sure your belly stays relaxed as it lets the air out.

2. Think of the good stuff
Since stress is the body’s way of dealing with threats, a simple way to de-stress is to use your body’s response to good things to your advantage. A few moments spent thinking how lucky you are to be alive or how grateful you are to be loved or how in awe you are of nature’s beauty all send a chemical message that life is good throughout your body. Though we react to threat in a 10th of a second, it takes longer for the “all-clear” to sound. We have to spend six to 10 seconds appreciating our good fortune for our body to relax. But if you can produce a genuine smile, then your body cannot feel stressed at all.

3. Slow down
When you “multi-task”—by talking on the phone while driving, for example—your body and mind require more energy. When you slow down, you relax your body and reduce the demands on your mind. So, when feeling stressed, do a common activity slowly, carefully and with focused attention. Even getting up from your desk slowly gives your nervous system a break.

4. Change the tape
Sometimes, all we need to do to de-stress is change the tape that runs in our heads. Most of us have a habit of making problems worse by saying things to ourselves like, “This is terrible,” or, “ I have really screwed up.” Instead, say supportive and positive things to yourself, such as, “I can deal with this” or, “I deserve success and good fortune.”

5. Let it go
There are occasions in life when you need to recognize that you cannot change the situation. In those cases, you can make a conscious decision not to stress yourself out over something that you can’t make different or better.

-- Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., is the author of “Stress Free for Good: 10 Scientifically Proven Life Skills for Health and Happiness” and “Forgive for Good.”