Snap the Stress - Change Your Mind, Not the World

The impatient boss. The snarl of traffic. The pressure to have a big bulge in both your pants and wallet. These are just a few of the stresses you face every day.

You wish they'd go away. You figure that a better job will get you a better boss. Or that moving to the burbs will make life more peaceful. Or maybe you'll earn some extra money and can have that penis-lengthening surgery. While you worry about it, you down beers, fried food and wash it down with a few cigarettes. And that makes you feel better.

For now.

The ironic thing about stress, experts say, is that we want to change the things in our world that cause the stress. Sometimes we can do that, but often we cannot. And very seldom can we do it successfully.

"There are conditions in our lives that are chronic. They're not going to go away, they just can't be fixed," says Dr. Jeffrey Brantley, program director of the Stress Reduction Program at Duke University. "The real way of managing that is to come to terms on the inside with ourselves, with our own reactions to what the world is giving us."

There's the easy part of the answer: change your mind, not the world.

ACT LIKE A WOMAN

Despite the fact you might have known--or even dated--a scrotum-extracting raving bitch at some point, in general women actually handle stress better than men.

A recent study at UCLA showed that a biological pattern is influential in how men and women deal with stress. The research revealed that when women are highly stressed, they turn to friends or focus on their children, called a "tend or befriend" response.

Men, on the other hand, have the opposite reaction. They tend to withdraw or create conflict. After a day of intense conflict, a woman will tend to seek out support from other people--and men will simply be alone to simmer and sulk.

We can move beyond our biological response, however, and learn from the ladies. The next time you have a difficult day and want to brood in silence, seek out your spouse or friend and share the issues with them. You might not want to at first, but give it a try and see if you feel different.

If you have young kids, a great stress-reliever is to simply play what they're playing. Whether it's swinging on the swings, building with Legos, or playing with action figures, you escape the adult world for awhile and give your body and mind a great rest.

EAT TO BEAT IT

One specialist says we have it backwards when it comes to dealing with stress. While we're looking for solutions like deep breathing, yoga, and massage, the first step is giving yourself a foundation to reduce the onslaught of stress in the first place.

"The three most important stress management basics are tied back to the fact that we are 'biochemical machines' and that our ability to cope and function in this world is first rooted in the stability of our fundamental physiology," says Michael Dunphy, Ph.D., former professor of biochemistry and now an author and professional speaker on the topic.

The three fundamental stress management tactics, according to Dunphy, are:

1. Get adequate sleep.
2. Get adequate hydration.
3. Get proper nutrition.

If you're dehydrated, exhausted and nutritionally-challenged, he says, you "will be stressed out regardless of whatever clever tactics you want to use to manage your stress."

These steps are simple, but oh-so-hard to implement in this world of push-ahead mentality. Get enough sleep, preferably eight hours a night, even if you think you can "get" less and function. You might not realize how different you will feel during the workday with more sleep. You know that nice day called "Saturday"? It might not be great just because you're off of work--it might be great because the night before you let yourself sleep enough!

Being hydrated can have an effect on handling stress too, Dunphy says. If you don't get enough sleep, you tend to drink coffee during the day, which dehydrates you. "Drinking six to eight normal glasses of water a day is reasonable," says Dunphy. "When we dehydrate, our basic biochemical systems start to struggle for efficiency."

While food intake might seem a no-brainer, just reducing the amount of fat and sugar you eat is not the answer. "Food intake involves four basic elements," says Dunphy. "Quantity, quality, timing and composition."

Think about what you eat and when. If your down times tend to be in the morning, maybe you're not eating enough breakfast. If you fade in the late afternoon, perhaps you're not getting enough protein and carbohydrate in your lunch.

And don't forget, experts say, that exercise will help you deal with stress. When your body is in good physical shape, it gives you more stamina to deal with the physical aftereffects of a tough day. That doesn't mean you must have a six-pack of abs and monster shoulders. It simply means that regular cardio work will keep your body better, and strength training helps, too.

WHACK WORK WOES

Even when you've built the proper foundation to deal with stress, you might still need some quick techniques to get you through an especially bad day. Try these, from the experts.

Take an inner vacation. After a stressful meeting or a blowout at work, close your eyes at your desk (even if it's a cubicle, which is probably is) and transport yourself somewhere else. Though some stress management experts say to remember a happy time in your life, some men find that stressful. Thinking about childhood or that over-sexed honeymoon can bring up other issues. Instead, take yourself mentally to somewhere you enjoy going or would like to go. Envision yourself sitting on a mountaintop, or gently skiing down a powdery slope. The powerful mental vision will help reduce your heart rate and respiratory distress. It gives your mind and body a breather.

Organize your work. That's right, when your tasks have built to an insurmountable pile, categorize them in the best way possible. Plan how you're going to accomplish each of them. Often we fear what's ahead, but by knowing exactly what we're facing, it can reduce some of the stress. And here's the trick: de-emotionalize your feelings about the particular projects. You might have one that you feel is an unnecessary and boring weekly drag, or another that ought to be done by someone else. But set those feelings aside and merely categorize the work.

The other advantage to this is when you're presented with more work to do, you can explain what you've got cooking and ask your boss to prioritize the new work. This will show in a methodical way that you've got too much without your whining or complaining.

All these ideas can help you weather the storm, no matter how the winds of stress toss you around. Like any other skills, the know-how to handle stress can make your every day better. Wouldn't it be nice to get to the point where you say, "Yeah, I have stress, but I get over it"?

Autor: Chuck Mallory

Chuck Mallory has written for several magazines, including Men's Workout, Exercise & Health, inflight magazines, and many others.

Added: February 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/