10 SIMPLE TIPS FOR STRESS RELIEF
by Carol Scott, MD, MSEd, FACEP

1. Stress is inevitable. The goal is NOT to get rid of stress or have a stress-free existence. A reasonable goal for management of stress is to transform potentially harmful reactions to demands and challenges in your life into healthy responses. Stress doesn’t make you sick, it makes you more likely to get diseases that make you sick. Between 70 and 80 percent of visits to primary care doctors are due to stress-related disorders. Doctors are good at telling you that your symptoms (headache, chest pain, stomach disorders) are due to a certain disease. But wait a minute—the real question you should ask your doctor is why you have that disease. For so many disorders, the answer is simply stress.
   
   
2.  Rethink how you think. Your mind ultimately controls your biology. The biology of the stress response, the ‘fight or flight’ response, is fueled by adrenaline and cortical. In situations you can’t control, you can control how you think about them. Techniques for doing this are in my new book. I call it mind-shifting. When you are stressed,  mind-shifting helps you strive for accurate thinking, not just positive thinking. Take a hard look at the reality of your situation. The good, the bad and the ugly. Learn to recognize automatic negative thoughts, problematic thoughts and irrational thoughts.
   
   
3. If you are going through a hard time, learn from it. Find something positive in the situation, but don't ignore the negatives. Learn from them without dwelling on them. Develop your personal recovery plan. Expect the unexpected.
   
   
4. Focus on friendship and relationships.  A true trusted friend is priceless. Identify at least one person with whom you can share true feelings and needs. Be sure it’s someone who ‘gets you’ and really cares.  Reach out for support when you need it. This holiday season, give yourself the gift of forgiveness. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Repair broken relationships.
   
   
5. Learn to live with less.  There are two ways to be ‘wealthy’-- have more or want less. Enough said.
   
   
6. Technology can be intoxicating. Use it, don’t abuse it. Be particularly mindful of how stress can interfere in personal relationships.
   
   
7. Resilient attitudes and skills are linked to healthy responses to stress. Resilience can be strengthened. Resilience is your stretch capacity. Think of three C’s. You are committed to what you do because of the strong sense of inner purpose. Your commitment inspires you to get in the game and stay in the game.  You recognize the power you have to control some aspects of your life choices. You act rather than react. With resilience, the challenge of change is transformed into opportunity for self-discovery and growth.
   
   
8. Stop worrying. Worry is the thinking component of anxiety.  Worry is your mind thinking ahead into the future to anticipate possible threats. Worry also occurs a when you’re second-guessing yourself about something that’s already happened. Anxiety is how the body responds to anticipation of those future threats and second guessing. Learn more about how to stop guilt and worry in my new book.
   
   
9. Kids are stressed. According to the new American Psychological Association study, American parents and kids had very different perspectives on how kids were experiencing stress. Sixty-three percent of parents said their child had little or no stress. In reality, only 31 percent of the children reported little or no stress (among the young people surveyed between the ages of 8 and 17). As for sources of stress; 44 percent said doing well in school was a source of stress, 30 percent worry about the family having enough money, and 8 percent said the relationships with their parents were sources of stress. Learning new strategies to deal with stress is another form of good parenting. In my new book I discuss recognizing stress in children.
   
   
10. Relax. True relaxation is a mind and body state that is the opposite of the stress state. Relaxation is a natural and innate protective mechanism each of us possesses. Relaxation involves learning a simple set of skills that produce a very specific biologic response—the relaxation response. Combined with specific ‘mind-shifting’ techniques, I call this experience a Power Pause.  The relaxation response was discovered when Dr. Herbert Benson, then the director of the hypertension section of Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, studied the physical and mental effects of a variety of methods (including yoga and several forms of meditation) evoking a calm state. The Power Pause triggers the release of anti-stress hormones, decreases your heart rate and lowers your metabolic rate and your rate of breathing right at your desk! To learn more go to: http://www.stressreliefcoach.com/files/mp3/Track7.mp3

Conference presenter Carol Scott is an emergency physician and health educator. She is an expert on the connections between stress and health and the developer of the BestStress Zone concept. Her new book, Optimal Stress: Living in Your Best Stress Zone. (John Wiley & Sons) is now available.

http://stressreliefcoach.com

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