Stress

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Stress

22 Tips to Ease Tension

Cooked, burned, whipped, beaten—we all know what it feels like to get emotionally mangled by the boulder weight of day-to-day struggles. Our bosses yell at us, our spouses yell at us—it feels like an endless circle where getting ahead at the office can leave us with so little energy for home that home turns into a battleground that leaves us with no energy for work.

But is stress really a catch-22? And is mere survival all you can ask of a hassle-filled world? No. Stress, in fact, is not only something you can beat but a force you can turn to your advantage. You don't have to run from it, and you don't have to go to a special stress-management seminar to find out how to manage it. The following doctor-tested tips show you how to combat stress—and win. For instant relief when the world has you in a headlock, read on.

Work on your attitude. "I think the single most important point you can make about stress is that in most cases it's not what's out there that's the problem, it's how you react to it," says Paul J. Rosch, M.D., president of the American Institute of Stress and a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. And how you react is determined by how you perceive a particular stress.

"Watch people on a roller coaster ride," Dr. Rosch says. "Some sit in the back, eyes shut, jaws clenched. They can't wait for the ordeal in the torture chamber to end and to get back on solid ground. Up front are the wide-eyed thrill seekers who relish every steep plunge and can't wait to get on the very next ride. And in between are those who are seemingly quite nonchalant or even bored.

"They're all having exactly the same experience—the roller coaster ride—but they're reacting to it very differently: bad stress, good stress, and no stress."

Emment Miller, M.D., medical director of the Cancer Support and Education Center in Menlo Park, California, a nationally known expert on stress, draws on Chinese wisdom to make this point. "The Chinese word for crisis is weiji—two characters that separately mean danger and opportunity. Every problem we encounter in life can be viewed that way—as a chance to show that we can handle it."

The message from both men: Changing the way you think—viewing a difficult assignment at work as a chance to improve your skills, for example—can change a life of stress and discomfort to a life of challenge and excitement.

Think about something else. "Anything that will help you shift your perspective instantly is useful when you're under the gun," says Dr. Miller. "You want to distract yourself—to break whatever chain of thought is producing the stress. And thinking about almost anything else will do that."

Think positive. "Thinking about a success or a past achievement is excellent when you're feeling uncertain—before a presentation, for example, or a meeting with your boss," Dr. Miller says. "You're instantly reminded that you've achieved before, and there's no reason you shouldn't achieve this time."

Take a mental vacation. "Taking a mini-vacation in your mind is a very good way to relieve or manage stress," says Ronald Nathan, Ph.D., director of educational development, coordinator of behavioral science, and associate professor in the departments of Family Practice and Psychiatry at Albany Medical College.

"Visualize yourself lying in warm sand on a beach in the Bahamas, a cold wind blowing in off the ocean, the surf rolling in quietly in the background. It's amazing what this can do to relax you."

Recite an antistress litany. Stress can strike anytime, not just at work—in the bathroom before work, in the deli at lunchtime, in the car on the way home. To help yourself unravel when unpleasant thoughts knot the muscles in your neck and tension mounts, recite the following litany, suggested by Dr. Miller.

• "There's no place I have to go at this moment in time."
• "There's no problem I have to solve at this moment in time."
• "There's nothing that I have to do at this moment in time."
• "The most important thing that I can experience at this moment in time is relaxation."

It's necessary to think these thoughts consciously, Dr. Miller says, because doing so automatically changes the mind-set that's producing the stress. If you're reciting the litany, you're not thinking about whatever bothers you.

Use affirmations. "You should have a list of affirmations ready that you can start repeating when you feel stressed," Dr. Miller says. "They don't have to be complicated. Just chanting 'I can handle this' to yourself or 'I know more about this than anyone here' will work. It pulls you away from the animal reflex to stress—the quick breathing, the cold hands—and toward the reasoned response, the intellect—the part of you that really can handle it."

The result? You calm down.

MEDICAL ALERT When Stress Threatens Too much stress can directly threaten your health. Paul J. Rosch, M.D., says that any of the following stress-related symptoms may indicate that you should seek medical help promptly. Dizzy spells or blackouts Rectal bleeding (may indicate an ulcer) A racing pulse that won't stop Sweaty palms Chronic back and neck pain Chronic or severe headaches Trembling Hives Overwhelming anxiety Insomnia "The basic rule is this: You should see a doctor if the symptoms you're experiencing are new and have no obvious cause, especially if they interfere with your quality of life," Dr. Rosch says.

Count to ten. Simpy refusing to respond to a stress immediately can help defuse it, Dr. Nathan says. And making a habit of pausing and relaxing—just for a few seconds—before responding to the routine interruptions of your day can make a clear difference in the sense of stress you experience. When the phone rings, for example, breathe in deeply. Then as you breathe out, imagine you are as loose and limp as an old rag doll.

"One of the things pausing like this does is give you a feeling of control," Dr. Nathan points out. "Being in control is generally less stressful than being out of control. Make a habit of using rapid relaxation during the pause before you answer the phone. Deliberately pausing can become an instant tranquilizer."

Amazing! Counting to ten works.

Look away. "If you look through a window at a far-distant view for a moment—away from the problem that's producing the stress—the eyes relax, and if the eyes relax, the tendency is for you to do the same," Dr. Nathan says. "Take a pot off the burner and it quits boiling."

Get up and leave. "Leaving the scene can do the same as looking away," says Dr. Nathan.

Take several deep breaths. Belly breathing is what some people call it. It's an old and useful trick for defeating anxiety and nervousness.

"The basic idea is act calm, be calm," says Bradley W. Frederick, D.C., director of the International Institute of Sports Medicine in Los Angeles, California. "When you're experiencing stress, your pulse races and you start breathing very quickly. Forcing yourself to breathe slowly convinces the body that the stress is gone, whether it is or isn't."

The correct way to breathe? Abdominally—feeling the stomach expand as you inhale, collapse as you exhale.

Yell or cry. It's not always possible in the typical office, but in some situations-a private office or your car, for example—a purely emotional outburst is perfectly acceptable. Screaming or crying can provide a release for the emotions generating the stress you're feeling, Dr. Miller says.

Stretch. "Essentially everything we feel has a physical manifestation," says Dr. Frederick. "A lot of us respond to stress with muscle tension. Ideally, we'd prefer to eliminate the cause of the stress, but stretching the muscles at least reduces the sensation of stress—the muscles relax, we feel less tense. And given that we often can't do anything about the source of stress, that's important."

And for many of us, that's all we need.

Massage your target muscles. "Most of us have particular muscles that knot up under stress," Dr. Miller says. "It's sort of a vicious circle: Stress produces adrenaline, which produces muscle tension, which produces more adrenaline, and so on. A good way to break the circle is to find out what your target muscles are—the ones that get tense under pressure, usually in the back of your neck and upper back—and massage them for a couple of minutes whenever you feel tense."

The Alternate Route The Way to Inner Peace Transcendental meditation (TM), yoga, Zen—they all work by inducing something called the relaxation response, a body state first characterized and named by Herbert Benson, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School's internationally acclaimed Mind/Body Clinic. "This phenomenon shuts off the distracting, stressful, anxiety-producing aspects of what is commonly called the fight-or-flight response," Dr. Benson writes in his book Your Maximum Mind. "In primitive situations, where dangers from wild animals might have been the order of the day, this sort of response [fight-or-flight] was quite useful. In our own time, however, the fight-or-flight response tends to make us more nervous, uncomfortable, and even unhealthy." A person experiencing the relaxation response turns off all the hormones and behaviors that are making him nervous. Basically any kind of meditation will produce it, though TM, yoga, and Zen require formal instruction and a good amount of self-discipline. Dr. Benson suggests the following basic program for eliciting the response. One, pick a focus word or phrase ("peace," for example) that is firmly rooted in your personal belief system. Two, sit quietly, close your eyes, and relax. And three, start repeating your focus word in time with your breathing, each time you exhale. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes. Tips: Practice at least once a day, and don't worry about how you're doing. If you realize that you've been distracted by thoughts, just easily return attention to your word and continue your meditation.

Press on your temples. This application of acupressure—the oriental system that uses pressure points to relieve pain and treat a variety of ailments—works indirectly. Massaging nerves in your temples, says Dr. Miller, relaxes muscles elsewhere—chiefly in your neck.

Drop your jaw and roll it left to right. "People under pressure have a tendency to clench their teeth," says Dr. Miller. "Dropping the jaw and rolling it helps make those muscles relax, and if you relax the muscles, you reduce the sensation of tension."

Stretch your chest for better breathing. The tense musculature of a person under stress can make breathing difficult, according to Dr. Frederick, and impaired breathing can aggravate the anxiety you already feel. To relax your breathing, roll your shoulders up and back, then relax. The first time, inhale deeply as they go back, exhale as they relax. Repeat four or five more times, then inhale deeply again. Repeat the entire sequence four times.

Relax all over. Easier said than done? Not if you know how. A simple technique called progressive relaxation can produce immediate and dramatic reductions in your sense of stress by reducing physical tension.

Starting at top or bottom, tense one set of muscles in your body at a time, hold for a few seconds, then let them relax. Work your way through all major body parts—feet, legs, chest and arms, head and neck—and then enjoy the sense of release it provides.

Take a hot soak. Hot water works by defeating the stress response, says Dr. Frederick. When we're tense and anxious, blood flow to our extremities is reduced. Hot water restores circulation, convincing the body it's safe and that it is okay to relax. Cold water is a no-no for the opposite reason. It mimics the stress response, driving blood away from the extremities. Result: Tension increases.

An office alternative might be running how water over your hands until you feel tension start to drain away.

Move around. Regular exercise, of course, builds stamina that can help anyone battle stress. But even something as casual as a walk around the block can help you throw off some of the tension a rough business meeting or a family squabble leaves you carrying around.

"Exercise is what your body instinctively wants to do under stress: Run or fight," Dr. Miller says. "And it works. One, it burns off some of the stress chemicals tension produces. And two, a tired muscle is a relaxed muscle."

Listen to a relaxation tape. Relaxation, Dr. Miller says, is the opposite of tension—the antidote for stress. And the pre-recorded relaxation tapes he and others produce—Dr. Miller's have been used by such diverse organizations as Atari, Lockheed Corporation, and Levi Strauss & Company—are very effective.

"Good relaxation tapes are very valuable," says Dr. Nathan. "They facilitate your relaxation response. And they're inexpensive."

Available tapes offer voice only, voice with music, or just natural sounds—wind in the trees, surf on the sand. All you need is a tape recorder and a headset—to block out distractions and avoid disturbing others.

Tune in the music. Relaxation cassettes work, but they aren't your only option. Music soothes as perhaps nothing else does.

"Music is an enormously powerful tool for fighting stress," Dr. Miller says. "You can use it in two basic ways—to relax or to inspire. New-Age music is very relaxing."

PANEL OF ADVISERS

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Herbert Benson, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and chief of the Section on Behavioral Medicine at New England Deaconess Hospital there.

Bradley W. Frederick, D.C., is a chiropractor and director of the International Institute of Sports Medicine in Los Angeles, California.

Emmett Miller, M.D., is medical director of the Cancer Support and Education Center and president of Source Cassette Learning Systems in Menlo Park, California. He is a nationally recognized expert on stress.

Ronald Nathan, Ph.D., is director of educational development, coordinator of behavioral science, and associate professor in the departments of Family Practice and Psychiatry at Albany Medical College in New York.

Paul J. Rosch, M.D., is president of the American Institute of Stress and a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College in Valhalla. He's also adjunct clinical professor of medicine in psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.