7 Tips to Better Manage Stress

Our daily lives have become more fast paced at work and home. As a result, stress has become a common day occurrence. In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional pressure and strain. Many people are constantly inundated with technology that can easily distract us from our self-care. Thus, life can feel overwhelming and stressful at times. Consequently, it’s important to learn how to better manage your stress.

Before we discuss, how to manage stress, lets learn how to identify your stress. Symptoms of stress can take various forms. Stress may cause physical complaints, such as tightness in your shoulders, tension headaches, indigestion or even back pain. Stress can appear as cognitive problems like indecisiveness or poor concentration. Emotional symptoms of stress can include irritability, crying, or edginess. Once you can identify your stress, make a priority to learn healthy ways of managing your stress.

7 Tips to Better Manage Stress:

1. Make time for daily self-care.

   *Make a priority to go to bed around the same time and wake up at the same time. Ideally teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep and adults 7 to 9 hours of sleep.

   *Be sure to eat healthy well balanced meals and don’t allow yourself to skip a meal. Drink plenty of water. Teens are recommended to drink 6 - 8 cups of water and adults should drink 8 - 10 cups of water.

   *Pay attention to your self-talk. Talk to yourself in a kind and patient manner. Pretend you’re talking to your best friend and say that to yourself.

2. Practice daily relaxation techniques.

   These are activities that trigger the relaxation response, a physiological change that can help lower your blood pressure, breathing rate, heart rate, stress hormones and oxygen consumption. You can achieve this with activities such as meditation, guided imagery, yoga, and deep breathing exercises.

   *On the hour, spend a few minutes inhaling for a count of 5 and exhaling for a count of 5. It helps to bring you to the present moment.

   *Make time at least for 5 minutes to listen to a daily guided meditation. Find a guided meditation on an app or on YouTube that you find calming and relaxing.

   *Make time to do yoga at least 3 times per week. Use your favorite app or find a yoga instructor on YouTube. Yoga is a great exercise to focus on our body rather than our busy mind.

3. Make time to exercise as often as possible.

   *Physical activity can pump up your feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that boost your sense of well-being. Exercise is very helpful in refocusing your mind on your body's movements. This refocus can improve your mood and help you feel better. Allow yourself to try various forms of exercise, like going for a long walk, biking, working in the garden, going for a run, weight training, or working in your garden. Give yourself permission to make time for daily movement, if at all possible.

4. Connect with others.

   Social contact is a good stress reliever because your family and or friends can provide you support, it can offer a healthy distraction, and it helps you navigate the ups and downs of life.

   When you're stressed and irritable, you may want to isolate yourself. Instead, make it a point to reach out to family and friends and make social connections. Open up with your friend or family and express what’s bothering you. Even one good person who listens can make a difference in reducing some of your stress.

5. Practice being assertive.

   Assertiveness is a communication skill that allows you to express your needs, thoughts and emotions in a balanced and respectful manner, without violating the right of others. It can help you set limits and boundaries with others. Furthermore, being assertive can help you to express yourself effectively and stand up for your point of view. Being assertive is difficult for many people. Therapy can allow you to learn why you struggle being assertive. Therapy can be a safe space for you to practice being assertive with your family, friend and coo-workers.

6. Managing your social media time.

   Setting limits on how much time you spend on social media can help decrease the urge to constantly check for updates. It can help reduce your stress by limiting the exposure to potentially overwhelming content. It can also help prevent feelings of comparisons to others’ curated online lives. As a result, managing your time on social media can lead to a more relaxed and present state of mind.

7. Daily journaling.

   Give yourself permission to journal every day in the morning or afternoon. Journaling can help your understand your stressors, fears and concerns. Journaling can help you track any symptoms so that you can potentially recognize your triggers. Journaling can help you be honest about what your feeling and what you need. Furthermore, journaling can help you identify your negative thoughts and learn how to focus on healthy balanced self talk.

   I hope you make it a priority to practice better ways of managing your stress. Therapy will provide you a safe space to learn more effective ways of managing your stress. It will benefit you emotionally, socially and psychologically. Learning to make time to take care of yourself is necessary for our well being.

   If you’re looking for support to better manage your stress , please contact me to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.

3 Ways to Reduce Anxiety with HeartMath

HeartMath is a research based system of scientifically validated techniques, tools and technology to increase mental and emotional self regulation.  You can learn various HeartMath techniques that can create a sustainable emotional shift by shifting the heart rhythm into a coherent pattern.  Coherence is when both branches of the autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic and sympathetic, become synchronized.  Shifting our attention to the physical area of the heart, combined with generating a sincere positive feeling like love, gratitude or appreciation, is how the heart rhythm pattern creates coherence. 

HeartMath has also developed user-friendly simple techniques to help you make quick, positive emotional shifts.  HeartMath tools can help release anxiety as well as transform familiar anxiety patterns into healthier baseline patterns.  As with any tool or technique, the key is to practice daily.   

3 HeartMath techniques for reducing anxiety:

1. Notice and Ease  

This basic tool helps you admit and name what you’re feeling.  Once you honestly admit you're feeling anxious, you start to diminish its power over you.  Even a  bit of ease can help bring a more balanced perspective.  You can learn to reduce anxiety or other stressful feelings which helps stop their energy drain.

Step 1:  Notice and admit what you’re feeling.

Step 2:  Try to name the feeling.

Step 3:  Tell yourself to e-a-s-e as your gently focus on your heart,relax your breath, and e-a-s-e the stress out.

2. Power of Neutral

This tool helps you learn a simple yet powerful tool for refocusing emotions.  This tool teaches you to use the rhythmic power of your heart to bring your mind, emotions and physiology to a state of neutral which can lessen many anxiety triggers.  This tool helps you to clear your mind and see more options with clarity. 

Step 1:  Take a time-out, breathing slowly and deeply.  Imagine the air entering and leaving through your heart area.

Step 2:  Try to disengage from your stressful thoughts and worried feelings as you continue to breathe.

Step 3:  Continue the steps until you have neutralized the emotional charge.

One thing you can ask yourself is “Do I really want to keep draining my energy and stressing about the situation?”

3. Attitude Breathing

This tool is designed to help you shift out of a negative emotional state into a positive emotional state. Attitude breathing helps you to learn to clear and replace negative attitudes in the midst of feeling stressed or anxious to gain a more intelligent perspective.

Step 1:  Recognize an unwanted attitude; a feeling or attitude that you want to change.  Some feelings or attitudes could be anxiety, anger or guilt.

Step 2:  Identify and breathe a replacement attitude.  Select a positive attitude slowly and casually through your heart area. Do this until you can experience the new feeling.  

Source:  Transforming Anxiety by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman.

If you’re looking for mental health support, please contact me to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.

Transform Your Stress: Try Quick Coherence Technique

Stress and Coherence

Stress impacts the body emotionally, physically and mentally.  What’s important to remember is that the situation does not create the stress, instead it is how we respond to it.  Emotions directly impact our body. Positive emotions like kindness, love and appreciation feel good and are good for us.  These positive feelings help the systems in our body work more effectively.

Research indicates that when we intentionally shift to a positive emotion, the heart rhythms also change.  This shift in heart rhythms creates a favorable impact on our entire body.

When we are feeling stressed, the body is out of sync.  Depleting feelings, like worry, anxiety and anger negatively impact our nervous system.  Renewing feelings, like kindness, care and appreciation create order. This order is termed coherence.  Coherence leads to self regulation, creativity, mental clarity and resiliency. 

How to Practice Coherence:

The Quick Coherence Technique

Step One:  Focus your attention in the area of the heart, the center of your chest.  Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.

Suggestion:  Inhale for 5 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds (or whatever rhythm is comfortable for you)

Step Two:  Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as appreciation or care for someone or something in your life. 

Suggestion:  Try to re-experience a regenerative feeling you have for someone you love or focus on a feeling of calm and ease.   

I recommend practicing the Quick Coherence Technique at least 3 times a day for a few minutes each time.  Ideally try practicing in the morning before you get out of bed, during lunch time and before going to sleep at night. Over time, I encourage you to practice the Quick Coherence Technique multiple times a day.  With practice, you may experience better sleep, mental clarity and more calm.

If you’re looking for mental health support, please contact me to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.