by Sherry Obenauer

Created on: April 19, 2007   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Stress Stoppers

Are you stressed? Have you ever felt stressed? The majority of people will answer "yes" to at least one of these questions. Unfortunately, most of us don't know how to decrease our stress levels or we claim not to have the time to do something about it. However, there are many ways of dealing with stress and many of them take only seconds to perform. Given the staggering incidence of stress-related diseases and illnesses, no one can afford to ignore doing something about it.

One of the most common ways in which many of us choose to decrease our stress levels is by exercising regularly (30 minutes four days each week). Aerobic exercise is an excellent way to decrease stress as it causes our bodies to release endorphins and a number of other healing/calming chemicals. Further, exercise improves our physical and mental health, thereby, decreasing the risk of getting ill and increases recovery time if we do become ill. Also, exercise allows us to divert our attention away from the stress and toward our workout.

A second way to decrease the effects of stress is by eating healthy. What we eat greatly affects how we feel and think. If we eat foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar, irritability, headaches, digestion problems, inability to concentrate, nervousness, and a variety of other symptoms develop which greatly impede our ability to function. Similarly, those who drink high amounts of caffeine, sugar, and alcohol and consume very little water, milk, or juice often experience similar negative symptoms. Eating poorly or irregularly compounds stress. Eating healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, protein, grain, and calcium products and drinking at least six glasses of water per day enables our bodies to function in a much more efficient fashion.

Meditation, yoga, and tai chi are other ways to combat stress and its effects. All of these methods allow us to transcend our stress to a place of calm serenity. By focusing on our body movements, an object, or a sound, we are distracted away from stress. These are excellent ways of becoming more in tune with our body and inner strengths.

Breathing is another way to control stress and only takes a few moments. Typically, when we are stressed, our heart rate increases and breathing becomes very shallow and rapid. This depletes the body of the essential oxygen it needs in order to operate. By taking deep breaths that flow into our stomach and not just to the lungs quickly decreases stress.

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