According to the Mayo Clinic, relaxation training may have the following benefits: • Slowing your heart rate • Lowering blood pressure • Slowing your breathing rate • Increasing blood flow to major muscles • Reducing muscle tension and chronic pain • Improving concentration • Reducing anger and frustration • Boosting confidence to handle problems […]
Some people are optimists and some are pessimists. The optimists have a strong tendency to look on the bright side of their current situation, whereas the pessimistic tends to look at the dark side of the situation. A major component of stress is how we interpret or think about a situation. If we interpret the […]
Getting more organized is one way to help reduce stress. On rare occasions, a person may be excessively focused on organization, which may cause more stress. But for most of us, the problem is not being organized enough. This lack of organization leads to irritations, falling behind behind on tasks, and a general feeling of […]
When we face changes in life, we experience stress. A moderate amount of stress can be a good thing. It can cause us to “be on our toes” so to speak. In other words, it can improve our performance and attention to things that are important to attend to. A stress-free life might be interesting […]
I’m not a medical doctor or nutritionist, but I do follow research on nutrition and its affects on mental health and brain functioning. A recent study using rats, found that a diet high in high fructose corn syrup (the stuff used to sweeten just about everything these days), caused declines in memory and learning. Now […]
At one time or another, we all go for a quick fix to the signs and signals that our bodies present to us. I’ll provide an example. Let’s say that you’ve had an extended period of stress and as a result, you feel tired. You have two options. If you’re like most of us, there […]
Research has shown exercise to have positive impacts on a number of aspects of physical and emotional health. It’s important not to approach exercise in a way that increases your stress or makes it likely that you will fail at your exercise program. The question is, how can I do that? Note: If you have […]
When life becomes very hectic, one of the first things to go is taking care of one’s body. During very busy or stressful times, people stop drinking enough water, and gravitate to fast or junk food. There are a variety of reasons that this tends to occur (such as forgetting to do these things or […]
An important part of coping with stress is having a hobby, or something that you can do that you enjoy. Some hobbies may not be extremely relaxing (such as playing a shoot ’em up video game), but other hobbies generally promote a feeling of contentment, satisfaction, and peace (crafts, walking/hiking, fishing, riding a motorcycle). There […]
Getting a good night’s sleep can be an important part of managing your stress. Having a little trouble sleeping from time to time is not unusual for most people, but prolonged insomnia can be very stressful and take away your resources and energy for coping with stress. If you feel you have a significant […]