Center offers stress busters
The Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center in Washington offered the following stress busters during a recent health seminar: – Worry about one thing at a time. Women worry more than men do. A study at Harvard University found that women feel stress more frequently than men do. A man will worry about something more specific, like not getting a promotion at work, but a woman will worry more abstractly about her job or her weight. Keep anxiety focused on real, immediate issues and tune out imagined ones or those issues that are out of your control.
– Focus on your senses a few minutes each day. Focus only on what’s going on in the present, whether it’s taking a break from work or during your workout. Take a relaxing 20-minute walk and don’t think about your job worries or anything else.
– Talk about or write about what’s worrying you. Writing or talking about the things that worry you – in a diary, with friends, in a support group or even a home computer file – helps you feel less alone and helpless.
– Exercise is probably the most effective stress reliever. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain, which is a natural pain killer and feel-good chemical. Even 30 minutes of exercise a day can make you feel better.
– Take time to be touched. Studies have shown that touch can speed up weight gain in premature babies and improve lung function in asthmatics. If you can’t indulge in a full-body massage, treat yourself to an occasional pedicure or facial.
– Speak a stress-free language. People who handle stress well will tend to employ what stress experts call an “optimistic explanatory style.”
– Don’t be so serious. Studies have shown that laughter not only relieves tension but also actually improves immune function.
– Fire those voices of negativity. Everyone has an internal government, made up of various voices, which alternatively egg us on or drive us mad. Imagine a boardroom and actually fire those voices that do nothing but cause us stress.
– Once a day, get away. When you’re having a good or bad day, checking out for 10 or 15 minutes is revitalizing. Meditate, sing or sip tea. Do whatever it takes to unwind and relax.
– Name one good thing that happened today. Instead of creating a negative atmosphere as soon as you come home from work, try starting off the evening with your family and friends and exchanging good news. Tell someone something good about your day.
– As a ritual, literally take the stress in, and then release it. No matter how good, bad or up and down life is, it’s so important to be elastic, resilient and to have the ability to bounce back.