All Stress reduction Articles

What if you thought of your day as a dance? Sounds a little odd at first, but consider this: Isn't that a better perspective than thinking of your day as a chore? Taking a dancing approach toward your day can give both your body and mind a lift. Think Like a Dancer As you begin each activity of your day, imagine yourself as a dancer performing for an audience. Let each movement be Read more...

Ten years ago. Lori*, a speech pathologist in Virginia, was grocery-shopping when she suddenly couldn't breathe or swallow. "My heart was racing and my chest felt tight -- I thought I was having a heart attack," says the 42-year-old mother of four. The symptoms lasted several minutes before finally letting up. Lori took a deep breath and brushed off the incident as a onetime thing; Read more...

We've all learned that stress can trigger the body's fight or flight response. But researchers from UCLA contend that women have been hardwired to react to stress in a healthier way. Stress triggers the release of a cascade of chemicals including oxytocin, that in women can elicit a response the authors refer to as “tend and befriend,” the urge to connect to others. The researchers Read more...

When I lived in Manhattan, I would often see a billboard that read, “Mini-storage can change your life.” Now maybe that saying has more meaning to those who reside in apartments the size of walk-in closets, but I think it holds a universal truth. No matter where we live, most of us have too much stuff. Way too much. In fact, the amount of stuff we accumulate only grows as we increase Read more...

Dec. 14 -- There's a lot of advice this time of year about how to get through the holidays without gaining weight, melting down or otherwise suffering a seasonal hangover. Here are five sensible tips, culled from years of reporting on health: 1. Call it meditation, a retreat to your cave, whatever you like. But carving out 20 minutes or so a day to sit in silence can carry you through the Read more...

In this age of maniacal multitasking, where if you aren’t doing three things at once you’re likely to feel unproductive, I say it’s time to reclaim your ability to focus, I mean really focus, on one task at a time. It’s time to mono-task. That’s right, when you’re on the phone—don’t read your emails, don’t rifle through files, don’t IM your spouse, don’t surf the net Read more...

These days we're deluged with information, and it's coming at us from every angle: emails, RSS feeds, blogs, social networking sites, You Tube, the whole damn internet for that matter; television, magazines, newspapers, memos, radio, fax machine, Blackberries and on and on. It's like our minds are becoming as crowded as the screen of a cable news program-there's breaking news crawling at the Read more...

You don't have to be a social science researcher or psychotherapist to recognize that things are falling apart. You just have to be alive and willing to see the world as it is and not withdraw into drugs, alcohol, over-eating, television, movies or other readily available escapes.  OK, let's be honest. Things can get overwhelming and we need some escapes. Otherwise we'd become suicidal. I Read more...

See also: economy, irritability, stress

Many Americans don't take the vacation days they have earned, for a variety of reasons. For one, they want to be seen as hard-working- and some people are concerned that their jobs may not be there when they return. Lately, the high cost of travel has added to the temptation to forego a vacation as well. The Conference Board reported last April that only 39 percent of U.S. workers surveyed were Read more...

Sep. 25 -- Stressed out? You're not alone. Try blowing some bubbles. That's one bit of advice offered by clinical psychologist Jane Blackwell, the Salt Lake Chamber's featured speaker recently when it honored companies that implemented different practices to enhance their employees' quality of life -- and to boost their productivity in the process. "Stress is a fact of Read more...

A U.S. psychologist says a wave of economic turmoil is a good time to take control of emotions and better regulate the mind-body stress response. Josh Clap of the University of Alabama at Birmingham offers four "action points" to deal with stress and anxiety brought on by the Wall Street and credit crisis. The financial crises are fueling chronic stress and limiting some Read more...

Most people these days feel like they're under stress at work. If we're not worried about losing our jobs, we're taking on extra work because other people have left. It seems that work stress has become a fact of life. According to Dr. Richard O'Connor, author of "Undoing Perpetual Stress: The Missing Connection Between Depression, Anxiety and 21st Century Illness," anxiety, Read more...

See also: fight or flight, impala, stress, work stress

Yoga students already know the traditional benefits that come from attending classes. Done regularly, the mixture of stretches and standing and seated postures can increase strength and flexibility, improve coordination and balance, and even help to lower stress and anxiety. "After two years, I'm seeing physical changes in posture and blood flow and maybe a healthier appearance -- Read more...

Aug. 21 -- It keeps us awake when we need sleep. It causes us to gasp for breath, tire out easily and fly off the handle. Stress is part of our daily lives, but many of us are struggling with more of it than we can handle. We know that small amounts of stress give us energy, help us focus and complete tasks, and can energize us. However, too much stress depletes us of much-needed nutrients, Read more...

An Australian study suggests chewing gum can reduce stress and anxiety, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company said Friday. The study by Andrew Scholey, professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at Swinburne University in Melbourne, said chewing gum helped relieve anxiety, improve alertness and reduce stress among individuals in a laboratory setting. The findings will be presented Saturday at the Read more...

OK, it's official. There's yet another stupendous reason to learn to knit and crochet. Of course, it's not really news to those of us who have been producing stuff with needles all these years. We already know that when we are camped in a favorite chair knitting socks or crocheting an afghan we are in the zone of la-la land. Now it's a scientific fact: Knitting and crocheting reduce Read more...

by Amy Scholten, MPH Dashing through the snow In a mindless fit of fray Through the malls we go Rushing all the way. Horns on Hondas blast We have to get home fast! What fun it is to bake and wrap Thank God it doesn’t last!! Jingled nerves, jingled nerves, jingled all the way… Perhaps cheery holiday carols don’t quite capture the essence of your holiday season. Maybe when you Read more...

by Amy Scholten, MPH Is your life more or less complicated than it was 10 years ago?How about 20 years ago? More and more people are finding that, inspite of technology and other modern conveniences, they have lesstime, get less sleep, and are more stressed than they were a decadeago. The reasons for this are, well, not so simple, but relate to anumber of factors. Today's Sources of Complexity Read more...

by Debra Wood, RN With cell phones chirping and wireless email devices vibrating, is it any wonder folks are feeling technostressed? For an increasing number of "connected" people, being constantly available, juggling multiple tasks, and sorting through a pile information fosters a type of anxiety known as technostress."Technostress captures all the ways technology causes irritation, Read more...

by Elissa Sonnenberg In today's fast-paced culture, can patience really still be a virtue? Find out why patience is essential to a well-balanced, successful life and how you can become more patient. Patience Lost David Shenk loves the speed of the Internet, the instant gratification of email, and the convenience of shopping online. But he also knows that these modern conveniences and the Read more...