Health Views

Our bodies experience a series of hormonal and biochemical changes that put as in danger mode as we encounter stress. Your heart rate increases, adrenaline rushes through your blood stream, and your digestive and immune systems will temporarily shut down. If the stressors continue you experience extreme exhaustion. It's impossible to avoid stress altogether, but you can learn to cope with stress through a variety of ways. Some beneficial techniques to help you in coping with stress are deep breathing methods, meditation, yoga, and exercise. These activities provide calming and relaxing sensory input for stress relief and can be selected according to individual lifestyle and preference.

Coping with Stress - Deep Breathing Techniques
When you’re encountering a stressful situation, you can reduce your stress simply by deep breathing. Deep breathing involves not only the lungs but also the abdomen. Deep breathing technique requires you sit comfortably with your back straight. Put one hand on your chest and the other hand on your stomach. Inhale deeply through your nose, the hand on your stomach should begin to rise. Your other hand should move very little. Exhale as much air as you can while contracting your abdominal muscles. Once again, the hand on your stomach should move in as you exhale, but your other hand should harldly move. Breathing techniques can be practiced almost anywhere and can be combined with other relaxation exercises, such as aromatherapy and listening to calming music. All that is required is required is 10 minutes a day and a bit of privacy.

Coping with Stress - Meditation
Meditation brings together all of the mind’s energies and focuses them on a a single thing, be it a word, a sound, a symbol, a comforting image, or even your own breathing. The ideal setting for meditation is a quiet, calming place. People typically meditate sitting on the floor or in a chair with their eyes closed. All meditation practices involve being fully engaged in whatever is happening in the present moment, without analyzing or otherwise “over-thinking” the experience, this is otherwise known as the development of mindfulness. Guided imagery or visualization is involved in a variation of traditional meditation. Using this method, you imagine a scene that makes you feel at peace, letting go of all concerns and tensions. In guided imagery, audio instructions help you to visualize the scene, focus your thoughts and bring calmness.

Coping with Stress - Yoga
The term Yoga means a series of personal practices that combines your physical, mental and spiritual resources with the goal of attaining a state of wholeness and completeness. Yoga teaches you a series of stationary and moving poses, a form of breath control, and concentration techniques. Yoga postures help to balance the different systems of the body, including the central nervous, the endocrine, and the digestive systems. By slowing down your mental activity, taking your mind off the causes of stress, and having you gently stretch your body in ways that massage your internal organs, yoga helps you to create a dynamic peacefulness within yourself. Yoga relieves chronic stress patterns in the body and helps relax the mindand body.

Coping with Stress - Exercise
Any form of exercise can decrease the production of stress hormones and counteract your body's natural stress response, helping you to better manage stress. That's why coping with stress through exercise is highly recommended by most health professionals. Exercise helps speed up the production of your brain's endorphins, which are the feel good neurotransmitters in the brain. Before starting a new fitness program through exercise, first consult with your health care provider, especially if you have a history of heart disease or other risk factors. Begin your program slowly and increase your fitness level gradually. Pick an activity that you enjoy. Participating in any activity (especially one you enjoy) can increase your fitness level while decreasing your stress. Make it part of your regular routine.

Exercise and physical activity can help you unwind and become an important part of your approach to coping with stress.

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