How to Avoid Stress, According to Experts
Stress is an unfortunate fact
of modern life and it can have long-term repercussions for our health.
Even medical experts are not immune to stress, and their own experiences
plus their health expertise leaves them best placed to advise us on how
to deal with the problem. From doctors and psychologists, to health
coaches and nutritionists, we have collected together medical
professionals’ opinions on the best ways to manage stress levels. Their
diverse backgrounds provide a variety of opinions, so you should be able
to find a method that works for you!
1: Take Time For Yourself
Holistic health expert and
vitality coach Jen Wittman recommends making time to reconnect with
yourself. She puts aside four hours a week to write in her journal,
read, and breathe deeply. She values this time and views it as her
weekly 'reset' button.
Nurse practitioner and co-founder of Women to Women
Marcelle Pick suggests using this time to free yourself from all your
activities and responsibilities, and consider your life. Some might
enjoy attending a formal religious service while others can sit quietly
in a peaceful place. Just ensure that you are not focused on a task and
can fully relax. She refers to this as time as an “inside job”.
Doctor David Jockers, a
corrective care chiropractor, nutritionist, and exercise physiologist
spends his alone time out in nature. Being in nature, whether the local
park, beach or the mountains can help you feel more relaxed. If you take
off your shoes and feel your feet against the Earth, it can help you
heal. Similarly, he advocates finding a creative outlet to strengthen
your spirit and captivate your heart.
2: Declutter
Design
& organization expert Dawn Falcone believes clutter of either your
physical space or mental processes can add to your stress levels and
detract from your ability to relax and breathe. She advises that you
take some time to de-clutter, but don't try and do it all in one day,
just start with a drawer or shelf. Falcone explains that if something
has stopped making you feel good, it’s time to let it go. She also
suggests getting rid of anything that hasn’t been used for the last 6
months. And as for mental clutter she recommends that you cross off any
non-priority events on your calendar and delegate tasks where possible,
while not being afraid to say 'no' to invitations.
3: Take Supplements
Many of the experts suggested
taking supplements to help your body fight stress on a physiological
level. Medical doctor, naturopathic doctor, herbalist, and nutritionist
Carolyn Dean endorses taking magnesium, as food doesn’t always provide
you with enough of this mineral. Magnesium helps your body make energy,
digest food, detoxify heavy metals, relax muscles and nerves, and aids
you in getting a good night of sleep.
Digestive health expert and author of the Ultimate Candida Diet
program Lisa Richard recommends a dose of good quality probiotics
because recent studies have shown that it lowers your physiological
response to stress. Naturopathic Doctor
Kelly Austin recommends an injection combo of vitamin B12 and B5 as
both are known to improve energy levels, mood, memory, focus and overall
adrenal health. They also can help relieve nerve pain, burnout and
anxiety.
4: Turn to Others
Sue Johnson, psychologist, researcher and founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy advises
not to go through stress and uncertainty alone. A loved one’s comfort
and touch can encourage the nervous system to calm down. In her opinion
confiding in someone you trust can turn-off fear and pain as
communicating helps you make sense of your emotions and fears and
enables you to receive support. She adds that evidence shows that simply
holding someone’s hand can turn off the brain’s alarm response to
stress.
Awarding-winning author of 'How to be Sick' Toni Bernhard advocates a technique called Active Listening,
where the person listening to you will reiterate how you’re feeling so
that you feel heard. She explains that this technique makes you feel
deeply cared for and alleviates stress.
5: Proactive Stress Combat - Diet, Sleep and Exercise
Many professionals encourage a
proactive attitude to fighting stress. The ones mentioned repeatedly
are diet, sleep, and exercise. Personal trainer and founder of 12 Minute Athlete Krista
Stryker finds she de-stresses best with intense workouts. She maintains
that the physical exhaustion enables you to clear your head of a day’s
worries.
Diane
Sanfilippo, certified holistic nutritionist and holistic lifestyle
coach advocates avoiding toxic people or situations and strongly
recommends prioritizing sleep and not overtraining. She explains that
your body is better able to cope when you don’t purposefully expose it
to stress-inducing people (or situations) and give it time to rest and
restore. To balance intense workouts she embraces more gentle practices
such as meditation, walking and yoga, as they lower cortisol levels.
Functional diagnostic
nutritionist, corporate holistic health educator, and personal trainer
Keri Brooks adds that sex also does this and shouldn’t be ignored as a
tool for helping calm stress. Brooks also suggests eating real food and
avoiding foods that slow down your adrenal function, and lead to poor
sleep and increased irritability such as sugar, fake fats, processed
goods, and caffeine. Skipping meals and overeating, she warns, can
affect your blood sugar levels and burn your adrenal levels. Like
Sanfilippo, she also emphasizes the importance of sleep and recommends
having a consistent routine for 'winding down'.
6: Distraction - Make the unpleasant pleasant
Some events and activities are
unavoidably unpleasant, taxing and stressful, such as being stuck in
traffic or doing the housework. Pharmacist and author of On the Topic of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Izabella
Wentz recommends turning these stress inducing activities into
something more enjoyable. She suggests listening to podcasts or talking
to someone on the phone to keep the mind engaged and distracted from
worry can reduce your stress levels. It also gives you a chance to
connect with a friend or learn about a topic of interest.
7: Pamper yourself with a massage
Founder of Replenish PDX
and celebrated functional nutritionist Andrea Nakayama says you can
address your adrenal health and reduce your stress with a gentle
self-massage with essential oils. Make your hands into fists and rub the
area of your back near your kidneys, just above your waist on the rear
of your body. She explains that these moments of pampering promotes
relaxation and strengthens an overtaxed system.
8: Positive body language
Janine Driver, NY Times best-selling author and president of the Body Language Institute, recommends three body movements to give your body a boost of confidence and drive away any unnecessary stress.
Firstly, before
meetings she recommends staying away from smartphones and tablets. Using
these devices changes how you position your posture and this affects
your demeanor. When you shrink yourself to see a screen this movement
undermines your confidence levels and increases stress levels. You will
feel more composed and assertive if you avoid the electronic devices
prior to a potentially stressful event.
Secondly, she
recommends the use of 'power poses'. These are expansive body postures
such as posing like Superman with hands on your hips, your hips out and
your chest exaggerated. This raises testosterone but lowers cortisol
levels, leading to a greater sense of well-being and increased
confidence, both healthy ways to alleviate stress.
Thirdly,
she suggests clapping and rubbing your hands together. This action
sends a message to the brain that success is coming and gets it excited.
This trick helps calm nerves and lower anxiety levels.
9: Laughter
Stressful situations and high
running emotions can make you argue with partners, co-workers, and
friends, and the idea of simply letting go seems impossible in these
heated moments. Instead of lashing out and arguing, corporate coaches,
authors, and meditation experts Ed and Deb Shapiro recommend laughing.
When you look for the funny side of things this reminds you to not take
yourself too seriously and puts your ego in check. They explain that
looking on the lighter side of life can help you refocus, remain
objective and stay mindful.
10: Chocolate
 Doctor Jen Landa, hormone expert and author of The Sex Drive Solution for Women
endorses eating chocolate. She elaborates that cocoa is one of the
stronger sources of antioxidants, which protect people from unnoticed
stressors such as pollutants and pesticides. Cocoa also contains high
amounts of magnesium which, as mentioned in #3, has a calming influence.
Landa explains that cocoa contains the same chemicals that your body
produces when it falls in love, and these can reduce elevated stress
levels.
She does caution that the
results are best seen when we eat chocolate with 70%-100% cocoa content
and low amounts of added sugar so that you won’t send your blood sugar
levels spiraling, or gain too much weight.
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11: Perspective
Another concept experts
recommend for fighting stress are habits
which keep your sense of
perspective in check. Dr. Alan
Christianson, an author of two books on
thyroid disease,
makes it an evening ritual to recall three positive
things about
his day and to think of three positive aspects for the next
day.
Naturopathic doctor, and author of MAXIMized Health Andrea
Maxim shares the best advice she received about stress: if you
can see
that you won’t be stressing about whatever’s presently
stressing you out
in a year’s time, it’s not worth stressing about it
now.
 Author, speaker, and founder of
Flatiron Functional Medicine
Doctor
Jill Carnahan encourages you to have
“an attitude of gratitude”.
She
recommends keeping a gratitude
journal, which can be looked upon in
times of stress or anxiety. The
practice of looking for the positive
gives your mind a boost and
can help produce endorphins. This can lower
stress levels
and encourage other healthy emotions like joy,
contentment, and
hope.
12. Self-compassion
Kinesiologist and creator of a E-course, recommends
positive
self-talk as a tool that can go a long way in times when you
feel overwhelmed and stressed. Negative voices and thoughts can
make you
feel more disempowered and depleted. When you spend
time judging and
criticizing yourself, you are less resourceful.
Instead, give yourself a break and think of advice you would
give a close friend if they were in
your situation. Supporting
yourself and giving yourself compassion is a
practice for
relieving stress that many people forget to embrace.
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13. Breathing
It sounds much too simple, but
the way you breathe can help fight
stress and affect your state of
mind. Christa Orecchio, a
clinical nutritionist, holistic health
counselor, and founder of The
Whole Journey explains that slow,
deep breathing can help alkalize the body and activate the
parasympathetic nervous system. This
allows the body to recuperate and
regenerate. She warns that
as people age, they tend to breathe shorter
and shallower breaths,
more from the chest. Deanine Picciano, a doctor
of oriental
medicine, and acupuncture physician specializing in women
& children’s health, recommends belly breathing, as this can
lower
cortisol levels. It lets more oxygen enter your lungs, allowing
you to
stay focused and centered.
When you’re tense, you’re more
likely to tighten your
diaphragm muscles. Release and loosen these to
achieve full,
optimal breathing. She recommends that you start slowly in
the
lower belly, and then move upward towards the heart. Your
breath
should fill the bottom of your belly first and move up to
the chest.
This technique can counter the physical effects of
stress. What's more,
these exercises can be done anywhere, at any
time.
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