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.
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 the www.healmyadrenalfatigue.com E-course,
Kerry Belviso, 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.
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.