Stress Reduction for Busy People

Finding Peace in an Anxious World

Dawn Groves

• Publisher: New World Library
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781577314158
• eBook ISBN: 9781577317777
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Offering serious information with a light touch, author Dawn Groves shows that by starting with a few simple changes, anyone can find a few minutes each day to take care of their bodies with exercise, sleep, and good food; their souls with meditation and prayer; and their minds with pursuits that challenge and please. Practical techniques will help readers understand how to mindfully interpret events and issues for healthier emotional responses. Groves demonstrates how a few choices can change bad habits into good ones and how parents can not only cope with their children but also help them become part of a lower-stress solution. Sections include "What to Do in a Crisis, " "Your Stress-Management Strategy, " and "Goal-Setting Hints and Tips."

1

understanding stress

The word “stress” conjures up a variety of unpleasant images: workaholism, muscle pain, exhaustion, short temper, sleeplessness. But stress itself isn’t bad; it’s normal. Life is full of positive and negative stressors (events that exert physical or emotional pressure), and the good news is that our bodies are well equipped to handle them. In a perfect world, we gear up emotionally and physically to deal with an event, and once it passes we return to business as usual.

Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work. But you and I know it doesn’t happen like that anymore. Today’s negative stressors are often long-term, subtle, and subjective. Issues such as eldercare, childcare, job insecurity, health, finances, information overload, personal safety, and now homeland security have no clear resolution and no apparent conclusion. They just lurk in the back of your mind, leaving you bewildered, edgy, and paranoid. Many of us almost never return to “business as usual.”

We’re Designed to Respond

How we process stress as individuals depends on a variety of factors, including how we’ve handled stress in the past, our genes (some people inherit a shorter fuse), our age, our socioeconomic background, our sex, the nature of the stressors, and how many stressors are occurring simultaneously. But the biology of the stress response is the same for all of us.

When you’re frightened or alarmed, the stress response — also known as the fight-or-flight reaction instantly kicks in.— A cascade of chemical messengers (hormones, neurotransmitters, and amino acids) hurls you into a physiological and psychological condition known as “hyperarousal.” This condition is triggered by the pituitary gland, which is located deep in the brain. It releases adrenocorticoid, a hormone that tells the adrenal glands to secrete epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), and cortisol. These two master stress hormones help rev up your body in the following ways:

• the pupils dilate
• the palms sweat
• breathing becomes shallow and fast
• the hair rises
• the heart beats faster and harder
• blood pressure shoots up
• digestion shuts down
• insulin surges into the bloodstream
• blood flow (oxygen) is redirected to the large muscles of the body
• the brain receives extra oxygen and blood

This impressive process is managed by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which in turn is controlled by the hypothalamus — a central area on the underside of the brain that regulates the body’s involuntary functions. The ANS has two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic branch is what speeds you up; the parasympathetic branch slows you down. The sympathetic branch kicks in when you’re threatened; the parasympathetic branch returns you to normal after the threat passes.

The problem is that your brain’s hypothalamus can’t distinguish between a real threat and an imagined threat. It bases its unconscious response on the perception of threat or danger. For example, if you’re afraid of mice, the hypothalamus will jump-start your stress response whenever you see a mouse, despite the fact that it poses no real danger. Someone whose perception of mice is more neutral will have an entirely different response to them. The hypothalamus can be triggered by social fears as easily as it can by a genuine physical threat. This unconscious triggering can then expand into benign situations, such as a business meeting. To the hypothalamus, any fear is a legitimate stressor.

The automatic, unconscious triggering of the fight-or-flight reaction is useful if we are dealing with dangerous or unpredictable circumstances. A hormonal rush of strength prepares us to do battle or to run like hell; either choice appropriately exhausts our body, allowing our heart to stop pounding, our blood pressure to calm down, and our muscles to recuperate.

If, however, the rush comes when we’re in a nonthreatening situation — such as at a party — then there’s nowhere to run, and we’re forced to suppress what we’re feeling. The body is in hyperarousal, but since we’re not doing anything about it, our muscular, skeletal, nervous, gastrointestinal, and emotional systems absorb the tension. The more often our stress response is triggered, the more our insides take the hit and roil with anxiety. Eventually our bodies become habituated to living in high gear. We grow accustomed to back pain, heartburn, emotional over-reactivity, and insomnia. At this point, hyperarousal is no longer a discrete event from which we recover. Instead, it slowly breaks down our physical and emotional health. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 75 to 90 percent of all doctor visits are prompted by stress-related concerns.¹

Don’t Worry about It

We’ve become a culture of worriers. Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., has written extensively about worry and its damaging effects. He defines excessive worry as “a heightened sense of vulnerability in the presence of a diminished feeling of power and control.”²You can exhaust yourself by worrying about something all day, never taking any real action to solve the problem. The more helpless you feel, the greater your apprehension. The greater your apprehension, the less energy you have to take action, and the more helpless you feel. It’s a vicious cycle.

Because worry is based in fear, the body registers it as a threat and the hypothalamus triggers the stress response. In the case of ongoing worry, the adrenals just keep on secreting varying levels of epinephrine and cortisol in preparation for a battle that never happens. Muscles live in contraction. Blood pressure goes up and stays up.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As with everything else on earth, the stress response has good and bad aspects. We evolved this intricate protective response system to help us survive in a harsh, wild environment. But modern society doesn’t require the same kinds of responses. The stress response is still useful, but “stand and fight” or “run like hell” are no longer our only two choices.

The Good

Not all stressors are created equal; many emerge from happy occasions. There’s the stress of getting mar-ried, taking a vacation, riding a roller coaster, or moving into a nice new house. The term for this kind of good stress is “eustress.” Happy stressors stimulate the sympathetic nervous system just like scary ones, but the pleasurable nature of the circumstances tends to keep the response manageable and even gratifying. Butterflies in one’s stomach are perceived as thrilling instead of uncomfortable. When it comes to stress, perception is everything.

The stress response isn’t a monster; in its proper context, it supports and protects us. It helps our bodies adapt to changes in the environment, and adaptation and growth are the harbingers of longevity. Without adaptation, the human species would have died out long ago.

Stress of any kind also gives us energy and focus as the surge of insulin fuels the brain. If you’re giving a speech or conducting an interview, the adrenalin can make you glow with vibrancy. Increased mental acuity helps you strategize on the fly. The stress response often provides the winning edge in sports competitions. Students use the stress of an exam deadline to motivate them to study. And don’t forget those everyday stories of stress-induced heroism, such as a mother lifting a car to free her child pinned beneath it. There are countless healthy applications for hyperarousal.

The Bad

The Buddha talked about moderation in all things, and this certainly applies to the stress response. On occasion it is useful, but when it becomes chronic it is terribly damaging to the body. There is ample evidence of the role of stress in gastrointestinal, dermatological, respiratory, neurological, and emotional ailments, as well as proof of its impact on a wide range of disorders linked to immune-system disturbances, from the common cold to herpes and arthritis. A 1998 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that

When stressful situations go unresolved, the body is kept in a constant state of activation, which increases the rate of wear and tear to biological systems. Ultimately, fatigue or damage results, and the ability of the body to repair and defend itself can become seriously compromised. As a result, the risk of injury or disease escalates.³

Here is a short list of physical troubles related to chronic stress:

• Sleep disturbances increase in number and severity;
• immune-system antibodies are suppressed, increasing the risk of bacterial infections, susceptibility to viruses, and perhaps even the likelihood of developing cancer;
• respiratory problems increase, especially asthma;
• gastrointestinal problems develop or worsen, often contributing to debilitating conditions such as Crohn’s disease;
• increased insulin levels cause fat to be deposited around the middle of the body, leading to increased risk of heart attack, insulin resistance, and diabetes;
• high blood pressure and higher cholesterol levels increase the risk of heart disease, as well as the possibility of stroke;
• excessive tension in the jaw area can cause bite problems and headaches;
• back and neck problems are often caused or exacerbated by unrelieved muscle strain.

The above list doesn’t take into account the perils of what pioneer stress researcher Hans Selye termed “diseases of adaptation.”⁴That is, the manner in which we cope with stress can be more damaging than the stress response itself. Stress, many people turn to drugs, smoking, overeating, acting out, or a combination of disruptive, harmful behaviors. Any of these can spawn their own pantheon of problems.

Chronic unnecessary worry is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder. As noted in the publication “Facts about Anxiety Disorders,”⁵available from The National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders as a group are now the most commonly diagnosed mental illness in America. Anxiety is insidious because the shallow breathing that accompanies it doesn’t allow enough oxygen into the body. Your brain then tells you that you’re suffering from oxygen deprivation, which causes more anxiety. You begin to breathe harder, which can generate hyperventilation and panic. It’s difficult to slow down your breath when you’re in the middle of anxiety-induced rapid breathing.

Without a doubt, too much stress ages you, sickens you, and, as you’ll read below, ruins your outlook.

The Ugly

It’s difficult to be cheerful or hopeful when you’re carrying more than your fair share of stress. Even the happiest of individuals will feel exhausted by the end of a highly stressful day. You stop relating to family members as partners in life, instead seeing them as just another set of obligations. This behavior quickly becomes habitual, eroding the very relationships that are supposed to support you. You can become sour and unpleasant. Even worse, you may adjust to the discomfort, hobbling around in denial until you lose touch with your family, your friends, and eventually your health. Stress doesn’t just make you sick; it makes you lonely.

Chronic stress doesn’t necessarily turn life into a black hole, but it can surely suck color from the world. It wears down the psyche. It robs us of our creative energy and results in a condition known as “burnout.” A person suffering from burnout either looks like a raging bull or a deer in the headlights. Neither appearance is encouraging.

Why It’s Hard to Calm Down

The American Dream isn’t what it used to be. Life’s stressors seem to have a greater influence on us. Our supportive structures of yesteryear — the nuclear family

and the close-knit community — have been eroding. Children define themselves, not by their family’s standards, but by the sitcom standards of television actors. Too much emphasis on external reinforcement, such as clothes ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Understanding Stress
• Chapter 2: Managing Stress in Body, Mind, and Spirit 19
• Chapter 3: Living in a Complicated World
• Chapter 4: Spiritual Goal-Setting
• Notes
• Appendix 1: Recommended Reading
• Appendix 2: Common Questions
• About the Author