How we can manage stress (stress relievers)

Question: What are some ways I can calm down quickly when I'm feeling overwhelmed?

"Sometimes I don't realize how much stress is building up until I suddenly feel overwhelmed. Other times, several stressful or attention-demanding events will happen at once, and I suddenly go from calm to completely overwhelmed really quickly. However it happens, how can I quickly calm down when I'm feeling overwhelmed by stress?"

Answer: There are many ways to calm down quickly when you suddenly get blindsided by stress and feel overwhelmed. The following are five quick and easy ways to regain your calm so you can deal with whatever situations are at hand:

Take a Walk

Exercise can be a great stress reliever in itself, as it helps you blow off steam and releases endorphins. Taking a walk when stressed provides the bonus of getting you out of the stressful situation and providing some perspective so you can return in a new frame of mind.

Take a Breath

If you're not in a position to leave, you can feel better right away by practicing breathing exercises. Getting more oxygen into your body and releasing physical tension are two ways that breathing exercises can benefit you, and you can do them anytime or anywhere, even if your demanding situation isn't letting up.

Take a Mental Break

If you can steal away a few minutes of peace, visualizations and guided imagery are a wonderful way to restore peace of mind. They're easy to do, and can relax you physically as well as mentally.

Reframe Your Situation

Sometimes we intensify our experience of stressful situations by the way we look at them. If you can look at your situation differently, you may be able to put it into a different perspective--one that causes you less stress! Read more about mental and emotional stress that can be caused by pessimism, type A traits, and other self-sabotaging thought patterns, and learn how you can change the way you look at things. It'll come in handy when you're stressed.

Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a technique where you tense and release all of your muscle groups, leaving your body feel more relaxed afterward. PMR is one of my favorite techniques, as it can be done by just about anyone, and with practice you can fully release virtually all the tension you're feeling in your body in a matter of seconds! This can help you feel more calm and better able to handle the situations at hand.

Once you've been able to calm down, you should be in a better position to address whatever stressful situations you're experiencing. It's also a good idea to adopt a few regular stress relievers and healthy lifestyle habits so that you can reduce your overall stress level so that you experience less stress and are less bothered by the stressful situations you do encounter.

MORE INFORMATION

Findings from the American Psychological Association's (APA) newly released 2010 Stress in America survey raise red flags about the long-term impact that chronic stress could have on our physical and emotional health and the health of our families, psychologists said today.

The survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive in August 2010, showed that Americans appear to be caught in a vicious cycle where they manage stress in unhealthy ways, and lack of willpower and time constraints impede their ability to make lifestyle or behavioral changes. This is particularly true for those who believe themselves to be in fair or poor health.

Another troubling aspect of the survey findings is an apparent trend where parents are underestimating how much stress their children experience and the impact their own stress has on their children. They also don't seem to realize how much stress they themselves are under, but their children are acutely aware. (Read more about those findings here.) At the same time, children as young as eight years old are reporting that they experience physical and emotional health consequences often associated with stress. Stress management for families is of vital importance!

"America is at a critical crossroads when it comes to stress and our health," said psychologist Norman B. Anderson, PhD, APA's chief executive officer and executive vice president in a press release. "Year after year nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression. Stress is hurting our physical and emotional health and contributing to some of the leading causes of death in this country. People are also saying they have difficulty implementing the changes they know will decrease their stress and improve their health. Yet, our health care system is not adequately addressing this issue or providing the behavioral health treatments that can help Americans. All of us, including the medical community, need to take stress seriously since stress could easily become our next public health crisis."

Making healthy changes stick can be difficult for everyone, especially when under stress. When we're stressed, me often tend to crave the familiar, and have less energy for willpower and motivation. However, as we take small steps toward change, we gain momentum toward greater change; as we start doing more healthy things, we tend to crave even healthier changes; and as we start relieving stress in healthy and effective ways, we have less stress to relive, and more energy to try even more new coping strategies. Take a few steps, and begin an upward spiral of stress relief and healthy change.