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| Stress Management |
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| • Introduction |
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Dating back over 5000 years, yoga is the oldest defined practice of self development. The methods of classical yoga include ethical disciplines, physical postures, breathing control and meditation. Traditionally an Eastern practice, it’s now becoming popular in the West. In fact, many companies, especially in Britain, are seeing the benefit of yoga, recognizing that relaxed workers are healthier and more creative, and are sponsoring yoga fitness programs. Overview of Yoga: Many of the popular techniques found to reduce stress derive from yoga:
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controlled breathing |
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meditation |
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physical movement |
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mental imagery |
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stretching |
Yoga, which derives its name from the word, “yoke”—to bring together—does just that, bringing together the mind, body and spirit. But whether you use yoga for spiritual transformation or for stress management and physical well-being, the benefits are numerous.
Yoga’s Effects On the Body: The following is only a partial list of yoga’s benefits:
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reduced stress |
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sound sleep |
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improvement of many medical conditions |
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allergy and asthma symptom relief |
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lower blood pressure |
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smoking cessation help |
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lower heart rate |
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spiritual growth |
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sense of well-being |
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reduced anxiety and muscle tension |
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increased strength and flexibility |
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slowed aging process |
Yoga’s benefits are so numerous, it gives a high payoff for the amount of effort involved.
What’s Involved? : The practice of yoga involves stretching the body and forming different poses, while keeping breathing slow and controlled. The body becomes relaxed and energized at the same time. There are various styles of yoga, some moving through the poses more quickly, almost like an aerobic workout, and other styles relaxing deeply into each pose. Some have a more spiritual angle, while others are used purely as a form of exercise.
What Are The Benefits Of Yoga? : Virtually everyone can see physical benefits from yoga, and its practice can also give psychological benefits, such as stress reduction and a sense of well-being, and spiritual benefits, such as a feeling of connectedness with God or Spirit, or a feeling of transcendence. Certain poses can be done just about anywhere and a yoga program can go for hours or minutes, depending on one’s schedule.
What Are the Drawbacks of Yoga? : Yoga does require some commitment of time and is more difficult for people with certain physical limitations. Some people feel self-conscious doing some of the poses. Also, yoga classes can be expensive, although it is possible, albeit perhaps more challenging, to learn from a book or video.
How Does It Compare To Other Stress Reduction Methods? : As yoga combines several techniques used for stress reduction, it can be said to provide the combined benefits of breathing exercises, stretching exercises, fitness programs, meditation practice, and guided imagery, in one technique. However, for those with great physical limitations, simple breathing exercises, meditation or guided imagery might be a preferable option and provide similar benefits. Yoga also requires more effort and commitment than taking pills or herbs for stress reduction. |
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| • Stress |
The word 'stress' is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy". A condition or circumstance (not always adverse), which can disturb the normal physical and mental health of an individual. In medical parlance 'stress' is defined as a perturbation of the body's homeostasis. This demand on mind-body occurs when it tries to cope with incessant changes in life. A 'stress' condition seems 'relative' in nature. Extreme stress conditions, psychologists say, are detrimental to human health but in moderation stress is normal and, in many cases, proves useful. Stress, nonetheless, is synonymous with negative conditions. Today, with the rapid diversification of human activity, we come face to face with numerous causes of stress and the symptoms of stress and depression.
At one point or the other everybody suffers from stress. Relationship demands, physical as well as mental health problems, pressure at workplaces, traffic snarls, meeting deadlines, growing-up tensions—all of these conditions and situations are valid causes of stress. People have their own methods of stress management. In some people, stress-induced adverse feelings and anxieties tend to persist and intensify. Learning to understand and master stress management techniques can help prevent the counter effects of this urban malaise.
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• THE DYNAMIC OF STRESS
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"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
—Thomas Jefferson |
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In a challenging situation the brain prepares the body for defensive action—the fight or flight response by releasing stress hormones, namely, cortisone and adrenaline. These hormones raise the blood pressure and the body prepares to react to the situation. With a concrete defensive action (fight response) the stress hormones in the blood get used up, entailing reduced stress effects and symptoms of anxiety.
When we fail to counter a stress situation (flight response) the hormones and chemicals remain unreleased in the blood stream for a long period of time. It results in stress related physical symptoms such as tense muscles, unfocused anxiety, dizziness and rapid heartbeats. We all encounter various stressors (causes of stress) in everyday life, which can accumulate, if not released. Subsequently, it compels the mind and body to be in an almost constant alarm-state in preparation to fight or flee. This state of accumulated stress can increase the risk of both acute and chronic psychosomatic illnesses and weaken the immune system of the human body.
Stress can cause headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, eating disorder, allergies, insomnia, backaches, frequent cold and fatigue to diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer. In fact, Sanjay Chugh, a leading Indian psychologist, says that 70 per cent to 90 per cent of adults visit primary care physicians for stress-related problems. Scary enough. But where do we err?
Just about everybody—men, women, children and even fetuses—suffer from stress. Relationship demands, chronic health problems, pressure at workplaces, traffic snarls, meeting deadlines, growing-up tensions or a sudden bearish trend in the bourse can trigger stress conditions. People react to it in their own ways. In some people, stress-induced adverse feelings and anxieties tend to persist and intensify. Learning to understand and manage stress can prevent the counter effects of stress.
Methods of coping with stress are aplenty. The most significant or sensible way out is a change in lifestyle. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, various natural and alternative methods, personal growth techniques, visualization and massage are some of the most effective of the known non-invasive stress busters. |
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| • Stress can be Positive |
The words 'positive' and 'stress' may not often go together. But, there are innumerable instances of athletes rising to the challenge of stress and achieving the unachievable, scientists stressing themselves out over a point to bring into light the most unthinkable secrets of the phenomenal world, and likewise a painter, a composer or a writer producing the best paintings, the most lilting of tunes or the most appealing piece of writing by pushing themselves to the limit. Psychologists second the opinion that some 'stress' situations can actually boost our inner potential and can be creatively helpful. Sudha Chandran, an Indian danseus, lost both of her legs in an accident. But, the physical and social inadequacies gave her more impetus to carry on with her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs rather than deter her spirits.
Experts tell us that stress, in moderate doses, are necessary in our life. Stress responses are one of our body's best defense systems against outer and inner dangers. In a risky situation (in case of accidents or a sudden attack on life et al), body releases stress hormones that instantly make us more alert and our senses become more focused. The body is also prepared to act with increased strength and speed in a pressure situation. It is supposed to keep us sharp and ready for action.
Research suggests that stress can actually increase our performance. Instead of wilting under stress, one can use it as an impetus to achieve success. Stress can stimulate one's faculties to delve deep into and discover one's true potential. Under stress the brain is emotionally and biochemically stimulated to sharpen its performance.
A working class mother in down town California, Erin Brokovich, accomplished an extraordinary feat in the 1990s when she took up a challenge against the giant industrial house Pacific Gas & Electric. The unit was polluting the drinking water of the area with chromium effluents. Once into it, Brockovich had to work under tremendous stress taking on the bigwigs of the society. By her own account, she had to study as many as 120 research articles to find if chromium 6 was carcinogenic. Going from door to door, Erin signed up over 600 plaintiffs, and with attorney Ed Masry went on to receive the largest court settlement, for the town people, ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in the U.S. history—$333 million. It's an example of an ordinary individual triumphing over insurmountable odds under pressure. If handled positively stress can induce people to discover their inherent talents.
Stress is, perhaps, necessary to occasionally clear cobwebs from our thinking. If approached positively, stress can help us evolve as a person by letting go of unwanted thoughts and principle in our life. Very often, at various crossroads of life, stress may remind you of the transitory nature of your experiences, and may prod you to look for the true happiness of life. |
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| • Stress ThroughoutH Evolution |
Stress has existed throughout the evolution. About 4 billion years ago, violent collision of rock and ice along with dust and gas, led to the formation of a new planet. The planet survives more than 100 million years of meltdown to give birth to microscopic life. These first organisms endured the harshest of conditions—lack of oxygen, exposure to sun's UV rays and other inhospitable elements, to hang on to their dear life. Roughly 300,000 years ago, the Neanderthals learnt to use fire in a controlled way, to survive the Glacial Age. And around 30,000 years, Homo sapiens with their dominant gene constitutions and better coping skills, won the game of survival. Each step of evolution a test of survival, and survival, a matter of coping with the stress of changing conditions.
Millions of trials and errors in the life process have brought men to this stage. Coping with events to survive has led men to invent extraordinary technologies, beginning with a piece of sharpened stone.
From the viewpoint of microevolution, stress induction of transpositions is a powerful factor, generating new genetic variations in populations under stressful environmental conditions. Passing through a 'bottleneck', a population can rapidly and significantly alters its population norm and become the founder of new, evolved forms.
Gene transposition through Transposable Elements (TE)—'jumping genes', is a major source of genetic change, including the creation of novel genes, the alteration of gene expression in development, and the genesis of major genomic rearrangements. In a research on 'the significance of responses of the genome to challenges,' the Nobel Prize winning scientist Barbara McClintock, characterized these genetic phenomena as 'genomic shock'.This occurs due to recombinational events between TE insertions (high and low insertion polymorphism) and host genome. But, as a rule TEs remain immobilized until some stress factor (temperature, irradiation, DNA damage, the introduction of foreign chromatin, viruses, etc.) activates their elements.
The moral remains that we can work a stress condition to our advantage or protect ourselves from its untoward follow-throughs subject to how we handle a stress situation. The choice is between becoming a slave to the stressful situations of life or using them to our advantage. |
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| • Causes of Stress |
Listing the causes of stress is tricky. There can be innumerable stress factors since different individuals react differently to the same stress conditions. Extreme stress situations for an individual may prove to be mild for another, for yet another person the situations might not qualify as stress symptoms at all. Stress is often termed as a twentieth century syndrome, born out of man's race towards modern progress and its ensuing complexities. For that matter, causes such as a simple flight delay to managing a teenage child at home can put you under stress.
A stress condition can be real or perceived. Yet, our brain reacts the same way to both causes of stress by releasing stress hormones equal to the degree of stress felt. The brain doesn't differentiate between real and imagined stress. It could happen while watching a horror movie or when one is apprehensive of some imminent danger.
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| • Watch Your Attitude |
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It is said that life acts and you react. Our attitude is our reaction to what life hands out to us. A significant amount of stress symptoms can be avoided or aroused by the way we relate to stressors. Stress is created by what we think rather than by what has actually happened. For instance, handling adopted children, adolescents, academic failures, retirements, tax audits or sudden loss of money needs a relaxed attitude, focused will and preparedness to face the quirks of life positively. Otherwise one tends to feel stressed and reacts in anger and frustration. With a better control of attention one can feel that the world is a more congenial place to live in.
Again, in case of a marital conflict, instead of adopting an accusing and frustrating attitude such as—"You made my life hell" or "You are not meeting my emotional needs," the American clinical psychotherapist Willard F. Harley suggests that accepting—" Yes, we have a problem", helps clear the clouds. Failure in adopting a realistic attitude to events creates symptoms of depression and aggravates stress situations.
"Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. I am convinced that life is 10 per cent what happens to me and 90 per cent how I react to it. And so it is with you…" says Charles Swindoll, author and public speaker.
A right attitude can make a resilient person out of us in the face of stressful situations. |
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| • Life Situations |
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Major life events such as a divorce, death, midlife crisis, financial worries, persistent strain of caring for a chronically sick child, nagging health problems or managing a physically or mentally challenged family member can act as potential stressors. Even conditions such as prolonged unemployment or a sudden lay-off from a job can leave you under tremendous stress. One just can't wish away situation. Moreover one has to live through these situations, in the right spirit, to make living a worthwhile experience.
Stress also comes from our personal and social contexts and from our psychological and emotional reactions to such conditioning. Here, our mental and emotional disposition, built over the years, decides whether to accept these situations with a fighting or fleeing spirit. Accordingly, we may either be under harmful influences of stressors or be out of it.
Children and women subjected to mental or physical abuses are known to suffer from tremendous stress symptoms of depression, constant anxiety and burnout.
Though anger, fear and other negative emotional reactions are natural and necessary we need to channel them constructively to create a balanced state in our body and mind. |
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| • Could it be Your Genes ? |
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Do "stressed out" parents necessarily have stressed out kids? To this query Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, a senior Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, answers: "While no parental issue guarantees that the same issue will be duplicated in their children, parental stress certainly places the children at a great risk of becoming stressed as well. Besides being at higher genetic risk for stress, children of stressed parents can also learn the tendency to get stressed out in reaction to life's challenges from their parents."
Doctors at Mayo Clinics, USA, opined that situations that create stress are as unique as you are. Your personality, genes and experiences influence how you deal with stressors.
A research article published in the British Medical Journal, suggests: "The psychological state of the mother may affect fetal development." It could be caused by stress induced reduced blood flow through the arteries that feed the uterus. It could also create a mental as well as physical predisposition to certain diseases and behavioral patterns in the later life of a child.
It's identified that specific genes govern three endorphin groups, which constitute our stress hormones. Hence, our reactions to physical and emotional stress could also be "genetic." In other words, how our parents or great-grandparents responded to stressful situations may in part determine how we handle ourselves today!
Children of stressed out parents are more likely to be ill equipped to handle stressors positively. They may suffer from emotional disturbances, depression, aggressive behavior or confusion besides chances of weak physical constitutions, which again can be a source of anxiety. |
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| • Does Smoking Induce Stress ? |
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The relationship between tobacco smoking and stress has long been an area for controversy. The paradox is, although adult smokers state smoking help them feel relaxed, at the same time they report feeling more stressed than nonsmokers. Research shows that nicotine dependency actually increases stress levels in smokers-adults and adolescence alike. Adolescent smokers report increasing levels of stress as they develop regular patterns of smoking. They gradually become less stressed over a time when they manage to quit smoking. Whatever may be the personal accounts of the smokers, clinical evidence reaffirms that smoking is associated with heightened stress.
| The Research Results on Smoking and Stress |
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Contrary to the belief that smoking is an aid for mood control; it actually heightens tension, irritability and depression, during nicotine depletion in body. This mood swing arises between smokes or during periods of nicotine abstinence. And dependent smokers need nicotine to remain feeling normal.
Studies reveal more than 80 per cent of adult smokers respond positively to statements such as "Smoking relaxes me when I am upset or nervous," and cigarette smoking was "relaxing" or "pleasurable." Interestingly, when nicotine abstinence is monitored in smokers they typically report a pattern of repetitive mood fluctuations, with normal moods during smoke inhalation followed by periods of increasing stress between cigarettes. These mood fluctuations also tend to be strongest in the most dependent smokers.
Though smoking briefly restores their stress levels to normal, they soon need another cigarette to forestall abstinence symptoms. The repeated occurrence of stressed moods between smoking means that smokers tend to experience a distinctly above-average levels of daily stress. In the U.K. Health and Lifestyle Survey of 9,003 participants, significantly more smokers than nonsmokers reported feeling constantly under stress and strain.
This is also true with adolescent and male shift workers, who are nicotine dependants. |
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In an effort to answers why smokers report stress during nicotine abstinence, studies found that smokers may be constitutionally neurotic. Alternatively, their stress may be caused by nicotine dependency.
Studies suggested that nicotine helps constitutionally anxious (i.e.,neurotic) individuals cope with stress. When adults quit smoking, they become less stressed rather than more stressed. There is no evidence that smokers suffer without tobacco or nicotine (other than during the initial brief period after quitting. There is also no neurochemical rationale for predicting that nicotine should alleviate stress, because it is a cholinergic agonist with sympathomimetic rather than sedative properties. |
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The indirect coping strategy of "lighting up" under stress instead of tackling the problem can leave the real problem unresolved. The frequent failure of smokers to tackle problems may provide a further reason why they suffer from more stress than do nonsmokers.
The majority of smokers recognize that smoking is physically unhealthy but mistakenly believe, it has positive psychological functions. However, smokers need to become aware of why these beliefs are incorrect. |
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