Your Guide to Stress Relief

In this practical guide to stress relief, we provide you with information and strategies to combat stress.

One of the major causes of stress are feelings of time pressure and a lack of control. Research suggests that our lives are getting more stressful. Do you feel:

• feel under pressure with your current workload?
• a sense that you could do things better with less stress?
• that relaxation exercises could be of benefit to you?

If so, then this site may be beneficial for you.

Stress affects all people at some stage in their life. Millions of people each year go to the doctor to deal with stress-related illnesses.

Here we provide you with an idea of what stress does to your body, how you can identify stress, and what you can do for stress relief.

Stress can make you sick!

Have you ever noticed that after periods of stress you may get sick or feel run down?

Chronic stress can impact on your immune system and overall health.

However, stress does not just impact your immune system, it can have a serious impact on your health, with stress linked to heart disease and tumors.

This makes stress management an important goal for you. Stress relief can be vital for your health and well-being.

You can make life more enjoyable and productive by recognizing what causes you stress and then taking active steps to manage stress.

What Are Your Stress Causes?

All of us have experienced stress in our lives. Whether you were stuck in a traffic jam, or giving a presentation to colleagues or you had too much work to do and too little time!

One of the first steps to take in stress relief is identifying the causes of stress and the effect it has on you.

To deal with stress, it is important to first identify your causes of stress and how you react to stress.

A free stress diary can help you to identify the causes of stress and their affect on you.

What Are Your Symptoms of Stress?

Because we are all unique, the causes of stress and how they affect us is different for different people.

You may have felt your heart beating faster, or had difficulty in thinking clearly, or emotional reactions such as frustration and anger.

These are all common symptoms of stress.

Perhaps you feel stress as tension in the body, or as racing thoughts and mood swings?

Your Personality and Stress

Our definition of stress is that stress is a perception of demands facing you and the resources to deal with it.

Thus, stress is subjective and unique to the individual.

For example, have you ever noticed that some people, no matter what the situation, will view the cup as half full while others will always view the cup as half empty.

Some people always seem impatient, competitive and take a ‘hard-driving’ approach to everything, while others are more relaxed and easy-going.

What I have described here are personality characteristics that are related to optimism and pessimism; and the Type A and Type B behavior pattern.

These two types of personality characteristics are related to how you cope with stress.

Stress Management Techniques you can Use Today

There are a number of different stress management techniques that you can choose from. What is important is that you use one that works for you.

Since each person is unique, what may work best for one person may not be so for another.

I encourage you to try the different techniques and see what works for you.

Relaxation methods include:

• Progressive muscle relaxation works on the idea that following the tensing of your muscles, each muscle group can be more deeply relaxed.
• Breathing is one of the easiest ways to get your stress under control. Deep diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing) impedes the shallow breathing from the chest – which is often a symptom of stress.
• Mental imagery to either visualize a calm and soothing experience or the stress flowing out of your body.
• Meditation which provides a sense of control and purpose to our lives. Some different meditation techniques are provided on this stress management website
• Positive thinking which uses the power of your thoughts to change the way that you perceive a stressful event.
• Hypnosis which puts you into a state of relaxed and focused attention, in which your subconscious can be primed for suggestions of change. See how hypnosis can make a change in your life with these ideas and tips on self hypnosis

Each of these stress management techniques has been shown to induce the relaxation response.

Tell us about what stress management techniques you use.

The relaxation response counters the effects of the stress hormones which flood your body following the fight or flight response.

In some cases, biofeedback can be used to enhance these stress management techniques.

Stress management for health is a website that gives you strategies for dealing with stress.

If you would like your questions about hypnosis, then this hypnosis site may be beneficial to you.

Meditation is an important form of stress relief which provides a sense of control and purpose. Click here for inspiration and guidance to establish a meditation practice in a your daily life.

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