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- Life without stress
Life without stress
Stress... Each of us encounters it every day. He enters our day with the sound of an alarm clock. Meets us on a crowded bus. Accompanying at production meetings. It becomes the cause of misunderstanding between family, friends and acquaintances. It haunts you even in bed, demanding analysis, evaluation and yet another replay of the events of the past day. And tomorrow everything will start again...
Today, one of the most unfavorable consequences of the busy pace of life in our society is the increase in stress and overwork. Unfortunately, stress has become a normal part of life for most of us. Today, few people can boast of mental stability, the absence of negative emotions and stable self-control. Loss of mental balance, feelings of anxiety, melancholy, dissatisfaction with oneself and one’s life, and decreased performance are well known to many. Stressful situations lead to the development of psychoses and neuroses.
The phrase “all diseases from nerves”, widespread at the beginning of the last century, has been transformed into “all diseases from stress.”
According to the World Health Organization, 65% of all diseases are causally related to stress, and some experts believe that in reality this figure is somewhat higher. Many diseases of the nervous, cardiovascular system, digestive organs, malignant neoplasms and others are recognized as psychosomatic.
Why is it important to relieve stress?
By reducing stress levels, we reduce the risk of many diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, the nervous system, the development of malignant neoplasms and many others.
Stress hormones constrict blood vessels, interfere with the production of endorphins (natural painkillers) and reduce immunity. Thus, by reducing stress levels, you may notice the following changes in the body as the body returns to a normal, healthy state:
- the heart rate will decrease, blood pressure will return to normal and blood circulation will improve;
- tension in the muscles will decrease, aching pain in the joints and muscles will be less likely to bother you, sleep will improve;
- It will become easier to breathe, and your susceptibility to diseases such as colds and flu will decrease;
- It will become easier to concentrate, irritability will decrease, thoughts will become positive, life will be more comfortable, and your attitude towards people around you will be more friendly.
So what are some ways to deal with or avoid stress?
Ways to prevent and relieve stress
Anti-stress lifestyle
Our lifestyle is a reflection of our personality. Changing your life style is the most important condition for overcoming destructive stress influences.
Help optimize your lifestyle:
- healthy eating;
- rational rest;
- proper personal life.
Healthy eating
“People who are strong in character prefer to eat away stress, while weak people prefer to drink it down.”
Throughout human history, all cultures without exception have placed a huge emphasis on proper nutrition. Poor nutrition is a serious stressor.
The most common mistakes that lead to stress are:
- irregular meals;
- food on the go;
- consumption of harmful foods;
- thinking about something negative while eating;
- binge eating.
During stress, our body produces a large amount of hormones - adrenaline and cortisol. For the “production” of these hormones, vitamins C, B, zinc, magnesium and other minerals are needed. Under stress, these elements are urgently “confiscated” from their jobs in the body, where, in turn, their shortage occurs. As a result, a lack of vitamin C and zinc prevents us from producing enough collagen, which affects our skin. A lack of vitamin B inhibits energy production and mental performance. Magnesium deficiency leads to headaches and hypertension.
One of the components of a complex attack on stress can be a diet aimed at replenishing the body with those substances that are intensively “eaten up” by stress hormones.
Vitamin A - green leafy vegetables, carrots, apricots, pumpkin.
Vitamin C - all vegetables and fruits, especially citrus fruits, black currants, kiwi, broccoli, cabbage, rose hips.
B vitamins - all cereals, yogurt, liver, pumpkin, avocado, bran bread, lean meat and fish, nuts, brewer's yeast. B vitamins increase the content of omega 3 fatty acids. It is believed that it is for this reason that Mediterranean peoples suffer less from depression - because their diet contains a lot of fish. Vitamin B6, which is needed for the synthesis of serotonin, is found in cereal grains and shellfish.
Vitamin E - vegetable oil.
Magnesium - “green” vegetables and herbs, grapefruits, figs, carrots, tomatoes, nuts, buckwheat, oatmeal, peas.
Calcium - milk and dairy products.
Zinc - turkey, seafood, eggs, yogurt, cheese, nuts, asparagus, oysters.
Choline - egg yolk, beef liver, sprouted wheat grains.
Glucose - bran bread, sweet fruits, honey.
Folic acid , which is necessary for the synthesis of dopamine, is found in calf liver and broccoli.
Also, under stress, the body needs adaptogens - substances that increase the abilities of adaptive systems. These include herbal products - today many herbal teas are made from plants containing adaptogens - ginseng, lemongrass, licorice, echinacea, green tea and many others. Their use is also effective for nervous exhaustion resulting from intense mental activity.
Of course, we shouldn’t forget about natural “drugs...” - many foods contain opiates and endorphins - “good mood” hormones. They help to cope with stress, fight depression, and simply increase vitality. Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, paprika and other edible plants are rich in the mood-enhancing opiate cytofin. Milk contains a morphine-like substance called casomorphine. Bananas contain serotonin, which gives a person a feeling of lightness. And in chocolate, andamine is a substance that has the same stimulating effect as hashish. Sweets generally make us more cheerful - the glucose they contain triggers “happiness mechanisms” in our brain.
Rational rest
It has been known since ancient times that the best rest is a change of activities. You need to be able to rest properly after a working day, on weekends, and during vacation. And the most important thing here is to be able to switch your attention. The situation when we think about work at home and at work about our household chores is not so impossible and makes it very difficult to concentrate on performing a certain type of activity, which only creates certain difficulties, problems, breakdowns and often leads to stress.
The following psychological techniques contribute to the development of attention switching:
- upon returning from work, take a position that promotes relaxation, breathe evenly and deeply, focusing on your inner state;
- lie there for a few minutes, reflecting on the past working day, its events and upcoming family matters;
- forget about everything for a while;
- Mentally “shaking off” all the events of the past day, start doing household chores.
Equally important is the ability to relax and unwind on weekends.
If your work involves constantly being indoors, then you need to spend your days off more actively. You don’t have to go anywhere for this. You can just walk in the city, park, sit in a public garden. Or play sports, go on a visit. The main thing is not to do work and try not to even think about it. Change the rhythm of your work to the rhythm of the weekend: be slow, “break” the rhythm of your actions - there is no need to rush during rest.
Healthy sleep to combat stress
Nothing restores strength like healthy sleep. Sleep preserves not so much a person’s physical activity as psychological balance. During sleep, our body produces hormones that are responsible for growth and restoration of body functions.
But stress can cause insomnia. To prevent falling asleep from becoming a problem, you need to follow some rules:
- try to go to bed at the same time, but no later than 11 p.m.;
- sleep at least 7-8 hours a day;
- do not go to bed immediately after eating - digestion speeds up metabolism, which means you won’t be able to fall asleep after eating;
- if you want to sleep peacefully, then avoid sugar, caffeine, fatty foods, alcoholic and tonic drinks in the evenings;
- avoid intense mental and physical labor before bedtime - distract your body, thoughts and emotions from problems;
- the bed should be comfortable, the room ventilated, no extraneous sounds should interfere with falling asleep.
Correct personal life
My home is my fortress, which means my family is a place where I can fully relax and unwind, find support and mutual understanding, respect for all family members and, of course, love. To do this, you need to harmonize relationships in the family and correctly distribute life priorities. If the husband puts business relationships first, and the wife puts the interests of the family first, or the head of the family is always “consumed” by work because he wants his family to not need anything, then the problems that arise in the family will certainly lead to problems in the family. affairs and will affect the health of all family members.. “Abandoned family” is a source of stress.
To avoid these problems you need to:
- Train yourself to make time for your family. Let this be a time when all business calls and important matters are taboo;
- do not turn your home into an office, do not schedule business meetings or formal dinners at home;
- in domestic disputes, do not be authoritarian, try not to “put pressure” on family members. Since family relationships are 90% built on an emotional basis, aggression in them is unacceptable, since it returns to its source like a boomerang.
Stress and dance
There is a good African proverb: “If you can talk, you can sing, if you can walk, you can dance.” And that says it all - each of us can dance, in each of us there lives an inner dancer who wants to dance. You don't need to learn dancing. Everything happens quite simply. To do this, you just need to retire for a while and put on some music. Which one? This is not the main thing. The main thing is that you like her. And one more thing - you are not dancing for someone. You are just dancing, and dancing is disappearing from this world.
Stress and exercise
It is common knowledge that physical activity is one of the most accessible ways to relieve stress.
Since stress triggers mechanisms in the body that prepare it for intense physical activity, physical exercise is the most natural way to release accumulated energy. Physical exercise has a relaxing effect that occurs after exercise and lasts up to 2 hours. If exercise is performed regularly over a period of 7-8 weeks, it begins to have long-term effects in terms of increasing the body's resistance to stress.
If you don’t have enough strength for physical exercise in a state of stress, then the easiest way is... to relax.
Stress and relaxation
Since stress in English is tension, the most logical method of reducing stress is relaxation or relaxation.
It is known that the left hemisphere of our brain is responsible for speech and logical thinking, and the right hemisphere is for imagination, dreams and intuition. In the modern world there is not much room for feelings, and therefore most of us live by logic. Although it is with the help of intuition that we can penetrate into the essence of things and phenomena and quickly solve problems that our logic and common sense cannot cope with.
At those moments when the right hemisphere is more active than the left, the beta rhythms that are usual for a state of wakefulness and tension are replaced by alpha rhythms, which, as a rule, precede sleep. In moments of “right-hemisphere” life, we are much calmer and we have the ability to be creative. This state can be easily achieved in a state of relaxation or relaxation. It is thanks to this that relaxation can completely restore strength and bring harmony into our lives, correcting the left hemisphere of everyday life.
Regular relaxation changes the body's chemistry - during the deep stage of relaxation, endophrines are released in our brain, which elevate our mood. The processes in the brain that occur during meditation are similar. Although the term “relaxation” is usually applied to our body and “meditation” to our brain, both methods calm and restore balance to the body-brain system.
Stress and aromatherapy
Egyptian healers were the first to draw attention to the beneficial effects of aromatherapy on human health; it was not for nothing that they called the nose “the center of the skull.” When aromatic oils fall on the skin, they enter the blood through the pores of the skin, which carries them throughout the body. When we inhale the smell of oil, its vapors enter the brain through the membranes and base of the nose and directly affect our mood, reaching the areas of the brain responsible for emotions.
There are many ways to use essential oils - you can inhale them from a bottle, sprinkle them in a room, use them for massage, but the most common and effective way is to use an aroma lamp.
There are a huge number of oils or their mixtures that are used to relieve stress. Below are just the main ones: anise, orange, basil, bergamot, oregano, spruce, jasmine, cedar, coriander, lavender, lemon, tangerine, lemon balm, peppermint, rose, rosemary. A few drops of oil can be added to the water when taking a soothing bath - hot water will relieve tension.
Stress and music therapy
Music therapy has a thousand-year history - dating back to the 6th century BC. Pythagoras used music to treat certain diseases. Music therapy is based on several methods of influence: psychoaesthetic, physiological and vibration. Music is a set of sound signals that are perceived and undergo complex processing in the brain and as a result various reactions to music appear: changes in hormonal and biochemical processes that affect the intensity of metabolic processes, the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, brain tone, circulation.
For mild forms of psychosis and depression, cantata No. 2 and “Italian Concerto” by Bach, “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven will help; Mazurkas and preludes by Chopin, waltzes by Strauss, “Lullaby” by Brahms, “Light of the Moon” by Debussy will relieve your worries and anxiety. “Sad Waltz” by Sibelius, “Autumn Song” by Tchaikovsky, “Dreams” by Schumann will help in the fight against insomnia.
Stress and color therapy
It has long been known that color can influence mood. And our attitude towards flowers can also change depending on our mood. But color can also change our health. Red – excites, increases heart rate, increases blood pressure. Green – calms, reduces heart rate. Blue, cyan - with prolonged exposure causes anxiety and fear. Yellow, light orange - create and maintain a good mood, a mood for communication. Brown, beige - cozy, calming, inspiring hope, lowering blood pressure and heart rate.
Deep breathing
It has long been noted that a person exposed to stress breathes incorrectly: arrhythmically and shallowly. The most common breathing in the modern world is chest and intercostal breathing. Modern man practically does not use the lower part of the lungs. By doing this, we deprive ourselves of a lot: with diaphragmatic breathing, a natural massage of the internal organs occurs, the blood circulation in them is stabilized and harmonized, the occurrence of muscle blocks in the abdominal area is automatically eliminated, and the spine is straightened. Sooner or later you will notice this yourself, but it is better to start breathing correctly right away.
Psychotherapist 1st City Clinical Hospital Grin V.V.