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Restructuring Priorities: Adding Stress Reducing Activities. The next step is to attempt to shift the balance from stress-producing to stress-reducing activities. Eliminating stress entirely is rarely possible, but there are many ways to reduce its impact.
Consider as many relief options as possible. Examples include:
- Listen to music. Music is an effective stress reducer in both healthy individuals and people with health problems. Research finds that listening to soothing music can decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety levels in heart patients.
- Take long weekends or vacations.
- If the source of stress is in the home, plan times away, even if only for an hour or two a week.
- Replace unnecessary time-consuming chores with pleasurable or interesting activities.
- Make time for recreation. This is as essential as paying bills or shopping for groceries.
- Own a pet. Research finds that pet owners have a lower blood pressure increase in response to stress than people who do not own pets.
Discuss Feelings. The concept of communication and letting your feelings out has been so excessively promoted and parodied that it has nearly lost its value as good psychological advice. Nevertheless, feelings of anger or frustration that are not expressed in an acceptable way may lead to hostility, a sense of helplessness, and depression.
Expressing feelings does not mean venting frustration. In fact, anger may cause a spike in blood pressure in some people. Some therapists strongly recommend just talking, rather than venting anger.
The primary goal is to explain and assert one's needs to a trusted individual in as positive a way as possible. Direct communication may not even be necessary. Writing in a journal, writing a poem, or composing a letter that is never mailed may be sufficient.
Expressing one's feelings solves only half of the communication puzzle. Learning to listen, empathize, and respond to others with understanding is just as important for maintaining the strong relationships necessary for emotional fulfillment and reduced stress.
Keep Perspective and Look for the Positive. Reversing negative ideas and learning to focus on positive outcomes helps reduce tension and achieve goals. The following steps, using an example of a person who is alarmed at the prospect of giving a speech, may be useful:
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Review Date: 10/14/2010
Reviewed By: Reviewed by: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor
of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts
General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical
Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
