Health: BWTMS

DLaina Bloxham
Inst: Marci Campbell
PSY 1010-408
February 12, 2016
Health: The Best Ways to Manage Stress
Introduction
Stress is unavoidable; we have no control over some of the things that happen around us
every day. Our modern lifestyle has made being in a rush the norm, consequently activating our
sympathetic nervous systems1 and putting our bodies into a fight-or-flight response. Importantly
always being in a hurry does not allow the parasympathetic nervous system 2 the recovery time it
needs to inform our bodies that everything is all right. Through lifes experiences I have learned
some effective methods of stress management that have helped me to regain control over my
own life. I learned the importance of how we handle or utilize what is happening around and to
us, and by maintaining our bodys proper health. This helps us lead and live a longer and
hopefully happier life.
In this paper I will provide examples of how we can promote health to combat the stressors of
life. I will discuss four points of healthy living to manage stress: healthy eating, exercise,
massage/meditation, and staying positive/laughter.
Literature Review
Stress is defined as a specific response by the body to a stimulus such as fear or pain that
disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism: and to
experience stress or worry (dictionary.com 2016). To this general definition the American
Heritage Stedman Medical Dictionary, (2016) adds that stress. is more acutely defined as a
physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological reaction that
may lead to illness (The American Heritage Stedman Medical Dictionary, 2016). Also it
observes that a physical factor, such as injury, or mental state, such as anxiety, [can] disturb the
bodys normal state of functioning [and] lead to the development of some illnesses (The
1 The sympathetic nervous system is triggered with stressful or life-threatening situations in increase reaction time.
2 The parasympathetic nervous system allows our body to recover from the stressful situations that arise.

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American Heritage Science Dictionary, 2016).

If we break this definition down stress may refer to anything that can disturb our natural
routine. Stress can come in all different forms including but not limited to other drivers on the
highways, relationships, money issues, refinancing a house, and even possibly a huge
psychology paper.
There are different levels of stress (see figure 1 below).

Figure 1 Levels of Stress. Source: http://plentyofthymecookbook.blogspot.com/2012/11/anxiety-level-orange.html

The most serious kinds of stress are Severe and High, which can lead to illness, fatigue,
anxiety, depression, and burnout. It seems that the habits we form for ourselves can either add to
or diminish those causes of high stress. One of these is how much control we feel we have over a
given situation, or in other words our perceived control. When we think that we are controlling
a situation of stress, we are in actuality controlling our stress. I want to discuss four good habits
that have been proven to help in stressful times and give an overall healthy outcome of life.
1.

Healthy Eating- Unfortunately obesity is becoming more and more common in

society. It is easy to eat the quick meal that has a high fat or sugar content. Our meal
proportion sizes have also been getting larger. Laboratory studies have linked higher
stress and those who snack on high-fat and high-sugar foods between meals. For
example, in a study done in 2003 of adolescents in the United States, it was found that
greater stress was associated with more fatty-food intake, less fruit and vegetable
intake, and more snacking, results that were similar for boys and girls (Cartwright et
al.,2003 in Park et al., 2013).
Another point is that stress can interfere with eating. We as Americans have to get to
the next event as fast as possible and therefore eating has become an afterthought

Health: BWTMS

for many people. In the book The Slowdown Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy, and
Weight Loss by Marc David, he discusses the ways our bodies shift into fight-orflight mode when we get stressed. He observes that this is a natural mechanism to
help us in life-threatening emergencies. In such instances our bodies are helping us
stay alive, not digesting our food. And the more we stress about life and rush to get to
the next thing on our agenda, we never allow ourselves to come out of that fight-or
flight response and so our metabolism never recovers. In other words, when our
sympathetic nervous system clicks on to our stress response of fight-or flight, our
digestion shuts down. We then never give the parasympathetic nervous system a
chance to calm things down and take over so we can relax and enjoy life. (David,
2015:17-19)
The vast majority of this research shows cross-sectional associations between
psychological stress and enhanced frequency for behaviors such as eating unhealthy
foods and excessive alcohol use, and reduced exercise frequency (Lipschitz et al.,
2015).
2. Exercise - has been proven to get oxygen and heart rate going to stimulate the mind
and blood. It is like the stress melts away from your body.
The Mayo Clinic has some great research about how exercise helps relieve stress.
Exercise pumps endorphins, giving you that runner high. It is meditation in motion,
you will forget all about the days irritations. And it improves your mood, it gives you
command over your body (Mayo Clinic, 2015).
A 10-year study created in 2003 assessed the use of exercise as a coping tool, asking a
sample of college students how often they exercised when faced with a difficult or
stressful situation. Higher scores on this coping style were related to higher levels of
exercise as well as higher levels of positive affect and live satisfaction and less
anxiety. The above mentioned study of college students found that men were more
likely than women to report exercising as a way to reduce stress. This study also
looked as exercise coping with a single item: how often participants exercised more
to cope with an important problem or stressful event. Participants also completed a
measure of physical exercise. The measure of exercise to cope and the amount of
exercise reported were modestly correlated and both predicted decreased depression
over time (Park et al., 2013).

Health: BWTMS

3. Massage/Meditation- Massage therapy, the art of muscle manipulation for physical

relief, usually achieved by an outside source, is also proven to increase circulation of
the blood allowing stress to disintegrate. Massage has immediate benefits that
increases serotonin and therefore reduces anxiety, depression and anger. It works to
help memory, sleep, and mood (AMTA, 2016).
Meditation, a state of thoughtful awareness, along with massage therapy, allows our
bodies to slow down and process. Allowing our parasympathetic nervous system to
take over and de-stress our bodies, massage and meditation can be rejuvenating,
relaxing, and restoring.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a program designed to utilize different
meditation techniques, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, in 1979. It is structured as
an 8-week course to teach patients how to live fuller, healthier, more adaptive lives.
Participants in that study experienced a reduction in anxiety, depression, and selfreported medical symptoms. In 1999 a study was conducted using the same principles
of MBSR. The intensive program utilizes meditation, in a variety of forms, such as,
awareness of breathing, mindful yoga, eating meditation, walking meditation, and
guided imagery. Information obtained included meditation practice, post-treatment
ability to cope with stress, post-treatment change in sense of well-being, and overall
satisfaction. Effect sizes were calculated after the 8-weeks, as well as 1-year followup scores on dependent variables.

All 90 respondents expected that doing the meditation-based stress reduction

practices would reduce their general level of tension.

Seventy of 79 subjects anticipated that doing the stress reduction exercises

would reduce their medical symptoms.

Analyses performed on pre- and post-treatment scores for each revealed
significant improvements across the study period on all indices. These results
indicate a quantitative decrease in psychological and stress-related

symptomatology across the testing phase.

When subjects were asked to rate their ability to cope with stress now
compared to before the program on a 5-point scale, where 1 denoted much
worse than before and 5 denoted much better/great improvement, 108 of 111
respondents (97%) responded 4 or 5 (Mean=4.510.05) (Reibel et al., 2001).

Health: BWTMS

4. Staying Positive/Laughter- As Ren Descartes said, I think, therefore I am. If you

think positive and happy thoughts you are generally happier. If you do not think about
the things that could be a stressor chances are you may get through one without
knowing that it was there. If you are always looking for positive influences and ways
to be happy you are less likely to get depressed.
Laughter along with staying positive has healing qualities. In a study by the Mayo
Clinic it was shown that laughter was indeed a way to reduce stress. It stimulates
many organs, like exercise and massage; laughter enhances your oxygen to stimulate
heart, lungs, muscles, and brain. Laughter activates and relieves stress responses
giving you that nice relaxed feeling. Laughter soothes tension by stimulating
circulation to reduce physical symptoms of stress. And laughter improves mood
which can lesson depression and anxiety and make you feel happier (Mayo Clinic,
2013).
Application
A few years ago, in the course of three months, my life was considerably stressed. Both
of my grandparents passed away. I had a falling out with my best friend. It was the busiest time
of the year at work and we were short staffed so it fell to me to work about sixty hours a week,
when all I really felt like was not getting out of bed at all, and my overall wellbeing was just
blah.
It was a time of great stress, and I felt that I did not know what I could do to get out from
under the things that were weighing me down.
One day I was visiting my sister who is almost two years my senior. She was telling me
that she was getting really worried about her future and that if she were to continue down the
path she was on she may not be around to see her children grown with their own children. She
really needed a lifestyle change. As she was saying this it was like a light bulb came on in my
brain. I also needed a lifestyle change.
We made a plan together to start eating healthy, exercising, and doing the things that
would be beneficial to our overall wellbeing. We live over four hours away from each other so
even though we would be supporting each other we were really doing it on our own. I decided to
stop eating sugar, processed foods, and dairy. I got myself on a strict and intensive exercise
program, video tapes in front of my television. I got regular massages. I tried to apply meditation

Health: BWTMS

to be calmer. I focused on being a happy person, on the inside as well as on the outside.
Changing my lifestyle has been one of the hardest things I have ever done but has also
been one of the most rewarding. Have my stressors gone away? No, my grandparents are still
gone. I still do not talk to my friend. I am back to working a normal forty hour work week but
have added being a full time student working toward a medical degree to the mix.
Life is still full of stressors but I am able to apply these four principles to create a
healthier state. For example, when a certain psychology paper is not quite working the way I
think it should, instead of throwing my computer across the room, I am able to apply what I have
learned about exercise and take a brisk walk around the block. This gets my endorphins flowing
so that when I sit back down things have opened up and I am able to focus more clearly on how I
want my paper to flow.
Conclusion
I have learned that people can turn their lives around as I did. I not only lost over thirty
pounds, and five dress sizes, I am able to keep up with the kids in college that are over half my
age, as evident in my kickboxing class and fitness assessment where I scored above average to
excellent in every category.
I have been able to learn and apply these principles and make my life healthier and have
found ways to relieve stress. Still it would be helpful to document and pinpoint everyday
stressors experimenting in ways to relieve them, whether it be to exercise immediately, get a
massage, meditate, or watch a funny movie.
The goal to be healthier is affected by the things I think. Is being positive or negative
hindering or helping my goals? I catch myself being negative and immediately turn my thoughts
around empowers me to believe I can do anything. We may want something but our positive
thoughts and willpowers have to align. It is that willpower that says I know that I would rather
sleep in, but how much better will I feel if I get up and exercise? I am able to recognize when it
is time to regroup and get back on track. It is exciting to continue my way to health as I learn the
best ways to handle my stressors.
I think anyone changing their lifestyle would be healthier and less affected by stress.
They have to want it. It is not easy. It is hard to eat healthy. Today it is so much easier to buy fast
food or get something quick than it is to plan a meal, make sure you have all the ingredients, and

Health: BWTMS

actually prepare it, without using sugars or preservatives. It can be done, but you have to want it
and stick to it. It is hard to exercise on a regular basis. To find or make the time could be a
stressor unless the decision has already been made. Our bodies will thank us for slowing down
and taking time to eat healthy and exercise.
I have a great passion for health and feel that all will benefit from applying these
principles to their lives. If we support our parasympathetic nervous system as often as possible
and give our sympathetic nervous system a break our bodies will be healthier and prepared for
actual dangers that come.
Doing what is good for you is not necessarily easy. (Schacter, et al., 2014, pg 576) But
being stressed is not easy either!

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