3 ways you can beat stress

Stress is a part of everyday life. Dr Malcolm Carruthers, a clinical and chemical pathologist says “Stress is not a bad thing, in the right amounts it can be the spice of life. But it’s a question of how you deal with it.” So whether you thrive, survive or suffer with stress heres three ways you can beat stress on your own.

Image by DanMacMan via Flickr

Think yourself better
“Akin to meditation, autogenic therapy is a mind / body relaxation tool,” “If you get frightened or stressed or anxious, you enter this fight or flight process,” says Greville Waterman, who, after 18 years working in Sponsorship Consultancy, took a course in autogenic therapy and is now an Associate Member of the British Autogenic Society, and working towards a Diploma in Autogenic Training (AT).

The treatment first emerged in Germany in the 1920s, the work of a Berlin doctor Johannes Heinrich Schultz. Dr Malcolm Carruthers, a clinical and chemical pathologist brought it to the UK in the 1970s.

So what does the treatment involve? It’s a case of learning how to focus your attention through a series of mental exercises. First is the art of passive concentration – quietly allowing your mind to focus on your body. Second, the repetition of certain phrases or words which allow you to “target” certain parts of the body and induce relaxing feelings, such as heaviness or warmth. And third, putting your body into basic relaxed postures, to cut out the effects of the outside world.

“Warmth, heaviness in the limbs, regular breathing, a slow heart rate, a cool solar plexus and a cool forehead. These are things that are clinically proven to calm you down and make you feel less stressed,” says Waterman. “You visit these parts of your body mentally and think about these things. You’re mentally examining what’s going on in your body, but not overstriving.”

For the final stage, there are three positions: lying flat on the floor in a relaxed position; sitting in a chair with your hands resting on the arms of the chair or on your thighs; and third, sat on the edge of a hard chair, slumped over with the back and head hanging forward and loose.

Cry it off
“Many people feel ‘cleansed’ after a good cry,” says Professor Gail Kinman, an occupational health psychologist at the University of Bedfordshire. “Many women say they often feel like a good cry, not because something bad has happened but as a form of therapy.” Crying is a valuable way of relieving stress and tension that might otherwise have long-term harmful effects on the body. “We cannot sustain strong emotions for very long and have to dampen them somehow,” says Professor Kinman.

Our eyes release three different types of tears. Basal tears lubricate the eyeball. Reflex tears are similar and result from excess liquid building up in the eye in response to an irritant, onion vapours or specks of dust. But emotional weeping is different. Tears shed due to grief, anger, happiness or pain have an entirely different chemical make-up. Emotional tears contain hormones and chemicals released by the body that can make you feel better afterwards.

Though it may not be straightforward to perform at one’s desk, a prolonged cry of six to seven minutes in length, induced by a particular piece of music, or merely the suspension of the urge to control it, is a potent stress-buster.

Go out on a limb
Founded by an American former businessman, this method is as simple as it is seductive. Lie down and concentrate on an area of the body or mind, relax, then consciously think: “I’m resting for this part of my body now.” If you do it properly, apparently, you’ll feel what its founder Dan Howard calls a rapid “dropping-in” sensation. He believes that “resting” certain parts of the body can help you regain strength and perspective, and even ease pain.

He already has a worldwide following of several thousand. “Intentional resting,” says Mr Howard, “is an opportunity to remember what your body innately knows: how to rest. “Once you’ve practised, it’s a 10- to 30-second process where you choose resting over stress.” You can practise it at any time – be it in the workplace, or the car.

Let me know how you keep your stress in check.