Concepts Relating to Stress

Behaviors

Exercise

Nutrition

Smoking

Handling Stressors

Ways to Reduce Stress

References

HANDLING STRESSORS Continued

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES
There are many relaxation techniques.  Some are designed for deep relaxation and others for momentary relaxation.  These techniques are being used by many individuals who not only want to relax, but who have found that relaxation techniques assist them to control pain, especially chronic pain.  Some are even using less pain relief medication.  Others are lowering their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.  Try these techniques and determine for yourself whether or not they are helpful.  After you have tried them all, you may want to combine two or three of the techniques.

PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION:
In progressive relaxation, the individual has to learn the difference between what tension feels like and what relaxation feels like.  Once they have learned this, they will be able to identify when there is tension in any part of their body and will be able to relax that part.  For this experience it is helpful to lie on your back in a semi-darkened room with your knees bent.

Tense one fist and forearm.  Hold for seven seconds.  Feel the difference between your tense fist and the one that is not tensed.  Relax that arm and fist.  Repeat these actions.  Be sure that you can tell the difference.  After you have practiced a few times, it is time to begin the sequence. Be sure that you have loosened any tight clothing, belt, tie, etc.  This will take about 20 minutes.  Close your eyes.  Begin with your toes and feet.  Curl the toes on your right foot.  Relax them.  Stretch your right foot…toes pointed out.  Relax.  Extend the toes of your right foot back towards your knee, stretching the calf muscle.  Hold for seven seconds, then relax.  Repeat this sequence with your left foot.  As you contract the muscles, inhale very slowly and exhale slowly as the muscles relax.

Next, tighten the large muscles in your right leg, hold for seven seconds, then relax.  Repeat with the left leg.  Then move up to the stomach area.  Tighten the abdominal muscles, hold, then relax.  Then push your lower back down towards the floor.  Hold for seven seconds.  Then relax. Now tighten up the shoulder muscles.  Relax.  Remember to inhale slowly as you tighten the muscles and exhale slowly as you relax.

Shrug your shoulders---try to touch your shoulders to your ear lobes.  Hold, then relax.  Now hug yourself, then relax.  Now tighten the muscles in you right fist and right arm.  Relax.
Move to the left fist and left forearm.  Tighten then relax.  Now tighten the neck muscles and relax.  Frown, tensing as many muscles in the face as you can.  Relax and feel the tension drain from your face, eyes and forehead.  Enjoy the relaxed feeling.  You should feel that much of the tension has drained away.  Stay in that position for a few minutes.  When you need to come back to the real world, count backwards from five.  By the time you get to one, you will be alert and ready to go.  With a little practice, you should be able to do this technique with ease.

SELF-RELAXATION PROGRAM:
This is a phased program similar to the previous one, but done in stages. Stage 1:  Lie on your back in a darkened room, with eyes closed, arms at your sides, legs uncrossed.  Place pillows under your neck, knees and feet if that increases your comfort.  Loosen or remove any binding clothing—shoes, belts, tight collars.  They can contribute to muscle tension.  Spend thirty to forty-five minutes alternately contracting and releasing parts of your body, one at a time.  When you are tensing, try to make your muscles tighter and tighter and hold for about 10-20 seconds.  Then let go very slowly and feel the relaxation developing.  When you think you have reached your limit, keep telling yourself to “let it go further and further”.  This will help you sense how real relaxation feels.
The exercises should follow a logical order through your body. Here is a recommended sequence:

• HANDS AND ARMS:
• Clench (then relax) each fist.
• Bend both elbows and flex your biceps, hard (then relax).
• Rigidly straighten both arms (relax).
• FACE, HEAD AND NECK:
• Wrinkle your forehead until you feel tension moving across your scalp.
• Frown deeply; tense every muscle in your face.
• Close your eyelids as tightly as possible.
• Clench your teeth and notice the tension in your jaws, cheeks, throat and neck.
• Press your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
• Press the back of your head firmly into your pillow or against the floor.
• Relax.
• Push your chin against your chest and strain your head forward.
• Shrug your shoulders up to your ears.
• Relax.

PAUSE:  Think about a feeling of relaxation spreading from your fingertips up to your scalp and down to your neck and shoulders.

• MIDSECTION:
• Inhale as deeply as you can hold before slowly exhaling.
• Relax, then repeat, relax.
• Tense your abdominal muscles as tightly as possible without pulling them in.
• Relax.
• Pull in your stomach and hold.
• Relax.
• Arch your back and hold as long as you can.
• Relax.

Pause:  Think about relaxation gradually spreading through all the muscles of your chest, back and stomach.  Then imagine that feeling spreading even deeper into your head and shoulders and down into your arms.

• LEGS AND FEET:
• Press both heels hard against the floor.
• Point your feet and toes away from your head as far as possible.
• Point your toes toward your head.

Pause:  Think about feeling relaxed, starting with your toes and slowly moving up your entire body.  Try to imagine the tension you would feel if you were actually lifting your legs.

Enjoy your relaxed state as long as you like, then stretch, yawn and get up.  If you feel yourself getting tense later on, try to recapture the “letting go” feelings you experienced.

Repeat the exercises daily for two weeks and try not to become discouraged.  For most people, the “break-through” doesn’t occur until about halfway through Stage 2.  The second two weeks of the program focuses on mental methods that can help peel away layers of tension and anxiety.  In short, this stage produces relaxation on demand.

STAGE 2:  spend about thirty minutes a day following this schedule.

• Lie comfortably in a darkened room, breathe deeply several times and feel a warm, heavy, relaxed sensation spread through your body as you slowly exhale.  Think about a wave of calm flowing over your body in a slow, logical sequence.
• Spend a minute or so thinking the word “relax” each time you exhale.  Next, think of other stimulus words:  calm, serene, tranquil, warm, confident, restful, peaceful, etc.  Pause after each word and try to associate feelings of relaxation with it.  Pick two words that seem most calming to you and repeat them slowly about twenty times while you relax more and more deeply.  With practice, you’ll be able just to say those words to yourself in tense situations and touch off relaxed feelings.
• For about fifteen minutes, imagine relaxation spreading slowly through your body, starting at your forehead and ending with your toes.  Think of the sensations involved as it spreads from one muscle to the next.
• Imagine a blank chalkboard, and then put the numbers one through ten on it, one at a time.  As each appears, try to relax more deeply and capture the sensations suggested by one of your stimulus words from #3.  By the time you reach ten, you should be totally relaxed.

The final two weeks of the program are spent conjuring up relaxed feelings while sitting, standing and walking as well as lying in a darkened room.  The goal is to enable you to relax anywhere in any situation.  It is a lot like driving a car.  When you are first learning, you are very conscious of everything you do.  But with practice, it all becomes automatic.

STAGE 3:  Start each daily session lying comfortable on your back, breathing deeply several times and thinking about relaxation spreading through your body.  Use your stimulus words and try to capture feelings of calmness within yourself.  After you feel tension begin to drain away, move on to the next steps.

• Imagine a scene you find very relaxing:  A sunny beach, a cabin in the woods, a mountain lake, a fireside.  Savor the scene for about five minutes.  This is your personal “getaway image” and, like your stimulus words, can be used to defuse tense situations as you become adept at using it.
• Sit comfortably in a chair, with eyes closed, arms at your sides.  One at a time and then together, raise your arms.  Feel the tension of holding them, then let them flop down in a release.

Repeat, holding a deep breath as you raise your arms, then exhaling as they flop.  While your arms are up, concentrate on keeping the rest of your body relaxed.

• Stand up and try to recapture feelings of relaxation, especially in your shoulders, stomach and arms.  With your eyes still closed, walk back and forth a short distance, swinging your arms gently and working to switch off any tension that may be creeping in.
• Breathe slowly and regularly while standing still and thinking about relaxation spreading slowly through your body.  Use your stimulus words to deepen the feeling.
• Lie down and see how quickly you can regain a calm sensation all over your body.  Then enjoy your personal relaxation image for at least one minute.  You may find one technique more helpful than another.  Try as many as you can and then choose.

AUTOGENIC RELAXATION TRAINING
This technique follows the progressive relaxation technique as to moving through the body parts, but uses warmth and heaviness instead of tensing the muscles.  It is important in this technique to allow the parts of the body to go limp like a rag doll.

Let’s start:  Lie down on your back in a darkened room, with your legs bent at the knees.  Raise your right leg and let it slowly drift down to the floor.  Sense the heaviness, the leg is very heavy and warm.  The warmth is getting stronger now.  The leg feels warm and heavy.  Now move to the left leg.  Raise it and let it drift to the floor.  It feels heavy and warm.  Feel the warmth going from the toes right up to the thigh area.

Now lift your right arm and feel how heavy it is and warm.  Let it drift down to the floor, feeling warm and heavy.  The warm feeling is moving right up to your neck area.  Lift the left arm and let it drift to the floor, feeling the warmth and heaviness.  It is moving right up to your neck area.  Feel the warmth in your neck.

It is heavy and warm.  The warmth is moving down into the chest area and moving across your chest.  The warmth moves on down to the abdominal are.  The warmth and heaviness feel so relaxing.

It’s like lying out on the sun backed beach in the warm sand.  The warmth is flowing through your body.  Your face is relaxing…your eyelids feel so heavy.  The lines in your forehead are easing away with the warmth.  Your forehead feels so cool now.  Now that you are relaxed, you feel your heartbeat slowing down.  Your breathing is becoming more calm and relaxed.
You may choose to use one phrase throughout this relaxation technique.  Repeat it over and over again.  When you are ready to get up, count backwards from five.  You will be alert by the time you get to one.

MEDITATION
Meditation is a term that encompasses several techniques, all of which can produce deep relaxation.  Although meditation is often associated with Eastern religious practices, prayer, or trance-like states, meditation techniques are not mystical by nature nor do they involve going into a trance.

Some meditation techniques use a word as a focal point.  Others suggest that you focus on a color, your breathing, an abstract concept or an object.  The purpose of each of these devices is to help quiet your mind, freeing it from its normally busy activity.

One way to begin meditation is to sit quietly with your eyes closed.  Relax all your muscles from your head to your toes.  Become aware of your breathing; breathe through your nose easily and naturally.  Breathe in…and out.  Then begin to silently repeat the word you have chosen, or focus on the color you have chosen.  Breathe in…and out again.  Don’t be discouraged if you have distracting thoughts.  Just let them pass through your mind, again focusing on your mental device.  If you can maintain a passive attitude, deep relaxation will occur at its own pace.

Continue this pattern of regular breathing and meditation for fifteen to twenty minutes.  When you finish, sit quietly for a few minutes with your eyes closed; then with your eyes open.

BIOFEEDBACK
In a sense, biofeedback is an extension of an already familiar process.  You know, for example, how fast your heart is beating if you put your hand to your chest.  You know when you are having trouble breathing, or when your stomach is full.  But you can’t see, taste, feel, hear or smell your brain waves, the activities of your muscle cells, or your blood pressure.

Biofeedback equipment is simply a sophisticated way to monitor these events.

It transforms your inner activities into readily observable signals.  Sometimes the signals are translated electronically into lights, tones or wavy lines on a monitor; sometimes they can be simple as a temperature rating on a finger thermometer.

Whatever type of equipment is used, it purpose is to enable you to “see” or “hear” your bodily responses through some set of signals.

In relaxation training, biofeedback can be very helpful as a learning tool.  As you learn to relax a muscle group, for example, you can actually “see” the muscles relax via the biofeedback equipment:  You get instant reinforcement.  If you are learning to relax by warming your extremities, a simple finger thermometer can indicate your success.  Eventually, you become so attuned to your own feelings and bodily sensations that you are able to reach a state of deep relaxation without the use of biofeedback equipment.

MOMENTARY RELAXATION
While progressive (deep) relaxation is extremely helpful to your general well-being, it is simply not always practical to use.

Although the level of recuperation is not nearly as profound, momentary relaxation is very beneficial since it can be used whenever and wherever you like.  Try to get in the habit of taking short recuperative breaks throughout the day to counteract stress build-up, or to prepare for on-the-spot situations that are likely to produce stress.  Some momentary relaxation techniques require knowledge of deep relaxation, but most can be done with little previous experience.
Very often a combination of techniques will be most helpful for you.  Try several, and continue using those which you find most effective.

DEEP BREATHING

In stressful situations, many people tend to restrict their breathing.  It becomes short and shallow and centered primarily in the chest area.  This cuts down the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, and creates added tension in the stomach and lower back.  Since the rhythm and regularity of breathing can have a calming effect on your nervous system, deep breathing can help reduce the stress you feel.

Before, or immediately after, a stressful situation, sit quietly for a minute or two.  Close your eyes and let your attention focus on your breathing.  Breathe through your nose easily and naturally, letting your shoulders and neck muscles relax.

Within just a few minutes, you should notice the tension slipping from your body.

VISUALIZATION
Imagine yourself in your favorite, restful place…on the beach, in the woods, in front of a fireplace, etc.  Imagine the sensations you would feel; perhaps the warm sun on your face, or mild breeze against your skin.  You might be able to hear the crackling of the fire, or the sound of the waves lapping against the shore.  Imagine, too, your calm state of mind in this restful place.  The more detail you can add to your scene, the more quickly and easily you’ll be able to relax.  After a moment or two in your imaginary place, you should feel refreshed and calmer.

You need to take some time to develop your imaginary place and then it will be quite easy to recall and step into.  Developing it goes like this:  Close your eyes and visualize:  You are out walking in the woods and you come to a meadow surrounded by tall pine trees.  The grass is thick and very green, with millions of spring wildflowers growing scattered throughout the lush green grass.  There is a large flat rock nearby and you lie down on it to rest.  As you stretch out on the rock, its warmth oozes into all the fatigued muscles in your body.  The warmth invades your back and legs, relaxing them.  It feels soooo good.  The birds are singing in the treetops, a light, listing sound, almost like chimes…it’s so sweet sounding, like a lullaby.  Combined with the wind blowing gently through the tall trees, it sounds like a symphony, playing just for you.  Smell the sweetness of the grass and the wildflowers….there must be a hundred different kinds of flowers…pink, yellow, red, blue, white, orange, all against a background of lush, soft green.

Oh look, there is a mother deer and a baby grazing at the edge of the woods.  They look so calm and peaceful, graceful in their movements, as if they are one with the trees and grass.
The breeze feels good blowing across you face.  The warmth of the rock is sooo soothing, you could stay here all day, just resting and absorbing all of this.  Just close your eyes and listen to the birds.  They answer each other with their songs.

Their songs harmonize with the wind rustling through the trees.  You are so relaxed, you do not want to get up, but you now have to open your eyes on the count of three.  One, two, three.  Now open your eyes.  You feel much more refreshed and calmer.

Once you have built your visualization, it takes just seconds to transport yourself to that place and get the tranquility benefits.

COMBINATION:
For some, it will be helpful to do a combination of these techniques.  To do a combination would take a little bit of time and practice, but it will be well worth it for the benefits.

Developing it goes like this:  Close your eyes and visualize:  You are walking along the beach, with the sun still high enough to give warmth to the sand.  The sand is white and smooth.  The waves are rolling gently in, lapping up onto the shoreline.  There are two sailboats out on the water, gliding along, their sails gently blown by the wind.  The sand feels so warm between your toes.  You sit down on the warm sand and watch the waves hitting against the outcrop of rocks just to your right.  What a rhythmical sound.  You stretch out on the sand, feeling its warmth in all your pores.  You curl your toes, and straighten them, sinking them into the warm sand.

Now you raise one leg, tightening the calf muscles and relaxing it; tighten and relax it again.  Now the other leg…tighten and relax…again…tighten and relax.  Listen to the waves, lapping up on the shore.  Flatten you back into the sand…it feels so warm, penetrating every muscle…relax, press again…relax.  Watch the sea gulls overhead, dipping and gliding along so effortlessly.

Tighten the muscles in your right arm, make a fist with your right hand…relax…tighten…relax…let it drift to the sand…it is heavy from the warmth of the sand…relax.  Tighten the muscles of your right arm, make a fist with your right hand…relax…tighten again…relax…let it drift down into the warm sand…sooo heavy.

Feel your neck muscles...the warmth of the sand is finally getting to them…they are tight.  Shrug your shoulders…try to touch your shoulders to your earlobes…relax…shrug your shoulders again…relax...now press your shoulders into the warm sand…let them sink into it…listen to the waves washing up onto the rocks…over and over again…relax.  The sun is in your eyes…you frown, tightening all of your facial muscles…a cloud drifts over the sun…you relax and close your eyes…feel the tension draining away…let it go…just absorb all the sounds…the water slapping against the rocks, the gentle lapping of the waves against the shoreline…the sea gulls as they fly overhead, calling to one another.  You relax…completely…unembarrassed by anyone watching…you are all alone…just the sea gulls for company…and the water to rhythmically lull you into a state of tranquility.  As you feel so relaxed, you know it is time to go…count backwards from five…four…three…two…one…open our eyes…you are relaxed, but alert…ready for the next challenge.  As you examine the methods of relaxation, you will be able to tell which ones were combined into the last visualization.

Remember that the goal is to develop one scene in such detail that you can within seconds mentally transport yourself into the scene and be able to benefit from the relaxation portion of the visualization.  This can be done in moments of time, sitting in a chair or riding in an elevator.  The example here seems lengthy, but that was just to show you the detail of the process.

MUSCLE MEMORY
After you have practiced with the deep relaxation techniques, such as progressive relaxation, you can relax quickly by using your muscle memory.  Sit comfortably, and try to remember the exact sensations you had during deep relaxation.  Next, try to duplicate those sensations, this time without going through all of the deep relaxation steps.  In this way you can experience a relaxation effect within a few seconds.

In addition to these techniques, there are a variety of relaxation audio tapes and video tapes.  Check some out from your local library and try them out.  As a conclusion to this course:

Next: Ways to Reduce Stress