7 Simple Ways to De-Stress

by: Sheila Patel, M.D.

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If you feel that stress is affecting your physical health and emotional well-being, youre
not alone. An estimated 75 to 90 percent of all doctor visits are for stress-related issues
and ailments, and this is certainly what I see in my medical practice. But dont let this
information increase your stress levels, for there are simple practices that you can bring
into each day to feel less stressedand more calm, centered, and happy.

Meditate
Meditation is a powerful antidote to stress. In the inner quiet of meditation, the body
decreases its production of so-called stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline,
while increasing neurotransmitters associated with calm and well-being, including
dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. A regular meditation practice is one of the most
powerful tools for improving overall health. Recent studies are confirming that with even
a single meditation, you turn on or upregulate genes associated with total well-being,
and turn off or down-regulate genes that are related to illness and disease. In addition
to the physical health benefits, regular meditators experience more happiness, less
anxiety, and greater feelings of connection and purpose.
Try this: The ideal meditation practice is 20 to 30 minutes in the morning, and 20 to 30
minutes again in the evening; however, meditating for just 10 minutes daily will make a
huge difference in your life and stress levels. Here is a guided meditation you can try
right now: So Hum Meditation.

Breathe
Many ancient healing traditions incorporate deep breathing into a daily routine to
cultivate calm and balance. Studies show that deep breathing can immediately help you
shift out of the stress or fight-or-flight response, and into the relaxation response. With
deep breathing, the body and mind slow down and you instantly feel stress dissipate. In
fact, with modern biofeedback tools you can actually see an improvement in heart-rate
variability (a sign of reduced stress) within seconds of deep breathing.
I recommend 3 to 5 minutes of deep breathing, twice daily, and any time during the day
when you become aware of feeling stressed. If you have a morning meditation practice,
which is highly recommended, do your deep breathing just before you meditate.
Try this: Close your eyes and breathe in slowly through your nose. Your belly should
rise gently with each inhalation. Imagine that you are directing the breath to any areas
of stress in your body, or simply feel the sensation of the breath in the lungs. At the

peak of your inhalation, pause for a moment; then slowly exhale. Keep breathing until
you feel centered and calm.
Learn more:The Mind-Body Healing Benefits of Pranayama

Walk
Regular movement is one of the best ways to dissipate the energy of stress in your
body. When you walk briskly or do other forms of exercise, your body releases many
neurotransmitters that lead to improved mood and a greater sense of well-being. These
neurotransmitters include endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. Some research
suggests that improvements in mood are also due to increased blood circulation to the
brain.
More good news! You dont have to spend hours at the gym to decrease your stress. By
taking a 15-minute walk, you will experience immediate benefits, including greater
feelings of calm and energy. While some people argue that nothing can be accomplished
with a short walk, you can judge for yourself.
Try this: Commit to taking a 15-minute walk after lunch, or at the end of your day, and
see what happens to your stress levels. Of course, when you can fit in a longer walk, go
for it.

Sleep
More and more studies are confirming the importance of regular, restful sleep for
combatting the negative effects of stress and increasing total well-being. Getting restful
sleep gives you the opportunity to repair and restore the mind-body system. With good
sleep, you have better emotional regulation, stronger immunity, reduced pain, and
decreased risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. Poor
sleep, whether in amount or in quality, is the precursor to many disease processes. A
lack of restful sleep also disrupts your neurochemistry and can lead to worsening
anxiety, depression, and pain.
Try this: One important way to improve your sleep is to align your sleeping times with
your circadian rhythms, which are your bodys own natural rhythms of mental and
physical activity. These rhythms are aligned with natures rhythms, which means that
when the sun rises, your body is naturally more awake and alert. When the sun sets,
your body prepares for sleep by increasing the production of natural chemicals such as
melatonin. You will enjoy more restful, restorative sleep if you are in bed by about 10:00
p.m., and wake up by 6:00 am. During this sleep time, your body can process all of the
foods, experiences, and energy of the day and digest it, so you dont carry it over into
the next day. Of course, since often it is stressful feelings that interfere with sleep, using
the other practices discussed in this article will help you reduce stress, and therefore,
improve your sleep.

Reduce Excessive Stimulation

You live in such an overstimulated world that you sometimes may not even notice how
much youre bombarded with noise, information, music, bright lights, and other
distractions. Now, its hard to enjoy even a moment of silence when youre filling up
your car since many gas stations have installed videos that automatically turn on with a
loud commercial when you insert a credit card. The world is vying for your attention,
and all of the information entering through your senses requires processing, which can
lead to an increased stress response.
Try this:By making a conscious choice to reduce unnecessary stimulation, you can stop
the sensory overload and create greater calm in your mind-body system. Pay attention
to how you feel when you spend time exposed to different forms of stimulation. If you
find yourself feeling jangled after shopping at a mall or watching a violent movie,
eliminate or limit these experiences in your life. Instead of leaving yourself at the mercy
of your electronic devices, take steps to control their interruptions. For example, turn off
your automatic email alert and the ringer on your phone, and set up regular times to
check your messages instead.
These are just a few suggestions for reducing sensory overload. Consider your
environment at home, work, and anywhere you regularly spend time, and start making
conscious choices to reduce the unnecessary and stress-provoking stimulation. This will
help you experience more joy, balance, and peace of mind.

Do Less and Be More

In this fast-paced and often manic society, its easy to focus too much on doing and not
enough on being. Even though you are a human being, and not a human doing, the
ego mind often takes over and defines success and happiness by what you accomplish.
However, if you look around, you will find that the people who do less and let
themselves be more actually seem less stressed. They appear more calm, peaceful, and
happy. And if you could look into their bodies, you would see that they have fewer
symptoms of chronic stress than their more harried counterparts, including less
inflammation, greater hormonal balance, and lower blood pressure.
Multitasking can also take a toll on your body-mind. A recent study by neuroscientists
Kep Kee Loh and Ryota Kanai showed that people who reported engaging in high levels
of media multitasking (defined as the concurrent use of multiple media devices,
including mobile phones, laptops, and television) had decreased gray matter density in
the brains anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain that processes emotions. Their
research supports findings of earlier studies that found an association between high
levels of media multitasking and a tendency for anxiety, depression, and other
emotional difficulties.

Try this: Look at your to-do list for the day and remove one of the items, choosing
instead to use that time to just be. Sit quietly and notice the sensations in your body
and then observe the activity of your mind without being attached to it. Or you can find
a lovely spot outside and just become aware of everything entering you through your
senses. What do you hear, feel, see, taste, and smell? After youve tried this for a few
days or weeks, notice whether your feelings of stress have diminished. In the beginning,
you may feel some resistance to this practice, but over time, you will find you crave
these experiences of simply being.

Keep a Journal
One of the best tools to reduce stress is journaling. Studies have found that writing
about stressful events improves both physical and psychological health. There are many
theories about why journaling helps to reduce stress. According to some researchers,
when you have an experience you perceive as stressful and then ignore it or stuff it
or obsess and ruminate about ityou activate the stress response in your body and
mind. If you write about the experiences instead, you can process what happened,
keeping only what serves you and letting go of the rest. A regular journaling practice
doesnt need to take a lot of time. By spending only a few minutes journaling, you can
reduce the energy of stress in your body and improve sleep, which, as discussed, is vital
to your health.

Journaling Tips:
Start your journaling with a recapitulation of your daysimply write down the
events of your day as if you were an objective reporter looking through a video camera.
Dont attach interpretations or judgments to anything that occurred. If you felt a strong
emotion related to an experience, it is fine to write that down, but detach from any
judgment about the emotions that you felt. The idea is to let the emotions go through
observing and writing about them. This helps reduce any stress you may have
experienced as you went about your activities. This should only take a few minutes.

Next, list three intentions for your life. For example: I intend to increase my
physical activity or I intend to love more.

End the journaling session by writing down three things you are grateful for. It
can be something very specific, such as I am grateful for the delicious meal I enjoyed
with friends today, or something more global, like I am grateful for the beauty of
nature. The important thing is to bring that feeling of gratitude into your awareness,
which will inherently reduce the feeling of stress. Notice how you feel when you journal
on a regular basis.

If you want to make sure that your private notes arent accidentally found or read
by others, a ritual of shredding (or deleting) what was written is an excellent way to give

finality to the release of the stressors of the day. Feel free to detach from what you
wrote, and begin anew the next day.
Although these practices may seem too simple to be the answer to reducing stress, I
encourage you to adopt them into your daily life and experience the benefits yourself.
The small amount of time invested in these easy practices, some of which take almost
no time at all, will begin to transform your mind-body from a state of stress to a state of
relaxation.
Ultimately, when the mind and body are calm, you are able to experience your
underlying spiritual nature of happiness, wholeness, and blissand open up to your full
human potential.

References:
Bailie, K, et al. Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Adv in
Psychiatric Treatment. 2005. Vol. 11, 338-346.
Loh, K, et al. Media Multi-Tasking Activity Is Associated with Smaller Gray-Matter Density
in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. PLOS One. Published: September 24, 2014
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0106698.
Motomura, Y, et al. Sleep Debt Elicits Negative Emotional Reaction through Diminished
Amygdala-Anterior Cingulate Functional Connectivity. PLOS One. Published: February 13,
2013. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056578.
Sharma, A, et al. Exercise for Mental Health. J Clin Psychiatry v.8(2); 2006:106.