Medical Health Encyclopedia

Also note positive experiences, such as those that are mentally or physically refreshing or produce a sense of accomplishment.

After a week or two, try to identify two or three events or activities that have been significantly upsetting or overwhelming.

Questioning the Sources of Stress. Individuals should then ask themselves the following questions:

• Do these stressful activities meet their own goals or someone else's?
• Have they taken on tasks that they can reasonably accomplish?
• Which tasks are in their control and which ones aren't?

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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 is rarely practical or feasible, but there are many ways to reduce its impact.

Consider as many relief options as possible. Examples include the following:

• Listen to music. Music an effective stress reducer in both healthy individuals and people with health problems. In a 2001 study, for example, students who listened to a well-known gentle classical piece of music during a stressful task had reduced feelings of anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure.
• Take long weekends or, ideally, vacations.
• If the source of stress is in the home, plan times away, even if it is only 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. In a 2001 study of people with high blood pressure, pet owners had much lower blood pressure increase in response to stress than non-owners. (Pet owning was beneficial only for people who like animals to begin with.)

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 psychologic 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.