Herbs For Stress Relief
Taking herbs for stress relief can be an excellent natural remedy for both stress itself and its side effects.
The best way to get relief from stress itself is to relax. There are many herbal remedies that will help you to do this.
Chamomile tea can relax you and soothe the nerves. It may also help with insomnia.
Lemon balm can help to reduce tension. Use the essential oil for aromatherapy or take it as a tea.
Catnip tea can relax and calm the nerves.
Siberian ginseng can help to reduce the effects of stress and at the same time, increase concentration and stamina. This could be a good solution if you have a tendency to suffer from stress at work.
Keep in mind that herbal remedies are always more effective if you can take them in a quiet, calm environment and be mindful and aware of what you are doing. So you actually taste the remedy and sit for a few moments imagining its effect as it enters your system.
This means that if you are using herbs for stress at work in the form of either drops or teas, it is better to leave your desk and go someplace where you will not be disturbed to take the remedy.
Be sure that you are eating a good healthy diet and getting enough exercise. You may also want to take a good quality multi vitamin and mineral supplement because the body’s resources of these essential nutrients can become depleted in times of stress.
You might also be interested in trying Hopi ear candles. This is an Indian relaxation technique that can be great for stress relief. It may seem a little weird because it involves putting a candle in your ear and then lighting the other end, but it works a lot like aromatherapy while being possibly even more effective.
If the stress has been going on for some time, you may have side effects. In this situation you may want to look for natural remedies for those other problems. Here are some of the herbs that you might want to consider.
Migraine and other headaches: gingko biloba, feverfew, cayenne.
Eczema: aloe vera gel or calendula cream applied to the dry skin patches.
Irritable bowel and other digestive disorders: chamomile, peppermint, fennel, ginger, valerian.
Insomnia: valerian, kava kava, chamomile.
Depression: St John’s Wort or 5HTP, which is a natural remedy although not really a herb.
Those are just a few possible natural remedies for some of the most common side effects of prolonged stress.
Before you start taking herbs for stress, remember that natural remedies do not always combine well with medication. Sometimes the herb might already be included in medication that your doctor is prescribing. Other times there might be a clash so the use of a particular herb is contraindicated. They can also have side effects, even if they are natural herbs. Therefore, always consult with your doctor before taking herbs for stress or any other problem that you have.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
5 ways MSBR Improves Your Life
Mindfulness-Based Stress reduction was first pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D and assisted by Saki Santorelli, Ph.D and colleagues in 1979 at the university of Massachusetts Medical center. Since then numerous clinics based on the Jon Kabat-Zinns’ program of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) have developed in nearly every country.
The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program is an intensive course to help empower participants to take an active role in the management of their health and wellness. Participants are often asked to practice mindfulness meditation and or mindful movement for 30-40 minutes a day.The object of MBSR is a clinical program developed to facilitate adaption to medical illness, which provides systematic training in mindfulness meditation as a self-regulatory approach to stress reduction and management.
Meditation can help in five different ways:
* Meditation increases the coherence of the brain wave patterns in the brain, which suggests it improves creativity and learning and changes the way the brain works.
* Meditation helps to decrease stress and depression, irritability and moodiness.
* Meditation improves memory.
* Medication increases the subjective feeling of happiness and contentment.
* Meditation increases emotional stability.
The primary goal of MBSR is to provide patients with training meditation techniques to foster the quality of ‘mindfulness’. ‘Mindfulness’ has been conceptualized as a state in which one is highly aware and focused on the reality of the present moment, accepting and acknowledging it, without getting caught up in thoughts that are about the situation or in emotional reactions.
Mindfulness based stress reduction aims to teach people to approach stressful situations ‘mindfully’ so they may respond to the situation instead of automatically reacting to it.
Although various mindfulness training techniques differ in terms of procedure, they share the same goal of teaching people to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings and to change their relationship to them. The meditation techniques are used to develop a perspective on thoughts and feelings as mental events rather than as aspects of the self or as necessarily accurate reflections of reality.
With repeated practice, mindfulness allows participants to develop the ability to calmly step back from thoughts and feelings during stressful situations, rather than anxious worry or other negative thoughts.
Mindfulness based stress reduction programs have improved the lives of many participants ability to live and cope with chronic pain, illness, relaxation and stress reduction. By learning to actively participate in the management of health and well being people report that they are more able to manage stress and depression, fear, anger, and anxiety both at home and in the workplace.
Many also report a decrease of the frequency and length of medical visits to hospitals and health care professionals. It has also resulted in the decrease of the use of medication.
Mindfulness is a lifetime engagement, not to get somewhere else, but to be where and as we actually are in this very moment, whether the experience is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress
It can be hard to think of any effective ways to relieve stress when you are in the grip of the negative feelings that stress causes. Whether you are depressed, panicky or feeling that you cannot cope, you need a way out and you need it fast.
Stress is a physical reaction to a threatening situation. At the beginning of our history, we needed it to prompt us to flee or fight when we were in physical danger. Now we feel stress in situations where running away or punching somebody are not usually good options. We need other options, or the stress will go on bugging us until it causes real damage.
So below you will find our top 3 ways to relieve stress. But before we begin, let’s just remember that reading them is not enough! You need to actually do them to have any effect on your stress levels. So pick one and start right now!
1. Relax
It may seem impossible to do when you are stressed, but regular use of relaxation techniques is one of the best ways to manage the stress of our modern lives. Take time out at least three times a week to relax with meditation, yoga, a binaural beat soundtrack, guided visualization or a positive form of prayer (not a list of your faults!)
Relaxation techniques like these will make you feel better right away. More importantly, they will also reduce your tendency to react to stress in your life in the future, if practiced regularly. They will also help you to sleep, which is often an issue for people who are suffering from stress and looking for ways to relieve stress.
2. Establish Healthy Habits
If you are in the habit of reaching for cookies, chocolate, beer, cigarettes or even coffee when you are stressed, it’s worth trying to change. Sure, when you are under a lot of pressure it may not be the best time to try to quit those bad habits completely, but do try to reduce your dependence on them instead of increasing it.
All of those substances will make you feel less than your best physically. They are a drain on the body’s resources. However good they may make you feel for a few minutes or seconds, the truth is that they are the last thing you need when you are looking for ways to relieve stress.
Instead, eat a balanced diet, drink water when you are thirsty, and take a warm bath or go for a walk or run instead of reaching for your usual stimulants. Playing with a child or a pet can be a great stress reliever too.
3. Realistic Scheduling
Plan your day, but don’t plan more into your day than a person can realistically do. If you are making to-do lists at work, keep the list short. Keep in mind that most of the things will take at least twice as long as you expect, plus you need breaks.
If you can come out with a well balanced, realistic plan for your day, you have a good chance of doing everything that you planned. This will give you a sense of achievement and will mean that you can relax at the end of the day. In fact, it is one of the best ways to relieve stress.
A Simple Guide To Meditation To Help You Deal With Stress
Meditation is one of the techniques used in stress management. A person who is riddled with problems often finds it hard to focus; which often leads to more problems cropping up due to their mistakes. Meditation techniques helps a person achieve a calm state of mind without having to resort to drugs or relaxation tools and implements. Every step to meditation is done in the mind.
Remember that meditation is not a one shot deal. It is almost impossible to attain a calm state of mind in just a matter of minutes, especially if it’s your first time at it. It is essential that you keep on practicing meditation until you have conditioned your mind to instantaneously achieve the state just by thinking it.
Here are some steps for a beginner to start with meditation as their Stress Management strategy.
Step 1: Find A Quiet Corner To Start Your Meditation
Distraction is a hindrance to those who are still starting out with meditation. When you close your eyes, your sense of hearing will be twice as good so it is quite possible to hear almost anything in your surroundings that will make it hard for you to concentrate.
For beginners, it is important to start out in a quiet place in your home where noise is non-existent. Close your windows and lock your door. If possible, you can tell everyone in your home to minimize their noise so that you won’t get distracted.
Step 2: Ready Your Position
It is advisable for beginners to avoid lying down when practicing meditation. The aim here is not to sleep, and it is a guarantee that you will immediately fall off to sleep if your mind reaches a relaxed state. To stop this from happening, you can start your meditation in a lotus position or you can find a chair you can sit on. Make sure that your back is straight and your hands are relaxed on the armrest or on your lap.
Step 3: Begin Your Meditation With Proper Breathing
A good way to start meditation is to do the proper breathing exercise. You inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. This way, you can come up with a rhythm that you can easily focus on. Also, the amount of oxygen in your body will be enough to keep you relaxed. Keep practicing your breathing until you can do it easily without having to think about it.
Step 4: Focus On Your Mind
While you are busy with your breathing, you will achieve a state wherein your mind will start throwing images at you. These are mostly in random — events of the day, future plans, problems and worries, fears and so on. It will be hard to ignore these thoughts and you are not supposed to ignore them. The gist here is to focus on these thoughts without really paying any attention to it.
This might sound hard but a here is a simple example to understand the concept. You know that you have furniture at home — you can see them clearly with your eyes but you are not really concentrating on it. Focusing on the furniture will usually make you think of its color, its material, how it looks in that part of your home, and more. You need to be able to look at these random thoughts in a detached state — seeing them clearly in your head but not focusing your attention on it.
There will come a time that these random thought will stop and you will notice that you are already in a blank space in your mind. This is the state you want to achieve during meditation. This is the place where you can think about your problems and focus on it till you can find a solution for it. With this, you have successfully mastered the basics of meditation for your stress management program.
Tips for Dealing with Workplace Stress
Work is an important part of life and it is where we spend most of our day. But, what if your job stresses you out? Here are some tips for dealing with stress in the workplace.
Stress is what it is. Situations come up in our lives that we look at as good or bad. How we react to them determines what the amount of stress we experience. Learning this lesson can save you a lot of stress on your job.
Handling your Duties
Believe it or not, there are people who like their jobs. When the work is satisfying you are more productive and don’t mind taking on extra duties when warranted.
But, when you are under the gun to get work finished and there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day, you may be headed for trouble. If your frantic pace keeps up you’ll start to notice the adverse effects. At first it may just be a stomachache or a headache when you get up in the morning. You may pop a few pills before heading off to work.
It’s not a flu bug, it’s stress. And, here are a few ways to help you handle it.
1. Create a schedule – If you have several projects going at once, map out when they are due. Set up time blocks each day to get work done on each one, with more time given to earlier deadlines.
2. Learn to say “No” – No one is super human. If all you can handle well is two projects at a time, decline a third when your boss asks if you can take it on. You’ll save yourself a headache or three and your performance on the other two will be better.
3. Take lunch – Many think it increases their productivity or shows commitment if they skip a meal. Well, it doesn’t. Getting nourishment and taking a break allows you to refocus on your goal and get more work done. If you are tired, you won’t be able to think and are less productive.
Are you stressed right now? In case you are in doubt, here are a few signs that your stress level has gotten too high at work.
• Tiredness
• Snapping at coworkers or your family when you get home
• Lack of focus
• Headaches
• Irritability
• No longer look forward to going to work
Don’t let stress ruin your workplace experience. Take steps to get your workload under control so you can manage your stress level.
Stress Management Training – 5 Methods to Reduce Stress Today.
Stress is an issue that effects most people at some time in their lives. Many people experience the negative emotional and physical effects of stress on a daily basis. It costs us in peace of mind, physical ailments and less productivity. Stress management training is a beneficial way to alleviate the effects of excessive stress levels. Here I have outlined five different methods to reduce stress today.
1. An easy method to reduce stress today is to initiate an exercise program. This is an excellent technique for managing stress. Your body may be reacting with some ‘fight or flight’ responses in reaction to stress, and getting physical will help to dissipate the hormones that your stressed body is releasing.
Sustained cardiovascular exercise is ideal for mood regulation.
Any activity that raises your heart rate long enough to release endorphins (the feel good chemicals) will help in the relaxation process.
2. Stress occurs when a person is subjected to unusual situations, to demands that are difficult to handle, or to extreme expectations or pressures. One of the most common causes of stress is the work place.
There are now many good stress management courses available to organizations. Stress management training in the workplace programmes can deliver the tools for improved working conditions and a significantly happier and healthier workforce. Changing economic times have pulled us in many different directions. The pressures and demands between work and personal life are now blurred.
As a result, the consequences of stress in the workplace come from what is happening to each of us both on and off the job. Through interactive learning participants apply these stress management training tools to getting more of what’s important done in less time. Organizational skills are improved so that stress is relieved.
Stress management training courses aim at helping those who are suffering from stress, depression and anxiety. It can also benefit individuals suffering from alcohol and drug addictions, anger management issues or other health problems. The benefits of stress management training in an organization include increased productivity and responsibility, retention of valued employees and better teamwork and communication. They offer ways to relieve stress and improve relationships both in and out of the workplace.
3. Another method to reduce stress can be learning a variety of relaxation techniques. Making a conscious effort to breathe slowly and deeply can help to diffuse stress. Most people are shallow breathers, they breathe from the chest rather than the diaphragm and as a result they are not receiving all the oxygen they need to function optimally. By making an effort to breathe deeply, your brain and mood will benefit from extra oxygen, and slowing down your breathing rate also has a naturally relaxing effect on both mind and body.
4. Listening to relaxing music or sounds has a well known effect on the psyche and can be an excellent stress reliever. In general, slow mellow music has a powerful relaxing effect.
5. Finally, meditation is another excellent way to relieve stress naturally. There are lots of different meditation techniques, but one of the most effective (especially for beginners) is brainwave entertainment meditation. This involves listening to a recording which features rapidly repeating sounds of specific frequencies. These have a powerful effect on the brain, encouraging it to slow down and relax more deeply.
With such recordings it is much easier to achieve a relaxed and focused state than with traditional meditation methods, which may often take years to master. Regular meditation can have a positive effect on your stress levels, as well as many other aspects of your life.
Stress can sometimes be a daunting task to tackle. There are copious suggestions on ways to deal with it both at home and in the workplace, natural and medicinal. Certainly recognising stress and it’s cause are the first steps to treating it. Stress management training can give you the tools to relieve stress in your life.
Quick And Easy Stress Management Tips
In this article we will consider some quick and easy stress management tips that you can do at work, at home or in almost any situation where stress arises.
When it comes to long term stress management tips, it is a good idea to make sure that you are living a healthy life with plenty of good food and exercise, and to incorporate some kind of relaxation therapy or cognitive therapy into your week.
However, when you are suddenly faced with a stressful situation, you need some stress management tips that you can use right now to help you cope. Here are some ideas.
1. Deep breathing
When we are under stress we tend to breathe quickly from the upper part of the lungs. This can lead to hyperventilation and panic attacks. To relax, we need to breathe more deeply and slowly, flexing the diaphragm at the bottom of the lungs.
If you do not know how to do this, you will need to practice in a situation where you can be alone at first. If you are at work, you could go to the bathroom. Sit or lie down, loosening any tight belts or waist bands. Put one hand on your belly and one on your chest. Breathe slowly through the nose, feeling the belly expand and contract as you breathe in and out.
2. Stress balls
A stress ball is a small ball or toy that you can squeeze in your hand. In size it is likely to be between a golf ball and a tennis ball, although it may not be a sphere. It could be egg shaped or formed into a toy, and it is usually made of foam.
Squeezing the ball is said to relieve physical tensions, especially those that build up from repetitive movements like using a computer mouse. This type of stress reliever can also be used to get rid of psychological tension and aggressive feelings. You might imagine it is your boss.
Depending on the manufacture, you may also be able to throw the ball around in a corridor or against a wall and relieve tension that way.
3. Exercise
In stress, the body prepares for a physical response to a difficult situation – the fight or flight response. This means that even when it is not appropriate, we are physically prepared for taking action. The stress will usually dissolve quickly if you are able to work off the adrenaline by doing some form of exercise. This could be anything from yoga to running to simply touching your toes a few times beside your desk.
4. Prioritize
When you need stress management tips that directly relate to managing the workload that you have, prioritizing your tasks comes top of the list. This means making time for the important long term projects as well as the hundreds of little things that can break into our day and result in nothing else getting done.
Large projects can be broken into small steps to make them manageable. In the same way, be sure that your list for each day does not include more tasks than you can possibly do. Having a lot of ‘important’ things left undone at the end of the day makes us feel even more stressed.
Instead, spend some time considering what you could delegate, or what should not be part of your job at all. A few minutes spent working with others to reduce your workload for the long term could be one of the most important stress management tips you could follow.
Is it Shyness or Social Anxiety Disorder?
Some people are intensely shy and feel intensely uncomfortable in many social situations. Although you may put this down to your shyness you could in fact be suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder. This is a condition that has only been recognized in recent years although it is believed to affect many thousands of people around the world
Nearly everyone experiences some form of uneasiness in unfamiliar social circumstances. Everything from the fear of using the wrong knife and fork,
through to a belief that you will disgrace yourself in some way. In modern life a great deal of emphasis is placed on the way a person socializes both professionally and in private life.
It is important to differentiate between normal shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder. They are not the same thing. Whilst a shy person may feel unease and lack the confidence to become involved in conversations the effects for a sufferer of Social Anxiety Disorder can be physically debilitating.
The symptoms are similar to any other form of panic or anxiety attack, palpitations, sweating, inability to speak coherently, nausea, dizziness and possibly hyperventilation. The early indications of a problem such as this usually appear during childhood or adolescents but can the symptoms can grow in intensity as we become older.
There is no particular group, age or gender that is more prone to Social
Anxiety Disorder than others although more women than men tend to seek treatment for the disorder. This could be that women are more prone to suffer this complaint or it might be that a woman is more likely to go and seek professional help than a man.
A good socializer will often find it easier to climb the corporate ladder and have a full social and personal life. If you feel that you are being held back because of your fear of social occasions then you should consider seeking professional medical advice.
There are treatments available which will help you overcome your fear and dread of social occasions. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be useful in the treatment. It involves working with an analyst who will get the patient to think about themselves, the world and other people and how what they do affects their thoughts and feelings. This can help to change the way you think and remove many deep seated fears and worries.
If you think that you or someone you know is suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder seek medical help and get the life that you deserve.
Do You Have Stress Related Illness?
Stress related illness is something that you can develop if you are subject to stress over a period of time. This is known as chronic stress, in comparison with acute stress which is something short term.
Many health issues can be caused by chronic stress. When the body is under stress, the blood pressure rises. If this continues for any length of time it can cause hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease.
At the same time, blood is diverted from the digestive system to other functions. This can lead to all kinds of digestive disorders from stomach cramps to constipation, diarrhea or irritable bowel.
The third main cause of stress related illness is damage to the immune system. This can mean that pretty much any illness is more serious than it would otherwise be. The body is less able to fight off common viral diseases like colds and flu, as well as more serious illnesses.
If you have a health condition that you think might be a stress related illness, then clearly it is important to treat the stress as well as the symptoms of the illness itself.
The first step is to identify what is causing your chronic stress. This is not always easy because it may be something that you have accepted as ‘just part of life’. It could be work related, including difficult working conditions, noise in the workplace, a demanding boss, a competitive or unpleasant atmosphere, or long working hours. It might be related to your home life such as frequent disputes with a spouse, child or other family member, or it may be something like loneliness or being generally more anxious than other people.
All of these things can cause stress related illness and there are many other possible causes too. You may very likely have more than one possible stressor in your life. So it is important to make a list of all of the things in your life that might be causing you stress, and then take some time to figure out what you can do about them.
This is often the hardest step. People under stress often feel that there is nothing that they can do. Possible solutions sometimes seem like they will cause more stress, not reduce it. Examples might be looking for another job, arranging more social activities or figuring out ways to handle a problem teenager.
So first, sit down and brainstorm as many possible solutions as you can think of, even the most wild ones that you would never consider doing in real life. Just accepting that you have options can help to deal with the stress. Some of them might lead to you thinking of other possibilities that you had not considered, and you may end up with a real, workable solution.
If not, and your final decision is that you cannot change whatever is causing your stress, then it is time to decide that it is not your problem. Accept it, let go of it, perhaps even try to enjoy it. Be aware of all the times when it causes you stress, acknowledge them and take steps to relax. This way you can deal with the situation each time it arises and avoid the kind of chronic stress that leads to stress related illness.
Teenage Stress: Stress Reduction For Teens
Teenage stress is not always taken seriously by parents, teachers and friends, and yet it can lead to problems that will reverberate through a person’s whole life. In some cases, it can even cause a teenager to take his or her life. So if you are suffering from teenage stress, it is important to do something about it.
First, however, it is important to know that some amount of stress is normal and natural. In fact, stress is simply the body’s reaction to any challenging situation. It makes you more alert and physically as well as mentally ready to react to what may be a dangerous situation.
Centuries ago this would enable you to survive in a perilous world. These days, we can overdo it and have stress reactions to situations that do not require the same kind of physical action. The result is that the adrenaline and other substances that the body produces to prepare you to run or fight back are not used, so they hang around the body too long.
This means that we may experience constant low level stress which has an effect on us physically, mentally and emotionally. The result can be anything from headaches and stomach upsets through depression or aggressive behavior.
Some of the common causes of long term stress for teens include:
- being bullied or exposed to threats of violence, including gang membership
- problems with school work, either because of individual difficulties or because of unrealistic expectations of parents, teachers or teens themselves
- problems in the family, such as conflict between parents, divorce, problems with stepparents or a difficult sibling
- peer relationships including friendships and love relationships
- anxiety issues, leading to an individual overreacting to only mildly stressful situations.
So what can you do if you are suffering from teenage stress? Sometimes there is a problem that needs treatment, such as ADHD causing trouble with schoolwork, or an anxiety disorder that can be helped with counseling.
Often, however, you can do a lot by making some changes in your life. First, take care that you are not overcrowding your schedule. Everybody needs time to relax. Take note that relaxation does not mean waging war on your Xbox or watching horror movies. They may be entertaining but those activities can actually increase your stress levels. Instead, listen to soft, relaxing music, or take some exercise that will work off the adrenaline.
Eating healthy is important too. Avoid alcohol and try not to smoke. A cigarette, alcoholic drink or drugs may seem to relieve the tension temporarily, but over time they cause a lot more stress by depleting the body’s resources of energy.
If you are very busy, take a look at your schedule and ask yourself if there is something that you could cut out. Do what you need to do without a lot of fuss or procrastination, so that tasks you dislike do not hang over you like black clouds.
If you often feel that you cannot cope, you may need to talk to somebody older about it. Remember that there are professionals you can call upon. Your school counselor or your pastor might be your first choice, especially if you feel that people at home do not take you seriously. Or maybe you have a sympathetic neighbor or grandparent.
Always keep in mind that your feelings will pass. Teenage stress is a common problem but it can be overcome.
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