Managing Stress

Why Is Stress Management Important?

Living with a chronic illness adds to the normal pressure of everyday life. This can lead to feelings of anxiety or stress. Learning to manage these feelings will help you feel better about yourself and your situation while avoiding any adverse effects of stress on your health. Below you will find a number of strategies for relieving stress. For more information on specific techniques, talk to your doctor.

What Are The Specific Benefits of Stress Management?

Besides providing a feeling of general well-being, stress management offers benefits such as improved breathing, reduced shortness of breath, and relief of anxiety through relaxation techniques.

How Can I Help Relieve Stress?

Breathing exercises and muscle relaxation are the most common ways to relieve stress. Other techniques include biofeedback, visualization, hypnosis, systematic desensitization, positive thinking, and yoga. The following is a brief summary of these stress management techniques:

Breathing exercises

If you take the time to develop the proper techniques for controlled breathing, you can relieve stress and increase your exercise tolerance. Assume a comfortable position and attempt to take a deep breath. The goal is to relax the shoulders and feel your abdomen expanding and deflating with each breath. Exhalation should be through pursed lips, to prolong and regulate the breath. You should do this 2 to 3 times per day. Once you become proficient at this technique, you can use it in stressful situations. For best results, practice proper breathing techniques on a daily basis.

Muscle relaxation

Stress can lead to tense, strained muscles. As you relax your muscles, your overall sense of well-being and comfort begins to improve. To get started, lie down or assume a comfortable sitting position, take a deep breath and then slowly tighten muscle groups in succession—hands, feet, arms, and legs, followed by chest, shoulders, and abdomen. Exhale before you relax the muscle group. Through repetition of this technique, you will learn to recognize and respond to the earliest signs of muscle tension.

Biofeedback

During biofeedback, sounds or lights are used to reinforce proper breathing and relaxation techniques. For example, sensors on your neck and shoulders can trigger bursts of sound or light when the neck and shoulder muscles are being used improperly during breathing. As you relax the neck and shoulder muscles involved in proper breathing, the sounds or lights are no longer triggered. These sessions usually last 15-30 minutes. Eventually, the technique teaches you to use these muscles properly without needing the sounds or lights as a reminder.

Visualization

With this technique, you give your negative feelings a mental representation and then change that image into something positive. For example, if you experience anger about a physical limitation, you are taught to connect that angry feeling with the color red. In your mind, slowly try to turn the red into a color you associate with a peaceful feeling, such as green. Music and artwork enhance the relaxation benefits of visualization.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is a form of guided relaxation. A therapist will put you under hypnosis, and then provide suggestions to help you manage stress during daily living. You may be encouraged to recall a pleasurable, relaxing experience and return to that moment during times of stress.

Systemic desensitization

You are asked to prioritize a list of stress-producing events such as exercise, travel, dining out, etc. Starting with the least stressful activity, you are directed to concentrate on it during a state of relaxation until you feel mentally comfortable with it. Continue the process for each stress-producing event until, through repetition, you become comfortable with all of them.

Positive thinking

As its name implies, this technique involves the changing of negative thoughts into positive ones. For example, instead of saying, "I probably can't walk too far without losing my breath and panicking," you might say, "I can relax and take a 5-minute walk."

Yoga

The practice of yoga involves posture control and slow, deep breathing. By participating in a yoga class, you may learn how to make this beneficial breathing pattern an instinctive reflex.

Key Points to Remember:

Manage stress through relaxation

			Stress management through relaxation techniques can improve breathing, reduce shortness of breath, and relieve anxiety
			Muscle relaxation and breathing exercises are the most common way to relieve stress
			Other techniques that have been used include biofeedback, visualization, hypnosis, systematic desensitization, positive thinking, and yoga