Chuck The Geek.com

Time to Attack Stress

August 20th, 2007 by Chuck Sharp

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve been reading, pondering, and asking others about how to deal with stress for a while. Hey, I’ve been practicing martial arts for ten years, so I should know how to relax by now right? On the contrary. I’ve been getting more and more stressed and tense over the last year. Other people have started to notice, and my health is declining.

Now you may ask what’s changed over the last two years that could cause me stress. First of all, I whittled my martial arts teaching and exercise from about 15-20 hours a week down to roughly zero, give or take. Second, I have a six month old daughter. Now, the former item is lamentable, and that’s something I can and will change. The latter is a joy, and there is nothing in the world that I’d trade for my little Ginny. She has made it very very obvious though that I’m a chronic worrier.

So what does one do about worry and stress? I’ve decided to attack my stress along three fronts: physical activity, purposeful relaxation, and letting go of worry. I’m going to share my thoughts on those fronts now, and I hope something here will be helpful to you.

I need to exercise more, and it needs to be fun. Every book I’ve read that talks about stress, health, or exercise all agree that regular exercising at moderate levels is one of the most stress reducing things you can do. Most of these books say that a certain level of physical activity is actually 100% necessary for stress management and well-being.

It looks like a minimum level of physical activity is about 30 minutes a day, but that includes all reasonable movement: non-lethargic walking, cleaning the house, sports, putting away the groceries, etc. Even better is another 30 minutes of more strenuous exercise 3 to 5 times a week. For me, that means either the gym or a martial arts workout.

I’m also going to include more active relaxation in my life. Active relaxation means to relax on purpose, doing something solely in order to relax. Some examples are meditation, massages, progressive or guided relaxation, or even slow deep breathing. I will be using a combination of deep breathing and progressive relaxation techniques, and the occasional massage.

If you want to try a slow breathing exercise, I’ve got one neat one that takes between 3 and 12 minutes, depending on how much time you have. It’s very simple: you do 5-10 breaths, at this ratio: 1 in, 4 hold, and 2 out. So if I count to five as I breath in, I hold the breath for 20 and breath out for 10. A key to this is to try and relax a little more with every phase of every breath. You also need to breath out all the way before you start, and breath in and out completely on every breath, filling up the diaphragm.

Finally, I’m working on letting go of my worry. This is very difficult for me. I worry about everything, from the little things to the big things, across every sphere of my life and many other people’s lives as well. There’s a lot that can go wrong, you know! So how to stop worrying? Realistically, the worries are valid. I don’t worry about alien abductions. My attentiveness to worry has payed off before too, so there’s a part of me that is glad that I engage in this behavior. In the end, I’m a control freak. Out of fear, I try to hold on to the reigns of everything that I care about in life. It’s an overwhelming job, and one that no one can sanely attempt, much less succeed at.

The answer, for me, lies in faith. To use an old, worn-out cliche: let go and let God. These are the things I’m trying to really sink in:

• Worrying adds nothing to my life. It’s not the same as being careful.
• I may have a lot of responsibility, but I was never meant to carry that burden alone.
• I do everything that I can do, but God controls the outcomes.
• I’m never going to be perfect, and I will fail many many times. The important thing is that God works all things for our good.
• No matter what happens, pain and suffering will only last a little while, but glory is forever.

I think that it’s time to let go of the reigns. I’ve never been a good driver anyway.

To wrap this up, my hope is that by exercising more, relaxing more often on purpose, and learning to have faith and give up my attempts at total control, I can really learn how to be calm and at peace.

Technorati Tags: stress, health, faith

Entry Filed under: Health