Week #9 Healthy Habits Challenge – Manage Stress, for Your Mental & Physical Well-being

Welcome to Week #9 of the 12-Week Healthy Habits Challenge!

In our face-paced modern living, we may face with many mental and emotional stressors on a daily basis, ranging from rush hour traffic to busy work schedule, project deadlines, family issues, relationship conflicts, financial concerns, etc.

The feeling of stressed out is prevalent in our society. According to survey, 55% of Americans are stressed during the day. Chronic stress is commonplace at work with 94% of workers reporting feeling stressed at work. Eight in ten college students experience frequent bout of stress.¹

Despite the prevalence of stress, the far-reaching adverse health effects of chronic stress are often overlooked. According to a paper published in 2013, 60% to 80% of primary care doctor visits have stress-related component and yet only 3% of visits included stress management counselling.²

Chronic or long-term stress affects the entire body and our overall health, not just mental health. Here is a long list of diseases/disorders associated with chronic stress:^3–14

• Mental health issues/disorders including irritability, anxiety, depression, etc.
• Suppressed immune defense.
• Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation which in turn are major underlying culprits to many chronic diseases (incl. heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc.).
• Cardiovascular disease and hypertension.
• Alzheimer’s/dementia.
• Cancer.
• Gastrointestinal (GI) or digestive disorders incl. irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), irritable bowel disease (IBD), dysbiosis (i.e., imbalance gut microbiota), acid reflux, etc.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• Weight gain and obesity, which is more associated with chronic moderate stress.
• Weight loss, which is more associated with chronic severe (e.g., life-threatening, traumatic, social instability) stress.
• Sleep issues/disorders.
• Chronic pain.
• Reproductive disorders.
• Osteoporosis.

For more details on how the body responses to chronic stress, which in turn promotes diseases/disorders, please check out my previous article: Why Stress is the Culprit.

While chronic stress is detrimental to health, stress and stress response are not necessary always bad as they are part of human’s natural survival instinct. Check out the next section for more details.

Nature of Stress

Stress response is a natural physiological response in the body whereby the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is activated into ‘fight-or-flight’ mode and the stress hormone (cortisol) is secreted by the adrenal glands, preparing the body to respond to perceived threats.

For the purpose of stress management, there are two important aspects of stress that should be considered:^{10,15–19,22}

1. Good stress (eustress) versus bad stress (distress).

• In the field of psychology, according to the Yerkes-Dodson law and Hans Seyle’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS), stress can be beneficial or detrimental. Good stress (eustress) is short-term, adequate level of stress that motivates our behavior, improves performance, and promotes growth and development.
• On the other hand, bad stress (distress) is chronic and excessive level of stress that degrades performance and is detrimental to health, contributing the various diseases/disorders as described in the previous section.
• Chronic and excessive stress causes prolonged activation of the SNS and elevation of the stress hormone (cortisol), which in turn trigger a host of metabolic changes that result in diseases/disorders as described in the previous section.
• For example, adequate level of physical exercise is a eustress that promote musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health, while excessive or over-exercise is a distress that is detrimental to health.
• Ideally, we want to manage our stress level to be within the eustress region.
• See more details in my previous article: Why Stress is the Culprit

2. Stressors are perceived threats which are subjective and unique to each person.

• Stressors are perceived threats that trigger physiological stress response in the body.
• What perceived as threats (or being stressful) and the corresponding intensity of stress response are unique to each person, depending on genetic predisposition, personality, upbringing, prior experience, current state of mental and physical health, etc.
• For example, a person may consider giving a big presentation in front of a big crowd to be stressful, while another person may enjoy and thrive in such opportunity.

It is therefore important to identify what the major stressors are in our life and manage them accordingly.

Tips for Stress Management

Stress management strategies involve identification and mitigation of stressors, as well as approach and activities that help to relax the mind, and calm down the nervous system and cortisol secretion.

Here are some tips:^{18,20,21–25}

1. Take a close and honest look to identify what your major stressors are, i.e., what stresses you out in your daily life and in your mind.
2. Based on 1 above, you can decide (as appropriately) to mitigate a stressor by a) working around it; b) address it directly with the intention to resolve it; c) reframing your mindset to view the stressor as a constructive challenge rather than a threat.
   • Examples of working around stressors: adjust work schedule to avoid rush-hour traffic, enlist people or services that can help to offload certain tasks amidst your busy schedule such as babysitting, ordering healthy meal delivery, etc.
   • Examples of addressing stressors directly with the intention to resolve it: prioritize your time and effort to do sufficient prep work if you are stressed about an upcoming big presentation or big meeting, address relationship conflicts (at work or personal settings) constructively with the goal of peaceful resolution.
   • Examples of reframing your mindset on a stressor: view an upcoming big presentation or challenging project as an opportunity to learn and grow.
3. If one of your stressors is related to too many tasks/responsibilities but too little time, come up with an effective time management strategy that prioritizes tasks/responsibilities based on importance and urgency.
4. Develop a support group (e.g., amongst close family and friends that you can trust and depend on) to whom you can share your concerns/challenge and solicit help/support when needed. Seek professional support when needed.
5. Many of our diet/lifestyle choices can trigger stress response in the body, contributing to chronic stress. These include poor diet and eating habits; irregular sleep-wake schedule, sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality; exposure to toxins in our daily living, etc. Therefore, it is important to make diet/lifestyle choices to avoid/ minimize these stressors as well as to promote mental and physical health for better stress resiliency. Check out my previous posts on Week #1 to Week #8 Healthy Habits Challenge for details and tips.
6. Adopt and practice relaxation techniques regularly if not daily. Choose one or more techniques that work for you, e.g., physical exercise, yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, meditation, mindfulness practice, diaphragmatic breathing, music therapy, massage therapy, aromatherapy, time in nature or ecotherapy, etc.
7. Exercise regularly as physical exercise can promote overall health and reduce stress (see more details and tips in Week #7 Healthy Habits Challenge). But be careful not to over-exercise as that will contribute to stress.
8. Cultivate some hobbies (something that you really enjoy doing for leisure, e.g., photography, painting, musical instrument, creative arts, certain exercise/fitness activities, hiking, gardening, cooking, reading, etc.) and make time for them.
9. Spend time with loved ones and cultivate loving relationships.
10. Carve out some wind-down or relaxation time each day when you can stay away from external stimuli to allow the mind and the nervous system to calm down. For example, stay away from digital devices or screens for a certain period of time each day such as before going to bed; adopt self-care practice such as taking warm bath, self-massage, etc. Carve out a longer period of wind-down/relaxation time during weekend.

Join me for this week’s challenge and manage stress for your mental and physical well-being!

Stay tuned for the next few weeks’ healthy habits challenge where I will dive a bit deeper into some of the approaches that help to reduce stress.

Related Articles

Why Stress is the Culprit

Week #7 Healthy Habits Challenge

References

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