LOWER STRESS? 6 WAYS
Good stress is the day before Christmas, anticipating friends and family, plates of good food, and stimulating conversations. Bad stress is having some jerk who was texting while driving rear-end you. And you, in a brand new car. With the cake for your daughter’s school program in the back seat. Now a mess on the car seat floor.
Stress is how we handle what happens to us. Because, stuff happens to good people, and bad. Stress strikes everyone. Get used to it. Manage it. Chronic stress damages your brain so it no longer functions as well. The frontal cortex shuts down, damaging thinking clarity, and ability to make good decisions. Stress keeps your brain on alert constantly, and it never gets a rest. Like everything else, your brain needs quiet time to chill out, step back, and observe the world without drama.
Try any or all of these activities to decrease your stress level, and increase your health and longevity: exercise, chillaxing, socializing, laugh, empower yourself, and expect good things to happen.
Exercise produces neurogenesis: new neurons in your brain that reach out and connect to each other, increasing brain function, and decreasing the chance of Alzheimer’s. It produces endorphins, the feel-good hormones that tamp down depression. Exercise increases restful sleep and self-confidence, and may aid in weight loss.
Chillaxing is a cross between relaxing and chilling. It might include a walk, listening to music that means something to you, hanging out in a hammock in the yard, meditating, or reading on a lazy afternoon. Chillaxing decreases muscle tension, allowing you to “let go”. It decreases blood pressure and respiration rate, and slows your metabolism. In essence, your brain gets a much appreciated rest.
Social relationships with people and/or animals diminish our feelings of stress. It’s hard to pet a cat and feel stressed out for very long. Purring from a cat is calming. People have the same calming effect on us.
Laughter is the best medicine of all. For everything. You cannot feel stressed when you laugh and pet a cat. Won’t happen. Cortisol and adrenaline lowers, endorphins increase, and your mood elevates. Keep this in mind for a horrible, stress-filled day: everything is funny in 10 years.
Know that this too shall pass when you claim your own power. You are in control of your destiny, even when it seems doubtful. Which leads to the last activity to lower stress: think good thoughts and expect good things to happen. It just seems a better choice than expecting the worst. You become, after all, your thoughts.
That’s Aging Intelligently.