Managing stress

How do you take care of yourself?

In this beginning of another academic year many of us are presented with a different work load and possibly new stressors, and most of us have less me-time. For this first Wednesday wellness email I want to give a nod to self-care, again. In July I spoke of pursuing soothing touch of massage and safe places of loving listening. This month the focus is on caring for self by managing stress.

I’ve been preparing to share a few ideas on caring well for self to a demographic that doesn’t easily think of self first (or much at all? the group: nursing students who are also Christ-followers). My sharing on nurturing self will look at being

1) attentive to body – learning to tune in to signals and short-circuit a stress response;

2) accepting in mind/soul – being intentionally awake, aware, and non-judgmental in the moment; and

3) appreciative in spirit – fostering gratitude and joy.

(If you want to see some self-care activities they’ll eventually be posted on http://naturallyyoursforgood.net – though they’re not presently since its server is down! In the meantime, I'll post them over the next few days on http://deesdirt.blogspot.com with the first one posted just yesterday.)

Certainly caring for ourselves involves – as a key factor – managing stress. The September/October 2011 issue of Scientific America MIND offers a slightly different slant for stress management than the ones I’ve heard before that primarily promote relaxation techniques and thought management. Robert Epstein, as relayed in the article “Fight the Frazzled Mind” found that prevention is by far the most helpful competency when it comes to managing stress; and second most powerful stress-management predictor is source management. You ask (as did I): What do you mean by prevention? Or source management?

Prevention would be such things as planning your day or year, trying to avoid stressors before they can affect you: saying yes to “I keep an up-to-date list of things I’m supposed to do.” “I spend a few minutes each morning planning my day.” “I have a clear picture of how I’d like my life to proceed over the next few years.”

Source management involves practices such as delegating tasks, organizing your space, and scheduling your time well: saying yes to “I have adequate shelf, file, and drawer space to serve my needs.” “I consistently put important tasks ahead of unimportant tasks,” “I try to schedule appointments and meetings so that they won’t overlap.” “I have no trouble keeping my work area organized.”

If you’re curious as to how well you are managing stress, you can go to http://MyStressManagementSkills.com to take a 28-question test.

[I took the test – my total stress-management competency score is 65% (I have no idea how that compares to the general population, so I’m certainly not braggin’). I got higher scores in “manages or reduces sources of stress” (79%) and “practices relaxation techniques” (75%), not-an-awful score for “plans and prevents (67%), and a not-so-good-at-all score for “manages thoughts” (38%). Yep, more therapy for me.]

Epstein’s study shows that 1) people who have training in stress management are better at it than people who have not, and that 2) the greater the number of training hours, the better the skills. “One of the most dramatic results of the new study was a high positive correlation between test scores and the overall level of happiness people reported. To put it another way, the study suggests that nearly 25% of the happiness we experience in life is related to – and perhaps even the result of – our ability to manage stress.”

Here’s a few strategies for fighting stress before it starts, offered in the journal article and suggested by the new study (so sorry, no link provided – I can’t find a reference for this new study, even though I searched Epstein’s most recent cv online – boy, he’s being elusive on this one, but for what it's worth, here's the Scientific American MIND teaser):

1. “Seek and kill – take a few minutes every day to identify stressors in your life and find ways to reduce or eliminate them – cell phone battery dying? Get a new phone.

2. Commit to the positive. In our culture, people often try to cope with stress in self-destructive ways, mainly by drinking, taking drugs, or overeating. Commit to avoiding the self-destructive solutions - for a day, a week, or whatever you can handle – and replace them with positive, healthful ways of managing stress.

3. Be your own personal secretary. People who keep lists of things to do really do more things. So use your smartphone or, in a pinch, a pen and paper (like old-fashioned me!) to keep a list of things you need to do.

4. Immunize yourself. Through exercise, thought management, and the daily practice of relaxation techniques, you will be in a better position to face stressors without feeling stress.

5. Make a little plan. Spend a few minutes every morning planning your day. You will waste less time, get more done, and feel less stressed.

6. And make a big plan. The famous behavioural psychologist B. F. Skinner not only planned his day and year, he even maintained a 10-year planner. Planning your future is a great way of exercising more control over your life. The more control you have, the less stressed you will feel.”

Okay, so I’ve been told, numerous times, that control is an illusion. Hmmm. Maybe an occasional illusion or two helps us a bit? I guess we'll all get to experiment in this area of taking control of our days and handling life’s stressors.

And as we try out various strategies, we can look at the fruit of our choices – does what I do or think (or don’t do or think) help or harm? Does it lead me toward fruit of the Spirit as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23? Does it bring me to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control?