How to manage stress and anxiety for greater health and well-being
- Gavin
- Mar 31, 2021
- 5 min read
Hi Friends!
I hope you’re all doing well. In today’s post, I’m going to address the topics of stress and anxiety.
Summary:
Stress is incredibly common and can be harmful to health and well-being. For many people, it can manifest in a full-blown anxiety disorder. Thankfully, there are a wide range of effective stress and anxiety management techniques out there, and practicing these will improve almost anyone’s health and well-being.
Full post:
Stress, although long a part of the human condition, is now incredibly common. A recent poll found that a combined 79% of U.S. adults reported feelings stress sometimes (35%) or frequently (44%) during the day.
For a smaller, but still very large, group of people, this manifests in an anxiety disorder. Recent data indicate that 40 million U.S. adults (~18%) suffer from some form of anxiety, and that likely underestimates its prevalence, given that many of these disorders don’t go reported.
I have personal experience with this, having suffered from mild to moderate anxiety for close to twenty years, which I believe began as a result of digestive problems (the gut-brain connection is very real). My particular symptoms would probably be classified as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and entail feelings of stress, nervousness, and tension that are unrelated to anything in particular (kind of like the feeling you get before giving a speech).
Thankfully, I’ve experimented with all kinds of techniques for managing stress and mitigating anxiety, and have had quite a lot of success, to the point where I have eliminated 80-90% of my symptoms. I’m hopeful that some of these may help you as well. Even for those who do not suffer from full-blown anxiety, practicing these stress management techniques can cause substantial improvements in well-being and sleep, and consequently, long-term health. It is my strong belief that part of being a healthy, happy and productive person in the 21st century involves developing strong stress management skills.
Here are various tools and techniques that might try. For many of these (e.g., sleep, exercise), I will be writing dedicated future blog posts, so I provide just a brief overview to get you started.
Reappraisal
First, importantly, not all stress is bad. There’s a concept known as ‘eustress’ which literally means ‘good stress.’ In short, challenging yourself – e.g., by taking on new responsibilities at work, learning a new skill, adopting a new physical training program, or traveling to unfamiliar places – can be healthy, and the feelings of nervousness and excitement that accompany these endeavors can promote greater engagement and increase your chances of success. So, one stress management technique is to actually tell yourself that the stress you are feeling in response to a challenge is good for you, rather than problematic – this is known as ‘reappraisal’. Doing this has been shown to improve performance on potentially stress-inducing tasks ranging from public singing to math tests.
That said, this technique only goes so far, in part because much of our stress is in response to things outside of our control. So, besides reappraising stress as potentially beneficial where appropriate, the following techniques can help address bad stress.
Meditation
As I covered in my previous post, meditation has a number of impressive health benefits, and stress/anxiety mitigation is at the top of the list. Please see that post for several meditations I recommend; however, here is one new morning meditation that I sometimes like to start the day with, especially if I’m feeling scattered.
Breathing
There are a wide range of breathing techniques that can help to mitigate stress, and address anxiety issues. Controlled, slow breathing has been found in research to reset the autonomic nervous system, as well as to improve certain stress-related health conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure). Here are a couple of techniques to try:
- Box breathing – this involves separating the breath into four phases – inhale, hold, exhale, hold – and timing things so that you spend equal time on each phase. For example, you could use a count of four seconds for each phase, meaning that each breath would take 16 seconds total. Here is a great, very simple, app for box breathing, as well as various other breath work patterns. You simply set a time during which you want to do the breathing (e.g., 3 minutes), and it gives you instructions on when to breath in, breathe out, and hold. As you get more experienced, I’d recommend experimenting with increasing the time for each phase of the breath (e.g., to 5 or 6 seconds).
- This is another technique that I can personally vouch for as a stress reliever. You simply breathe in until your lungs are filled, and then hold the breath while tensing all of your muscles, for 5-10 seconds, and the release the breath slowly through pursed lips. This video will demonstrate the technique. Yoga
Slow controlled moving of the body, in the form of yoga, can also do wonders for stress, as detailed here and here. I’m not a Yoga expert, but I personally try to do 15-25 minutes every couple days, and I definitely notice an increase in calm and well-being. There are many great yoga instructors and classes out there, but if you are looking for an easy one to do at home, I like these short videos from "Boho Beautiful":
Good sleep hygiene
Getting good sleep is critical for many aspects of health, and it can be particularly important for those experiencing excessive stress or anxiety. Here is a quick summary of things you can do to improve your sleep:
- Keep your bedroom dark and cold
- Avoid TV, email, or other screens for an hour before bed
- Use blue light blocking glasses for 1-2 hours before bed
- Try a meditation or breath work session shortly before bed
- Avoid caffeine after 2 pm and exercise within 3-4 hours of bed
- Avoid large meals, especially animal protein, 2-3 hours before bed
- Limit alcohol intake, especially 2-3 hours before bed
- Consider trying supplements including very small doses of melatonin
Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways of effectively managing and mitigating stress and anxiety. Even just 20-30 minutes, 2-3 times per week, can make a major difference. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s important not to overtrain, as this can lead to chronically heightened levels of adrenaline and/or cortisol.
Get outside, ideally in the sun
Exposure to nature has been found to be calming and mood-enhancing. Furthermore, exposure to natural light is critical to regulating our circadian rhythms, which dictate periods of wakefulness versus sleepiness, and thus can help reset a dysfunctional sleep cycle. Try to get some sunlight first thing in the morning, and again in the early afternoon.
Sound/music therapy
There is growing evidence that particular frequencies or patterns of sound can influence mood and stress, including, apparently, music specifically at the 528 Hz frequency. I personally find this track to very soothing, and will listen to it if I’m feeling scattered or overwhelmed, sometimes while I work.
Journaling and Gratitude
I’ll write a full post on my journaling practice at some point, but for now, I encourage you to try 5-10 minutes of journaling as a stress management technique. You can start by simply spending a few minutes writing about how you feel and what you are thinking about, and then close by writing down 2-3 things that you are grateful for; gratitude practices in particular have been shown to boost mood and reduce anxiety.
Be careful with simulants and alcohol
Although coffee, tea, and wine in particular can be healthy in small to moderate quantities, caffeine and alcohol can really throw off the balance of your nervous system in larger amounts.
Massage
As many people know from experience, massage can be a very relaxing and mood-enhancing experience.
Supplements
There are some supplements that may help limit stress and anxiety. First, as I mentioned above, psychological states are intimately linked with digestive health. So, boosting gut health by taking a healthy prebiotic daily may help (remember to start with a small amount and gradually increase).
Second, theanine is a compound found in green tea that has calming effects and can especially calm the jitters that may be associated with caffeine consumption.
Please let me know if you have any questions. To your good health!
Gavin
Awesome article Gavin! I'd add a classic breathing pattern from freediving, a sport where using your oxygen too quickly can literally kill you: "Double Exhale" breathing.
Inhale for some count (say, 5) then exhale for double that count or more (10+). It works great for lowering heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen consumption.