Tag: stress awareness month

April is Stress Awareness Month. Are you stressed? My guess is that in some shape or form, you are experiencing stress. We’ve all gone through it in the past year with our lives completely changed overnight with lockdowns, mask wearing and life as we know it completely changed. It’s the first time in my lifetime that I can remember the entire human collective — worldwide — going through the same stressors at the same time. While some areas are beginning to open back up, things are still not normal. That is stress-producing all by itself.

So, what exactly is stress? Merriam-Webster defines stress as, “a physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” The International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences quoted Lazarus and Folkman’s definition of psychological stress as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being.”

APA Stress in America survey

The American Psychological Association and The Harris Poll conducted a survey in January 2021 of 2,076 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The published findings titled Stress in America: January 2021 Stress Snapshot, showed the top two stressors among participants were the “future of our nation” (81%) and “the coronavirus pandemic” (80%). When specifically asked, “Have you felt any of the following ways within the past two weeks,” respondents reported the following:

Interestingly, 16% of those surveyed said they have experienced “None” of these feelings. The survey also found that within the previous month (December 21 2020–January 25, 2021), 26% reported “little to no stress,” 28% “a great deal of stress” and 44% a moderate amount of stress.

In March 2021, the APA also reported that many American adults surveyed have experienced “undesired changes to their weight, increased drinking and other negative behavior changes that may be related to an inability to cope with prolonged stress … a majority of adults (61%) experienced undesired weight changes — weight gain or loss — since the pandemic started, with 42% reporting they gained more weight than they intended. Of those, they gained an average of 29 pounds (the median amount gained was 15 pounds) and 10% said they gained more than 50 pounds, the poll found … Adults also reported unwanted changes in sleep and increased alcohol consumption. Two in 3 (67%) said they have been sleeping more or less than desired since the pandemic started. Nearly 1 in 4 adults (23%) reported drinking more alcohol to cope with their stress.”

Parents with children under age 18 have been especially impacted with 47% of mothers and 30% of fathers who still have children at home for remote learning reported their mental health has worsened. Among essential workers, 54% said they have “relied on a lot of unhealthy habits to get through the pandemic” — 29% reported worsened mental health and 75% wished they had more emotional support.

“We’ve been concerned throughout this pandemic about the level of prolonged stress, exacerbated by the grief, trauma and isolation that Americans are experiencing. This survey reveals a secondary crisis that is likely to have persistent, serious mental and physical health consequences for years to come,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr, Ph.D., APA’s chief executive officer.

I’ve been concerned for a year, too. I worked with children and families as a behavioral clinician, and I’ve been concerned about child abuse and domestic violence during this time. As a print journalist having worked in military towns, I noticed over long, holiday weekends, the number of domestic violence calls on the local police reports greatly increased. One police chief explained to me that it was because people would start drinking and would end up fighting by the end of the weekend. It hasn’t been widely reported, but I know the calls to Child Protective Services increased over the past year. How could they not with increased alcohol consumption, children going to remote school from home and parents working remotely from home? It’s a recipe for a stress disaster.

It hasn’t been much easier for single people living alone, like me. I’ve handled it better than most I’ve talked with. They’ve reported increased alcohol use, loneliness and feeling isolated. I remind them that living alone is an advantage because we don’t have the added stress of being locked up with others. For those used to being in social settings, however, the isolation and loneliness can be hard to deal with.

Then, there’s the stress of getting back to normal. I know people who are terrified of contracting COVID-19. They’re not alone … The APA survey found 49% of respondents feel uneasy about adjusting to in-person interaction once the pandemic ends — both adults who received a COVID-19 vaccine (48%) and those who had not received one (49%).

Others of my friends just want their freedom to travel and socialize again and are willing to do anything for it. However, the prevention has made some of my friends extremely sick — causing another stress.

Stress busters

Many experts believe that stress is inevitable in today’s society, and there’s basically no way to avoid it — only manage it. I understand this point of view, but I offer another one … Control your own mind and you can beat stress. This is so important that I wrote an entire chapter about this in my first book and plan to write a whole book about it.

“If you really want to be neurosis-free, self-fulfilled and in control of your own choices, if you really want to achieve present-moment happiness, you will need to apply the same kind of rigid application to the task of unlearning the self-defeating thinking you have learned up until now … In order to master this kind of fulfillment, you’ll need to repeat endlessly that your mind really is your own and that you are capable of controlling your own feelings,” wrote Dr. Wayne Dyer in Your Erogenous Zones.

Train your thinking. It is often said that “your thoughts create your reality.” Scientific evidence has shown that negative thinking can not only cause stress, but it can also cause disease in the body.

“You can make yourself ill with your thoughts, and by the same token, you can make yourself well by the use of a different and healing type of thought … To change your circumstances, first start thinking differently,” wrote Norman Vincent Peale in The Power of Positive Thinking. “Do not passively accept unsatisfactory circumstances, but form a picture in your mind of circumstance as they should be [as you want them to be]. Hold that picture, develop it firmly in all details, believe in it, pray about it, work at it and you can actualize it … Believe and succeed.”

I’m a firm believer in using gratitude to change your thinking. I wrote a whole book about it with a 45-day guided gratitude journal to help get you started. Being grateful for even the bod things has truly changed my life, and I practice it daily — especially when things aren’t going the way I want them to. By focusing on the gratitude and the good things, I instantly feel better and more positively.

Pay close attention to your attitudes and intentions. “Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes, and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful. Such attitudes are active and definitive factors in creating satisfactory conditions,” Peale wrote.

Meditate & be in the present moment.  If you’re anything like me, meditating isn’t a natural or easy task because your mind is constantly racing in thought. Quieting it is like herding cats. It is possible, though. Using guided meditations and focusing on what the guide is saying is very helpful. Staying in the present moment is also helpful.

“All of this organized thinking keeps you from living your present moments,” Dr. Dyer wrote. “Turning your now into total fulfillment is the touchstone of effective living, and virtually all self-defeating behaviors (erogenous zones) are efforts at living in a moment other than the current one.”

I know, personally, that the reason we often don’t live in the present moment is because somewhere in life, the present moment was or is too scary to deal with. It can feel safer to live in the future where we daydream about creating the safety, security, prosperity and happiness we desire. Don’t get me wrong … this practice is not a bad thing. In fact, this is how you manifest the life you want. However, you will miss the gift of now if you refuse to live in the present.

The best advice I ever received from a therapist when I was studying psychology was to be fully in the moment when meeting with an old boyfriend that I hadn’t seen in nearly two decades. He told me to pay close attention to how the environment around me looked, to smell all the smells, pay attention to what the guy was saying and how he looked. I did that, and it worked. I was fully in the moment, and I couldn’t stop smiling. Try it for yourself.

Exercise. The deep limbic system of the brain is the part that is responsible for producing depression or having you feel hopeful. “[Exercise] releases endorphins that induce a sense of well-being … Exercise also increases blood flow throughout the brain which nourishes it so that it can function properly,” wrote Dr. Daniel Amen in Change Your Brain Change Your Life. “Exercise can also be very helpful in calming worries and increasing cognitive flexibility … [it raises] brain serotonin levels. In addition, exercise increases your energy levels and may distract you from the bad thoughts that may tend to loop.”

He recommends walking, running or cycling every day, plus doing an aerobic workout (to get the blood and oxygen flowing throughout the body) three times a week for at least 20 minutes. This is easy to incorporate into your life by taking a 15–30 minute walk at lunch or after dinner. I found lunch walks helpful when I was working in an office setting. They helped me process stress at work and clear my mind to finish the workday. An after-dinner walk with a partner can not only help you become more physically fit, but it can also aid in relationship bonding.

Dr. Dyer used to say, “Nature is therapy. If you’re feeling depressed, go walk barefoot in the grass.” Walking barefoot on the ground is called earthing and is known to be good for aligning the energy centers in the body. I went on a hike when the lockdown was beginning to be lifted in 2020, and being surrounded by trees and getting my heart rate up and sweating did my body and mind a world of good.

Create. We’ve all heard of Art Therapy as a treatment in psychology. Being creative has a way of shifting your thinking into a more positive, manifesting state — in my words and experience. Dr. Amen recommends singing, humming, learning to play an instrument, listening to classical music, dancing/rhythmic movement. “Song has long been shown to have healing qualities,” Dr. Amen wrote. “Sing wherever and whenever you can … It will have a healing effect on your temporal lobes and probably your limbic system, as well.” Your temporal lobes are responsible for memory, learning, emotional stability and socialization.

I sing to myself every day and have sang myself out of a funk many times in my life. I’ve also had dance parties by myself around my house during and after the lockdown. If you incorporate some form of dancing into your routine, that will have a double impact and also count as exercise, if done for at least 20 minutes.

Talk about it.  When I first began studying Substance Abuse Counseling (before earning my Psychology degree and studying counseling in graduate school), I had been exposed to research pointing to talk therapy being effective in treating stress and mental issues. Research published in July 2020 in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research found that while medication works to dampen the stress response, it can also suppress symptoms and lessen the long-lasting effects. However, talk therapy (specifically cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy) has been shown over the last 50 years to be just as effective as antidepressant medications (on average) in the treatment of nonpsychotic depression, and those treated to remission are less than half as likely to relapse following treatment termination.

I’ve been trained in CBT and have found it to be very effective when working with children and substance users. It is a modality that helps change your thinking and behaviors while giving you benchmarks to show progress and growth.

It’s always advised to seek help from a trained professional. However, whomever you choose to talk with should be someone in whom you trust and who will not discuss with others what you have shared. That’s why paying for services with a counselor or coach is usually the preferred method, and the one I recommend. While spiritual leaders, sponsors, mentors or friends aren’t trained in the modalities used in professional therapy, they could be a good listener who have life experience they can share that might help encourage you and allow you to get the negative feelings out of your head and body. Releasing the negativity and refocusing your thoughts on things that encourage you, make you feel good and give you hope and motivation are key in reducing and managing stress.

Laugh it off.  My grandparents used to say that laughter is good like medicine and would quote Proverbs 17:22, “A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Science has proven this is true. Research has shown laughter to not only improve your mood, but it strengthens your immune system and combats stress — two things we need to focus on improving with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences published that laughing can reduce the stress hormone cortisol that circulates throughout the body during peak stress periods. “Laughter can decrease cortisol levels by increasing your intake of oxygen and stimulating circulation throughout the body,” the university blog stated. (I recommend that you do not wear a mask when you laugh so that you can get the oxygen needed to actually reduce cortisol.) The university blog also stated, “Laughing increases the number of endorphins released in your body, fighting off stress and promoting a positive mood.”

There are many ways you can get your giggle on. Watching a funny movie or TV show is one way. Talking with friends, attending a comedy show or watching funny videos are all ways to produce laughter. I crack myself up all the time and make my own self laugh … that’s one of the best ways to laugh it up.

Like I say all the time, you have all the answers. Go to the kingdom within, do the things that fuel your body, mind and spirit, and work to keep your thoughts positive. Don’t let the stress get the best of you.

Do you have a question about life that you want Senée to answer? Leave it in the comments or email it to PrincessGuide@BecomingPublishing.com.

Senée Seale is a book author, mental health professional and life guide passionate about helping people create positive changes in their lives. Are you ready to start attracting positive things into your life through practicing daily affirmations? Get your free copy of The Princes Guide to Gratitude Affirmations. If you’d like to book a personal session with Senée, she’s accepting new clients.