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There are some commonly accepted practices that can, in theory, help a person to manage their stress.
1. Meditation - there are a variety of different types of meditative practices that one can take up.
2. Exercise - sometimes exercise in and of itself can be a meditative practice, like Thai Chi for example
3. Removal of substances in your life that cause a stress response in your physiology.
The best example of this is smoking.
While many claim that it relaxes them, on a physical level, it absolutely does not. It does temporarily remove the nicotine craving, but at the same time, it's amping up your fight or flight system and creating physical tension. The same can be said of the majority of our "addictive substances, another prime example being caffeine.
4. Removal of technologies that ar stimulating your fight or flight system in the same way that cigarettes and stimulants do: Any and all blue light Emitting devices, amp up the HPTA (adrenalin response) axis and activate cortisol release as an end product. Devices in this category: smart phones/tablets, LED tvs, monitors, LED lights in your house/work.
OK YOU HAVE A LIST NOW
The question arises after we make the list though: are people too stressed nowadays to be able to spend the time it needs to make these practices into the rituals they need to become before the benefits of them can be reaped?
As with the majority practices that a human can embrace with the hopes of changing some aspect of his/her physiology or psychology, only through ritualistic implementation of those practices will a person see the fruits of their labours.
Here is an example I have run into more than a few times:
A person gets a new meditation course and begins to listen to the cd.
Halfway through, they fall asleep.
They try again the next day to "meditate" with the cd, and, again, fall asleep.
They throw the cd on the heap of products they have labeled "garbage" because it's "not working"
They were not able to "meditate."
They give up in frustration.
The only thing is, it was working.
See, they fell asleep because they are sleep deprived (oh yeah, another natural stress reliever is, regular uninterrupted sleep) and, if they had just continued to do the same thing each day, eventually sleep debt would be paid in full, and, they would not fall asleep as they entered "alpha" brain wave state (meditative brain wave state") because they were in fact achieving it, but the body was doing its job in order...heal first by sleeping, then do longer meditations later.
Take your time, pick a practice and stick to it diligently before you give up.
It may just bee working, but your mental machinations may just be sabotaging your success.
Yes, these things take time.
Most good things do.
Walking in nature in the am with nothing between your eyes and the sun, as the sun rises, is a good practice that is easy to implement and practice, and the results seen quickly.
E-GO 2018
