Stress Management:
Stress Management Technique II
Managing
Stress II Stress Management Education II Stress Management Training II
Stress
Management Tips II Stress Management Course II
Stress Management Activity II Time and Stress Management II
Stress
Management Program II
Exercise and
Stress Management II
Anger Stress Management II Stress Management Workshop
Stress Management Activity.
By Coty D. Miranda
Stress affects us all, but there are ways in which we can battle
the stress and in this article we will offer a stress management
activity to help you help yourself.
An often overlooked stress management activity is journal writing.
To set down your feelings of what is causing your stress may be
more beneficial than you can imagine.
James W. Pennebaker, a professor of psychology at the University
of Texas (Austin) has written seven books and hundreds of articles
on writing as a stress management activity. In “Writing for
Health: Some Practical Advice” he suggests committing to writing,
or journaling, on a regular basis will improve both your mental
and physical well-being.
Pennebaker suggests you promise yourself to set aside 15 minutes a
day for three or four consecutive days to journal. This should be
done at a regular time on these days, perhaps after your work day
or before you go to bed.
For this stress management activity of journaling, you needn’t
feel you have to invest in a fancy journal book – you can write on
computer or write longhand in a spiral notebook. What matters is
you do it regularly.
He suggests several subjects on which you can begin writing:
Something that you are thinking or worrying about too much;
something you are dreaming about; something you feel is affecting
your life in an unhealthy way; something you have been avoiding
for days, weeks, years.
Suppressing inner problems can be detrimental to your health while
writing, he says, can improve it.
His most recent book is “Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal (cq)
for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval” offers advice
on how those who have faced traumas such as divorce, death or
illness can discover a therapeutic relationship with the written
word that will improve their mental and physical well-being.
Kathleen Adams is another author who advocates therapeutic writing
as a stress management activity. The author of “Journal to the
Self” and “Managing Grief through Journal Writing” suggests
writers begin and end their journal entries with three words that
describe how they are feeling. She, too, encourages the 15 minute
a day commitment to this stress management activity.
“Scientific research shows that brief, intense bursts of emotional
writing – only 15 minutes a day for only four consecutive days –
is correlated with increased immune system functioning that can
last for several weeks.”
Hospice Net, an independent nonprofit organization on the
Internet, encourages people who are grieving for any reason to
journal their feelings. In their Read 26 page, among other
suggestions for keeping a journal, they suggest keeping your
journal handy and writing about concerns and pains during those
sleepless nights.
G. Lynn Nelson, a professor of English at Arizona State University
and native American , writes of the benefits of journaling as a
stress management activity for healing in his book “Writing and
Being: Taking Back Our Lives Through the Power of Language.”
“So the question is not whether we will be wounded by life. We
will be. The question is: How do we respond to our wounding…We can
choose to hide our wounds …or we can tell the stories of our
woundings…and we can heal ourselves.”
Needless to say, stress, too, is wounding, and writing about those
stresses we face daily - or those due to the unexpected event in
our life - is what will enable this stress management activity
help us grow.
Nelson suggests the journal writer find a quiet place in which to
write. A quiet body and quiet mind are also conducive. He suggests
the body be relaxed, yet alert. Slow deep breathing helps him
prepare for his journaling. A small kitchen timer, placed in a
drawer so the ticking sound is muffled, is set for 15 minutes of
quiet, slow breathing and quieting of the mind. When the timer
sounds, he sets it again for 15 minutes and begins to write –
“Writing freely whatever words want to come from this quiet time.”
“If we wish to tap the true power of the writing and being
process, we must make time each day to seek silence, to be still
and know. Set aside such time deliberately, faithfully and hold to
them against the roaring world.”
A stress management activity can take many forms, but this is one
you can do with optimum mental and physical results. I hope you
will give it a try. There are many other good books and writers on
journaling to help relieve stress, and I urge you to seek them out
and find the one that works best for you.
In addition to journaling as a stress
management activity, we
also recommend using
Extress.
Extress is a homeopathic and nutrition
supplement that is exceptionally effective in providing the body
with the nutritional requirements which aid the body during
periods of stress, tension, anxiety, minor phobic reactions and
complaints of generalized patterns of anxious discomfort.
The natural ingredients in Extress complement the body's natural powers
to reduce stress and anxiety. The specific doctor-formulated Extress
formula naturally diminishes emotional sensitivity and mood
swings, calms and focuses attention, relaxes muscles and reduces the possibility of stress-induced head pain and muscle aches.
Extress also helps diminish hyperactivity, aggression and anger
outbursts.
