Stress Management Methods

1. Regular Lifestyle Habits

Having regular lifestyle habits in daily life is the starting point for stress management. First, you should develop healthy eating habits: eat slowly, comfortably, in a balanced way, and in moderation. Make sure to take in enough vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which modern people tend to lack. On the other hand, consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, caffeine, sugar, salt, and instant or fast food is not good for your health. Second, you need to get enough sleep, and generally 6 to 8 hours is appropriate. Third, you should also exercise regularly: walking is generally a good form of exercise. It is recommended to exercise for about 30 to 60 minutes a day, at least three times a week. If you have never exercised at all, gradually increasing the number of sessions or the amount of time is also a good method. Tai Chi is a moderate-intensity full-body exercise that has effects such as relaxation, muscle strengthening, abdominal breathing, and meditation. It has the advantage of being safe even for older adults, and many studies have shown positive effects on stress reduction, immune function, and emotions.

2. Active / Problem-Solving Coping

To manage stress well or use it appropriately, you need to understand its nature accurately. The first step is to acknowledge that the current situation is uncomfortable. If you have started to feel this way, it is already much more likely that you cannot avoid the stress. If, after careful consideration, actively escaping from the stress is not possible, then the second step, accepting the stress, is necessary. Accepting stress is different from a fatalistic attitude such as, “Of all the unlucky things, why did this have to happen to me?” so it does not simply mean giving up.

If you have decided to accept the stress being placed on you, it is important to respond in the final step with an active / problem-solving approach. The key to active coping is to identify your own capabilities and proactively do your best to deal with the problem. In contrast, avoiding stress or passively accepting it can be considered a typical emotion-focused approach, in which after acknowledging that the stress is uncomfortable, you use every possible method to resolve the unpleasant feelings you experienced. Emotion-focused coping can be helpful in the short term, but you must keep in mind that, like a person sinking into a swamp who thrashes around and sinks deeper, problems can become more complicated in the long term and the stress response can only grow stronger.

3. Relaxation Therapy

The conditions for good relaxation include a quiet, undisturbed place, a comfortable posture, muscle relaxation, and abdominal breathing or meditation with deep, slow breathing.

1. Abdominal Breathing

When you take a deep breath in and slowly breathe out using abdominal breathing, the air you inhale goes deep into the lungs, providing enough oxygen and then being expelled. The respiratory system takes in sufficient oxygen, produces energy, and removes waste products, helping the body’s metabolism function properly. By observing your own breathing and practicing slow, deep breathing, you can help your mind and body relax and find a sense of safety.

2. Muscle Relaxation

You practice tensing and relaxing each part of the body. In general, muscle relaxation is practiced in the following order: arms (fist > biceps) → head (forehead > eyes > jaw) → shoulders and shoulder blades → others (abdomen > thighs > calves > feet), relaxing with all muscle tension completely released. If there is a part that does not relax well, repeat the tense-relax cycle up to five times.

3. Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a method of continuously training yourself to make active adjustments while visually checking psychophysiological responses using instruments. Psychophysiological responses include muscle tension, skin temperature, brain waves, skin resistance, blood pressure, heart rate, and so on, and you become aware of how these indicators change when you relax. By training yourself to maintain this relaxed state, it is a treatment method that helps you enter a relaxed state on your own.

4. Meditation

Meditation can be divided into focused meditation, which concentrates attention on stress factors (sensations, images, actions), and mindfulness meditation, which observes all changes that arise and disappear in the mind. Guided meditation, Zen, yoga, mind control, and danjeon breathing are included in the concept of meditation.

4. Time Management

The first step is to prioritize by asking, “What is the most important thing?” After that, using methods such as increasing efficiency while carrying out tasks and making use of spare time can be helpful together. The content below describes the general steps of time management.

So far, I have explained methods for managing stress.

In the next article, we will take a look at hyperhidrosis.

Source: Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency National Health Information Portal