How To Remove Stress – Psychological Techniques

Stress is the response that our body gives when the person cannot cope with the circumstantial demand that is presented to them, that is, stress appears when the person feels overwhelmed in a certain situation. Stress is an adaptive response of our body, but continued high levels of stress can lead to serious organic diseases and/or psychological disorders.

Stress can give rise to physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms, the main symptoms being the following:

Emotional symptoms of stress

• Decreased physical and psychological energy
• To feel down
• Pessimism
• Fear of the onset of a disease
• Decreased self-esteem
• Emotional lability
• Instability or restlessness
• Strain

Cognitive symptoms of stress

• Mental block
• Little acceptance of criticism
• Confusion
• Ease of distraction
• Forgetfulness
• Difficulty making decisions

Behavioral symptoms of stress

• Stuttering
• Emergence of behaviors such as excessive drinking or smoking
• Nervous laugh
• Nail biting or hair pulling
• Use of drugs, generally tranquilizers
• Increased physical activity
• Bad eating habits

On many occasions, stress appears at the most inopportune moment, when we have less time to combat it, since it is the lack of this time that causes us stress. In these circumstances, it is essential to know a set of strategies that allow us to quickly remove stress so we can continue with our day. Some of the practices you can use to relieve stress quickly are the following:

1. Use your senses: It is known that the area of ​​the brain responsible for perceiving and processing smells and aromas is very close to the region that controls our emotions and produces high levels of stress. For this reason, pleasant smells influence our mood by acting quickly. Find an aroma that you find pleasant, such as the essence of lavender or lemon, and always carry it with you. When you find yourself in a stressful situation, open the bottle and stop to smell its aroma.
2. Tea: Tea is a drink that considerably reduces levels of cortisol, the stress-producing hormone, and produces feelings of calm and will pleasantly help you relax.
3. Massages: To feel the pleasant pleasure and induction into a state of relaxation that a massage produces, it is not necessary to go to a professional. Massages help relieve stress and you can do them yourself. For example, a simple eyelid massage will help you reduce stress and all you have to do is close your eyes and massage them in circles, doing this movement all around them.
4. Breath deeply: It has been shown that breathing exercises are the most suitable for combating stress and calming your mind, since they help stimulate the secretion of endorphins. To do this, you only have to take 5 to 10 slow, deep breaths, concentrating solely on observing how your breath flows. Inhale through your nose and let the air go through it or through your mouth, you’ll see how it relaxes!

One of the main areas that usually generates the most stress is work, but don’t worry, there are many methods to combat stress at work:

1. Rest: One of the main causes of work stress is the long hours and high workload. For this reason it is essential to carry out breaks every three hours, even if they are 10 minutes. Not because we rest less will we be less productive, since stress will prevent us from being able to perform at 100%. If it is not physically possible for you to leave your workplace, you can use these time intervals to do breathing exercises or massages, as mentioned above. You can always take a walk to the bathroom, wash your face and do a breathing exercise or have a snack, which will help you disconnect from the long work day.
2. Set reasonable goals: Anticipation about the work that remains to be done is the main source of stress. Therefore, it is better to establish reasonable and short-term goals, so as not to beat yourself up with the high expectations expected during that work day.
3. Organization: Organization is essential to avoid falling into the hands of stress. You can establish to-do lists based on urgency and priority. The organization of the physical space in which you work is also very important; it is known that disorder in times of stress increases these levels.
4. Locate the source of stress: Look for the factors that tend to generate higher levels of stress on a daily basis and observe your response to them. This observation will give you clues about what circumstances you should avoid and what you can do to combat them, based on the reactions that have helped you the most to relieve stress.

Musical waves produce stimulation at the brain level, causing a decreased cortisone, the hormone that produces anxiety and this makes it easier for the mind to release our tensions. The method of using music to reduce anxiety and stress is not new, however, until now numerous studies have supported its effectiveness.

For this reason, music is a great strategy to be able to combat stress, pain and increase quality of life in general. Music helps us change our mood, depending on what a certain song transmits to us, for this reason we recommend that you make a list with a set of songs that help you reduce stress and produce happy and happy feelings. .

1. Physical exercise

Performing physical exercise, specifically cardio exercises, helps considerably to reduce stress, because decrease adrenaline and cortisol levels and increase the secretion of endorphins, which are related to the Good mood and pain reduction. In addition to this, the feelings of accomplishment and increased self-esteem that physical exercise produces will also help reduce stress levels. Exercise, in addition, allows us to disconnect our mind and escape from the problems that have caused us this stress, for this reason physical exercise has a great impact on reducing stress.

2. Yoga

Several studies have shown the effectiveness of yoga in combating stress. To do this, it is not necessary to do weekly yoga classes; there are certain postures that promote an increase in testosterone and decreased cortisol levels, which are simple and can be done at home in a matter of minutes. For example, the mountain pose. To perform this figure you only have to stand and open your legs to the width of your hips and while you slowly breathe in, raise your arms until you reach your head and lower them again while you exhale the air progressively. Ten repetitions of this exercise will help you be in a better mood again!

3. Meditation with mantra

This meditation consists of repetition of simple sentences such as: “more peace or more balance” to combat stress. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and say these prayers out loud or in your thoughts repeatedly and rhythmically, which will help reduce negative thoughts. The objective is to repeat the mantra for two minutes and then maintain silence for two or three more minutes. With the mantra we seek to train the mind with the aim that the simple evocation in our thoughts or out loud of the mantra directly induces us to a state of relaxation, by being conditioned to it.

In psychology, there are many techniques that have proven effective in reducing stress, because many psychopathologies involve high levels of stress and in order to carry out a good intervention, the person must remain relaxed. For this reason, in recent decades psychology has placed emphasis on finding effective techniques to combat stress, such as:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing

Breathing exercises have been considered one of the best methods to combat stress, since a simple breathing exercise is enough to reduce high levels of stress and allows us to increase our confidence and self-efficacy, as well as enhance our concentration and performance. Let’s see how to perform the exercise:

• Sit however you feel comfortable and place one hand on top of your chest and the other on your abdomen.
• Inhale the air through your nose and feel how the hand on your abdomen rises, while the one resting on your chest almost doesn’t move.
• Looking for this position, inhale and hold the air for 4 seconds and then slowly exhale it through your mouth for 8 seconds.
• Repeat the breathing circle for approximately 5 minutes, preferably twice a day.
• Controlling this technique will allow you to more easily control stress in any circumstance.

2. Jacobson’s progressive muscle relaxation

This practice allows the person to free themselves from the stressful activation that incapacitates them, by enhancing efforts aimed at solving problems. Muscle relaxation allows us to enter a state of drowsiness, which relaxes us physically and allows us to disconnect. How is this technique done? The technique consists of three phases:

• The first phase consists of tension-relaxation. In it, the various muscles of our body are tense and then relaxed, with the aim that the person understands and feels the difference between muscle tension and muscle relaxation. Since, the objective is to achieve a state of muscle relaxation progressively throughout the body. In this phase the muscles are tense and the exercise can last 5 to 10 minutes. The order of relaxation should be as follows: relax the face, neck and shoulders, followed by the arms and hands, then the leg region and finally the thorax, abdomen and lower back.
• The second phase consists of the relaxation check that is, mentally stopping to observe if all the muscles have relaxed as much as possible.
• Finally, the phase of mental relaxation. In this phase, the person should focus on an image or scene that is pleasant or try to keep the mind blank, with the aim of relaxing our mental state, while our entire body relaxes.

The exercise can last 10 to 15 minutes and it is important not to rush and do it calmly.

3. Cognitive restructuring

This technique is one of the fundamental exercises for coping with stress, since it helps us evaluate a certain circumstance in a different way. Our thoughts directly interfere with the way we live our experiences and in the face of stress responses, disabling and negative thoughts tend to emerge. The objective of this technique is identify these thoughts and modify them by others that allow us to face stress in a more adaptive way.

4. Distraction techniques

Distraction techniques are useful at times when high levels of stress occur, since by concentrating our attention on another stimulus, the symptoms will eventually disappear on their own. To distract ourselves we can use a list of places or things that make us relax and The exercise consists of imagining that we are in that place, try to evoke in our minds all its details, smell its aromas,… at first it will be difficult to maintain the image for a long time, don’t worry, you can imagine different images one after the other and with the practice of This technique will increasingly keep your mind distracted for longer periods of time.

5. Skills training and problem solving

Skills training is part of the techniques applied for stress management. Being able to define a problem concretely allows us to specify it and apply the skills required to face it. To do this, when faced with the problem the person must learn to value the wide variety of options and select the most suitable answer to your problem. However, when faced with high levels of stress, improving our skills can be difficult.

Faced with this, it can be combined with a relaxation or breathing technique, so that the person can use their personal resources. For example, let’s imagine a person who has a lot of anxiety about speaking in public and must give a conference. This situation will generate a lot of stress and will not allow you to train his skills. Faced with this, she performs a set of relaxation techniques that allow her to prepare for the presentation, without letting stress prevent her from doing so and consequently, she will go to the conference much more relaxed. Therefore, relaxation plays a fundamental role so that coping with stressful situations can be dealt with in the most effective way.

6. Mindfulness

Learning mindfulness can also be an excellent method to reduce stress, because it seeks focus attention on the present moment, focusing it on a specific element and thereby stopping the coming and going of cognitions that arise in the face of the stress and dispersion that it entails. Our consciousness allows us to observe our thoughts and the more practice you have in mindfulness, the more understanding you will gain towards yourself, which will lead you to be able to have more control over your state of activation.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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