Mind power over stress

By Nina C. Zimmermann Dec 19, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - You have got to call back the boss, plan the family dinner, straighten up your desk and pick up the kids. Just thinking of all the things to do can raise your blood pressure. But you will live less stressfully -- and more healthily -- if you learn to stay calm in such situations. Stress is mainly in the mind, so mind power can help keep it low.

Stress is part of our evolutionary heritage and has helped man to survive. When in danger, the body releases the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which prime it for 'fight or flight.' In the modern world, though, threats from predators and other aggressors are rare.

'There's little that's life-threatening today,' remarked Lutz Hertel, a psychologist and chairman of the German Wellness Association. 'Many situations are nonetheless overly or groundlessly perceived to be threatening. And these very thoughts are stressful.'

Just as it was in the Stone Age, stress hormones are released, heart rate and blood pressure rise and breathing quickens.

Blood vessels also constrict abruptly, noted Heribert Brueck, spokesman for the German Association of Cardiologists in Private Practice. 'When the problem has been solved, you don't immediately return to your previous state. It takes an hour or two before you're relaxed again,' he said.

Chronic stress can cause long-term narrowing of blood vessels, resulting at worst in a heart attack.

According to Joerg-Peter Schroeder, a physician and leadership coach based in the German city of Heidesheim, stress manifests itself in difficulty concentrating and a dry tongue. Other possible symptoms are mental blocks, tense muscles, tension headaches, eyelid twitching and teeth grinding.

It is important to keep this from happening by not allowing stress to arise in the first place. This does not mean being deeply relaxed all the time, though. Everyone needs a bit of tension, said Brueck, adding, 'It's not harmful so long as it doesn't exceed a certain degree.'

The degree is different for every individual and strongly depends on how a person assesses situations. Schroeder, who has written a book about stress management, gave an example: 'A perfectionist may be easily stressed by chaos, which doesn't affect a creative person. The latter may be stressed by routine tasks, however.'

Most people are much more sensitive to negative things than positive ones and therefore become stressed, according to Brueck. 'With every negative thought, the brain calls up all of the related information and emotions that it has stored,' he said.

So Brueck recommends the following: When your boss gives you yet another assignment, you should not think, 'He's out to break me,' but rather, 'Apparently he's satisfied with my work and trusts that I'll manage this new assignment, too.'

Hertel advises people to use the 'thought-stopping technique' to suppress stressful thoughts that keep going round in circles.

Schroeder's stress-reducing strategy includes taking things as they are and asking oneself how one can influence them. Perfectionists, for example, should recognize that they cannot always do everything themselves and cannot do everything flawlessly.