The Managing of Stress Management
Written by Mike Smartt, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness, musician, and personal trainer
Let’s continue our look at all of the opportunities we have for improving our innate immune system. Today, we’re going to look at one of the giants: stress management - key word: management.
Why isn’t “stress” the keyword? Because stress is absolutely normal. It’s what signals our bodies to adapt and become stronger so that we are better able to handle more stress in the future. But if that’s the case, why is stress at the heart of so many disease states, including a depressed or overactive immune system?
Once again, I love the ancestral perspective to frame this issue (and most things, really). The short story is that our modern environment is mismatched to our biology. Our bodies are excellent at absorbing, dealing with and getting stronger as a result of short-term stress (think regular moderate exercise), so long as adequate rest is provided afterward. Unfortunately, modern society never slows down enough to naturally provide the rest that our biology needs - it’s the lack of rest that drives our immune system into dysfunction.
Given that, let’s focus on you, the individual, and look at how you can address your own stress management and maintain a healthy immune system that can take on life’s stressful moments; be they work, relationship or pandemic-related.
There are two main courses of action to take: reduce the amount of stress you are experiencing—don’t exercise so much or change the way you deal with it—focus on what you can change instead of on what you can’t.
I want to keep this relevant to the current pandemic, so I’ll point out the obvious in this case: we can’t affect the source of the stress that we are under. COVID-19 is not something that we can control; it simply has to run its course. So, option number one is out. However, option number two provides a multitude of choices. How we view and act upon our stress affords us a lot of power to take control over whether we are going to weaken from our chronic stress and drive chronic disease or maintain some balance and vitality.
And so, here are some options for managing your stress. Please note, each deserves far more explanation and attention than I can provide here. Also, none of these strategies implies the denial of stress. In fact, just the opposite. Mindfully acknowledging our stress is key. Then, by using one or more of the strategies below, we can work to resolve our stress in a way that we can manage over time:
Commit to stress management: make an honest assessment of your stress level and commit to some small, manageable changes.
Take time for yourself: this isn’t selfish, it helps you be better at everything else.
Reduce your exposure to stress: as we said, COVID isn’t controllable, but maybe you don’t really need to hear more talking-heads debate the finer points (hint: most news is unhealthy anyway due to the overstimulation of our fear response).
Your patterns of thought affect your perception of stress
Practice gratitude. Look more often at what you have instead of what you don’t have.
Reframe the situation. Stress always has a positive and negative component. Look for the positive aspect and give it your attention.
Lower your expectations/standards. You read that right. All too often we let perfect be the enemy of good.
Cultivate empathy. Most human action is merely an attempt to satisfy a need.
Manage your time. If you are always rushed, creating more stress, perhaps you are asking too much of yourself or you could be more organized about it. The most productive people focus on a modest number of things and do them well.
Find a stress management practice that works for you. Any slow-paced, mindful movement practice such as yoga, play an instrument, garden, read something light - it’s all up to you.
Get plenty of sleep. Deep, restful sleep should be top of your list.
Get out into nature. Nothing connects with our biology better than being in nature - movement, sunshine, humane sensory stimulation.
Maintain some play in your life. Again, totally up to you what this can be, what’s important is that it lacks the demands of those things that stress us out (competition, performance pressure, rules, etc.)
Exercise. Yes, good old exercise is an excellent stress management tool, but only if it’s something that you choose to do, that is salient to you and doesn’t wreck your body.
Meditation/Deep breathing/Mindfulness. I put these together for the sake of brevity. Each is deeply powerful, drawing on and addressing fundamental core aspects of who we are as humans and individuals to profoundly affect everything on this list. I can not advise these enough if you are at all serious about stress management.
Lastly, keep in mind that a stress management practice is not about squeezing one more thing into your busy schedule. What you choose to do should be manageable in and of itself; start small, make it a priority, be gentle with yourself and cultivate the perspective that stress requires some conscious management on your part, and to do so, sets you up for more success in all other aspects of our lives - including staying healthy as COVID runs its course.