Whether it’s daily delivery times, financial difficulties, or the COVID-19 pandemic, stress often appears in life and your body reacts: your heart rate increases, your blood vessels contract, and over time these small impacts build up and damage your health, particularly your heart.
With chronic stress, you are more likely to tend to develop hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and sleep disorders. Even other parts of the body can be affected; From the lungs to the intestines, although it is not always possible to reduce stress or limit the amount of it in your life, you can modify your response to it.
Like the automatic “fight or run away” response that triggers when you feel scared and your muscles tighten, your heart rate increases and your brain is more alert, your body also has a healthy relaxation response built in. When it is triggered, the opposite happens: your respiratory rate and heart rate decrease and your blood pressure drops.
Fortunately, with practice, you can learn to activate that response, and be able to reduce stress daily.
Try the following techniques on your own or find an instructor or class to help you get started.
If you don’t catch the beat quickly don’t be discouraged. Also, if one method doesn’t work, try a new one.
You can learn to reduce stress in many other ways.
Meditation
One of the most studied approaches to managing stress involves developing the ability to stay focused on the present and not worry about the past or the future. Find a quiet place where there are as few distractions as possible. Get comfortable, whether sitting, lying down, or walking. Focus your attention on a specific word or group of words, an object, or your breathing. Let the distractions, including the thoughts, come and go without judging them.
Progressive muscle relaxation
To feel this effect, first tighten your muscles for a few seconds and then relax them. Start by tightening and relaxing your toes, then your calves, and keep going up to your face. Work one muscle group at a time.
Deep breathing
Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the stomach or chest to expand, and then exhale slowly. Repeat a few times. Many people do not breathe deeply, but it is something relaxing that can be done anytime, anywhere.
Guided images
This involves a series of steps that include relaxing and visualizing the details of a quiet and peaceful place, such as a garden.
Practice self-pity
Understand that life’s challenges are inevitable. Dedicate yourself to the care and attention you need when you are having difficulties, however taking your body and mind to a place of tranquility does not always mean being still.
Other healthy ways to manage stress are yoga or taichí classes, talking to a professional counselor, participating in a stress management program or an art class, or meet friends for a quick walk.
For some people, being in the middle of nature is very reassuring. Combining these stressors with other healthy habits can be very beneficial in strengthening your heart.
Eat more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and eat less sodium, sugar, and saturated fat, for example. Move more, for example, through the dance or hanging out with other people for a walk. Look for exercises that you really like and practice them periodically. Try to have a quality and sufficient dream, and develop a solid system of social support.
Next, reconsider some of the common ways you have to deal with stress, such as drinking alcohol often, using drugs or other substances, smoking or overeating. These things, in fact, can make your stress and health worse. Taking care of your heart health is a lifelong process, but in times when the risk of serious COVID-19 disease remains higher for people with cardiovascular health problems, learning new ways to strengthen the heart is even more important.
