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Posts Tagged ‘Stress’

Using Laughter And Humor to Manage Stress

William Fry found that one minute of laughter does an equivalent amount of work as 15 minutes of work out on the rowing machine. Now is that not a fun and effective exercise to do?

Some studies show that a positive mindset, with a sense of humor and actual laughing help to improve outlook in life, gives better health and immune system. A sense of humor and actual laughing is touted to be an effective way to reduce stress.

Laughing, like deep breathing sends fresh oxygen into our cells and organs, pulls our body and facial muscles, changes our heart rate and blood pressure and increases the release of endorphins while reducing cortisol. Thank goodness for laughter that is free and a healthy sense of humor!

Never mind if you do not feel that there is very much to smile or laugh about. Some researches think that our body cannot tell if the laughter is spontaneous or simulated. So start smiling even when you do not feel like smiling and you can feel better. Start simulating the act of laughing; start learning how to laugh and have a little fun.  Take a lighter stance if you are feeling too serious, uptight or uneasy and see if we feel any differently.

Laughing, deep breathing replenishes your body with generous gulps of oxygen. And as you laugh more heartily, you begin to relax and see things with a different perspective. Your body then releases endorphins, the feel good chemical that will help you neutralize the sense of pressure and overwhelm.

Laughing heartily also help you burn up calories (about 50 calories for a good hearty laugh of 15 minutes, according to Maciej Buchowski)! That must be great news for those of us who are wanting to burn more calories! No wonder they say “Laughter is the Best Medicine”!  Read more...

Music has long been known to have an emotional effect on humans. Find out how the music you listen to might be affecting you and how you can use music to manage your stress.

There are so many kinds of music – country western, classical, eastern, rap, pop, hip hop, rock and roll, soul…what kind of music are you listening to, and how is it affecting your level of stress?

Music moves us – listening to a sad song can make us feel melancholy, soft jazz piano can calm and soothe us, and rock can make us feel strong, excited, even free. Music has been proven to speed healing, is used in malls to put us in the mood to buy, in churches for inspiration and much more. So can you use music to influence your mood and lower your stress in your daily life? Absolutely.

First, consider your general mood. Are you normally stressed, happy, positive, sad, angry, fearful, even shy? Are there consistent times in your life that you would like to change your mood – maybe the drive home from work, or getting up in the morning, or maybe you stress at night, laying in bed, tossing and turning?

For me…it’s that low energy time around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. I’ve usually been working since six in the morning or so, and I need a little pick up. For me, it could be a little Van Halen or White Snake, or maybe a little Santana. Other people may prefer some upbeat jazz, or pop music. It doesn’t really matter, as long as it makes you feel good.

How does music influence our mood like this?  Read more...

According to research, music has an intense effect on the human body and mind. Music has healing properties that help ease muscle tension and lift depression. It has been used to help cancer patients, people suffering from post operative stress and even children with ADD. In recent years, music has been used as a powerful tool in therapy sessions to calm the mind and body of patients. Today music is one of the most effective tools for inducing relaxation.

In the current scenario as more and more people fall victims to negative stress, there is high demand for an effective stress management tool that people can use on a daily basis. This is where music comes in. Unlike other stress management tools like meditation, yoga, counseling or massage, listening to music does not require any special time or investment. This is one of the reasons for its popularity as an effective stress management tool.

According to doctors, relaxation music CDs and video can stimulate activity corresponding to its beats in the brain. That is why soothing music encourages contemplation and relaxation. The alterations in brain activity caused by music lead to widespread changes in other bodily functions. Thus music has an impact on breathing and heart rate. Listening to relaxation music CDs and video leads to the activation of relaxation response in the body.

Music effectively counteracts the damaging effects of extreme stress. It can reduce blood pressure, boost immunity and relieve tension in the muscles. Slower breathing and relaxed heart rate brings about relaxation in the body. It is even believed that music has the ability to reduce the risk of stroke and heart related problems. These healing properties of music explain the frequent use of relaxation music CDs and video in therapy and counseling.  Read more...

Work is often associated with stress, and we know that stress is one of the main causes of illness, absenteeism, and burnout. Humor is a great stress reliever because it makes us feel good, and we can’t feel good and feel stress simultaneously.  At the moment we experience humor, feelings like depression, anger, and anxiety dissolve.

Humor and, its partner, laughter also reduce stress by activating the physiological systems including the muscular, respiratory, cardiovascular, and skeletal. In fact, we may even lose muscle control, as many of us have, when we laugh so hard that we fall down or wet our pants. Laughter has been labeled a jogging and juggling of the internal organs. When we laugh we feel physically better, and after laughter we feel lighter and more relaxed.

In addition, humor provides a psychological stress reducer as it snaps our thinking to another channel. Norman Cousins called it trainwrecks of the mind. One of the characteristics of humor is that it involves incongruity. We find things humorous when they are incongruous or mismatched. Good jokes guide us down one path only to suddenly track us onto another. The tracking is what we call the punch line. As we are tracked over, our thinking shifts and, in fact, breaking the mind set of the thinking leads to increased creativity.

Consider the story of the midwestern farmer crossing Harvard square searching for the library. He approaches a stately looking gentleman, who happens to be a Harvard English professor, and he asks, “Excuse me sir. Can you tell me where the library is at?” The professor looks somewhat disdainfully and replies, “At Harvard we do not end sentences with prepositions.” After a pause the farmer turns back to the professor and asks, “Well then, can you tell me where the library is at…Asshole.” In this joke we are guided down one path and suddenly tracked over to another. The incongruity is what we experience as humorous.  Read more...