In my 38-plus years in Israel, I have certainly experienced my share of stress and stressful situations. We are all praying for the families of those taken from us, and for the wounded, the hostages, and certainly for our soldiers.
What happened here two weeks ago has created the most stressful of situations. Is there even a way for us to manage this much stress?
Let’s first take a look at the nature of stress.
When we are stressed we make things even worse by reaching for the bag of chips, stocking the pantry with chocolate, and sitting too much, watching the news. Instead, we should be taking some steps to reduce and control our situation, but we tend to trade four minutes of pleasure for long-term damage.
Stress damages our health and well-being. Even in the best of times, we live in a society where the demands made upon us are unreasonable. Everyday stress can originate in the workplace, school, from relationships, or a host of other areas.
The most dangerous aspect of stress is its long-term activation, which can disrupt almost all of the body’s processes and increase the risk of numerous health problems.
Three big factors that come into play in controlling stress are exercise, diet, and sleep.
Even when we are not at war, the latest facts and figures on stress are indeed frightening. Using statistics from the United States, we see that in a survey of 3,000 adults over the age of 18, 75% reported feeling financial stress. But it is job-related stress that sits at the top of the list.
Eighty percent of workers say they feel stress on the job. The cost? Workplace stress causes healthcare expenditures of roughly $150 billion per year. That is about 7% of all US healthcare expenditure per year. Certain kinds of stress, however, can indeed be healthy. If we had no stress at all, we wouldn’t get things done and deadlines would be meaningless. Nevertheless, chronic stress can be debilitating and dangerous. If your stress response is turned on too much or certainly if it is turned on all the time, it will lead to serious issues — both psychological and physiological. For many people in Israel today, this is the unfortunate reality.
Stress has been linked to a long list of illnesses, including heart disease, depression, insomnia, anxiety.
Dr. Kenneth Pallatier of The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine has research showing that 85-90% of all illnesses are induced or stress exacerbated. Stress almost always causes sleep deprivation, which in turn intensifies our stress levels and that becomes a terrible cycle where one becomes more and more stressed and gets less and less sleep.
How do we deal with stress and improve our wellness?
MANY PEOPLE need professional help, but there are certain things we can all do on our own to help keep our stress in check
Here are some helpful tips in order to help you control your stress:
- Maintain a program of healthy eating and adequate sleep. You might not feel like it, but exercise anyway. Not only does it promote physical fitness but it is a big contributor to emotional well-being. Just going for a walk can make the biggest difference.
- Do acts of kindness. Help others. What we have seen over the past two weeks is nothing short of amazing. Get involved in helping you friends, neighbors and soldiers in battle.
- Balance work and play. All work and no play can make you feel stressed. Plan some time for recreation to help you de-stress.
- Take a warm shower or bath. This will soothe and calm your nerves, and relax your muscles.
- Have a good cry. Tears can help cleanse the body of substances that accumulate under stress, and will also release a natural pain-relieving substance from the brain. There is nothing wrong with a good cry and you won’t be the only one!
- Talk out your troubles. It sometimes helps to talk with a friend, relative, or rabbi. Another person can help you see a problem from a different point of view.
- Try to develop and maintain a positive, optimistic attitude, as difficult as that might be right now.
- Modify your environment to manage your exposure to things that cause stress whenever possible. So, yes, check on the news from time to time and stay abreast of the situation, but you don’t have to be glued to it. Allow yourself breaks from following the news too often.
- Music, art and journaling are good ways to decompress as well.
NUTRITION PLAYS a part as well.
Foods may not make the stress go away, but they may reduce the negative health effects that are highly associated with chronic stress, including depression, anxiety, insomnia and cardiovascular disease. Some recent research also indicates that eating has a pronounced effect on mood.
So, while our tendency might be to eat excessively during this stressful times, please remember that food, while essential for nutrition and helpful for real hunger, solves no other problems, but they certainly can cause many.
First, eliminate junk food from the diet. These “food-like” eatable substances cause both physiological and psychological problems.
Remember that our research over the last 15 years on gut microbiome has shown that our “feel-good” hormones dopamine and serotonin mostly come from the gut. So what you eat matters.
Broccoli, brussels sprouts and asparagus are loaded with folic acid, a vitamin associated with more serotonin production. Also, oatmeal and other complex carbohydrates can stimulate the brain to produce serotonin. Carbohydrates that are absorbed more slowly help to ensure a steadier supply of serotonin, meaning unrefined whole foods.
Oranges, grapefruits, red and green peppers, and many other fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamin C, which can aid in lowering blood levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and ease stress.
Besides food and exercise, sunshine and other sources of vitamin D may boost serotonin levels through an increase in the enzyme that converts tryptophan to serotonin.
Implementing any or all of these tips can make a big difference in your stress level. Of course, seeing a good psychologist or qualified therapist can be very helpful.
I always emphasize to my clients that it’s never just one thing: Exercise, diet, therapy, meditation, and prayer are all important. Use them all.
AND ONE more thing: If, a few times a week, you feel a need to treat yourself with some dark chocolate or some other dessert-type food — if you can set limits, keep it as occasional and do not use food that is terribly addictive. Then schedule it in, just don’t make it into a bad habit.
It’s tough times for the Jewish people and the world in general. The one thing that is key to stress management is not trying to control those things we have no control over. But, keeping our stress under control will “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”
The writer has 25+ years experience in health and wellness, is on the Council of the True Health Initiative, and director of The Wellness Clinic.
You can reach him at alan@alanfitness.com.