Mindfulness Practices Reduce Stress and Improve Health

Stress may be an inescapable part of life, but how we perceive stress and recover from stress can significantly affect our health. In fact, a connection exists between chronic stress and the risk for heart disease.

Causes of Stress

Stress is unique to each person. What one person finds stressful may not be stressful to others. Stress can be motivating if it is not overwhelming. If we feel no stress, we may not be motivated to act. However, if we feel a tremendous amount of stress, we may not be able to perform the action needed.

Top stressors may be situations that impact our self-esteem, identity, or physical well-being (Cohen et al., 2019). Some examples may include:

• divorce
• the death of a loved one
• the loss of a job
• retirement
• being diagnosed with a serious illness

There are many other stressors, and a person’s perception of events determines whether they are seen as stressors.

Protecting Against Stress

Protective factors can help a person perceive stress less often and not as severely. These include a strong social support system, regular physical activity, hobbies that bring joy, proper sleep, a healthy eating pattern, and spiritual wellness (Wu et al., 2013). When a person is well nourished, rested, and supported, they are less likely to experience significant stress.

How Does Stress Contribute to Heart Disease?

Chronic stress increases a person's risk of heart disease. Researchers have investigated how stress can lead to a cascade of events in the body that stimulates the release of hormones and activates the body's stress response (Osborne et al., 2020). This response includes increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, and a buildup of plaque in the lining of the blood vessels. As a result, this can lead to chronic heart disease and even heart attacks. 

Start by Recognizing Stress

The first step to reducing stress is learning to be mindful of your stressors and when you’re feeling stressed. If you can recognize what is causing stress and how you react when you encounter the stressor, you can intervene to reduce or prevent its impact. It is important to ensure that you are not turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as over- or undereating, drug or alcohol abuse, physical or emotional abuse of yourself or others, sleeping too much or too little, or engaging in risk-taking behaviors (McEwen & Sapolsky, 2006).

Instead, you need to recognize stress at its earliest signs and apply mindful approaches to calm the body and prevent the stress cycle from activating. Early warning signs of stress include tense muscles, headache, irritability, restlessness/fidgeting, and sleep disturbances.

Use Mindfulness to Reduce Worry and Come Into the Present

The goal of stress management is to improve the quality of life by increasing healthy coping strategies. Often, people feel stressed when they worry about something that has happened in the past or may occur in the future. Mindfulness interventions bring you out of past or future thinking and into the present moment. Mindfulness involves simply recognizing that you feel stressed and accepting that without any self-criticism. When you can recognize how you feel in the present moment, you can identify the warning signs of stress and intervene. These interventions are free, easy, and adaptable plus they can have important health benefits.

A Simple Breathing Exercise

Breathing exercises can help reduce stress. When you focus on your breathing, it calms the mind and the body. Try breathing in for a count of 4, hold that breath for a count of 2, and breathe out for a count of 4.

Even elite military forces use mindfulness to reduce stress. Grossman and Christensen (2007) discussed how proper breathing techniques can help ensure survival during periods of extreme stress in combat.

Move Outside

Another mindful approach is simply taking a walk outside and really noticing what your senses are experiencing. How does the air feel on your skin? What do you hear, smell, and see? How are your legs and arms moving within your space? When you slow down enough to notice what is around you in the present moment, it can help prevent the stress response.

Journaling

A third intervention that may help reduce stress is journaling. Sometimes it helps to write down your goals, what you are worried about, or how you are feeling. Simply putting these thoughts down on paper helps reduce the level of stress and gives the issue a new perspective. 

Find a Strategy You Enjoy

There are many other interventions to help reduce stress. It’s important to find one that works for you and that you enjoy doing, because only then are you likely to do it regularly.

A wealth of information is available on mindfulness, and there are even apps that you can utilize for mindfulness techniques. The goals are to become more aware of how stress can affect you and your overall health and to use the intervention that you find most helpful.

References

Grossman, D., & Christensen, L. W. (2007). On combat: The psychology and physiology of deadly conflict in war and in peace. PPCT Research Publications.

McEwen, B., & Sapolsky, R. (2006). Stress and your health. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 91, 2 (E2).

Osborne, M. T., Shin, L. M., Mehta, N. N., Pitman, R. K., Fayad, Z. A., & Tawakol, A. (2020). Disentangling the links between psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular Imaging, 13, 8.

Wu, G., Feder, A., Cohen, H., Kim, J., Calderon, S., Charney, D., & Mathe, A. (2013). Understanding resilience. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 10.