What Are the Best Ways to Reduce Stress This Year?
If feeling more relaxed is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, maybe you’re looking for a practice outside of the classic “work out and get more sleep” suggestions. Five other techniques CNN explored this year could add a little variety to your stress-management toolbox.
Stress is a normal reaction to high-stakes or unpredictable situations, but chronic stress levels have been associated with various health problems, including high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, said wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Stress can also “show up as frustration or anger, which can impact our relationships,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Karmel Choi, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, via email.
Happiness or managed stress, on the other hand, “comes from feeling balanced and able to manage the bumps in the road that sometimes stretch our energy levels to the limit,” said Dr. Monica Vermani, a Toronto-based clinical psychologist and author of “A Deeper Wellness: Conquering Stress, Mood, Anxiety and Traumas.”
Excerpted from CNN
