Detroit was recently named the most stressed city in America according to a study by WalletHub. The study attributed the stress levels in Detroit to poverty, divorce, unemployment, and a lack of sleep. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you know how I feel about sleep! I can understand how a lack of sleep would affect stress levels. I personally can’t function at my best without a solid 7-8 hours. I think many people are sleeping way less than that due to today’s busy lifestyles.
After reading this startling fact that Detroit ranks #1 in stress, I found another article that stated that 75-90% of health problems are caused by stress. The stress response in our bodies was designed to handle periodic stress, not chronic, everyday stress. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco developed a program called emotional brain training (EBT) to help combat this chronic, everyday stress.
The researchers created the following four techniques, that if used regularly, will train your brain to bounce back more quickly from stress:
View Stress as a Moment of Opportunity
The researchers state that simply viewing stress in a positive manner can reduce the negative effects of it. Doing so will stop the secondary stress that can last hours or days after the initial stressor occurs. They claim that stressful moments “open the brain to revising expectations, so it’s easier to experience a breakthrough in a love relationship, a work project, or a new perspective on life.” Our brains have neurons that form connections based on our past experiences, which creates one’s personal perspective on any situation. During a period of stress, these connections become more fluid, allowing one to change their perspective.
Check Your Stress Number
When stressed, they suggest assigning a number to it based on a 5-point scale. Five is the highest stress level; one is the lowest. When in “Brain State 5,” the primitive, instinctual brain is in charge. This is when we are not thinking clearly. “Brain State 1” is a low stress state when you feel balanced and in control. Knowing your brain state can help keep things in perspective.
Update Your Unconscious Expectations
This step is about changing unreasonable connections in your brain that are based on past experiences. These emotional connections based on past experience can create false generalizations when faced with a similar situation. To combat this, the researchers suggest using the “EBT Cycle Tool.” The template for this is:
This situation is…(complain about a situation) What I'm most stressed about is … (narrow it to one complaint) I feel angry that … I can't stand it that … I HATE it that … I feel sad that … I feel afraid that … I feel guilty that … Of course, I would do that because my unreasonable expectation is … My reasonable expectation is … (repeat three times)
They suggest doing this exercise for 1-4 minutes. It’s all about identifying your unreasonable expectation to a situation and rewiring your brain to have a more reasonable expectation.
The Power of Compassion and Humor
This final step is about recognizing stress in others. In any relationship, if one side is stressed out it will likely affect both people. The person experiencing high levels of stress is likely to distance them self. If you can recognize this and not feed into their stress, but instead offer compassion and little bit of humor, the stress may dissipate faster. Use the stress to enhance the relationship instead of letting it tear it down.
I am going to try these techniques. It reminds me of the adage, “you can’t control a situation, but you can control how you react to it.” I’ve certainly had my share of stress lately and have had to remind myself of that saying. My oldest child is getting married, my youngest is going off to college, my mom and brother have had health issues, I’ve had my own health issues with a kidney stone, I’ve moved lofts, and had water damage in my basement. I’m really hoping this EBT works!
How do you handle stress? Email me at [email protected].