How to face stress

I will examine the most common techniques for combating stress: relaxation, breathing, cognitive techniques, medical and pharmaceutical treatment and meditation.

Non of them are, in themselves, the complete answer. some people will receive special benefit from one. Others will prefer another. Still others will prefer a combination of strategies.

Try all the techniques so that you can see which of them work best for you as you try to free yourself from stress.

Relaxation
Relaxation is an exercise which is easy to learn and it is highly effective in the treatment of strees.

One physical manifestation of stress is muscular tension. When this tension continues over several hours, the muscles become "accustomed" to it and tend to adopt this as their normal state of being. This result in the all-too-common aches and pains such as backache, and shoulder and neckache. All associated with stress.

Unfortunately, many people do not relate pain to stress. Relexation helps people to begin to perceive the tensness which is causing the pain so that they can consciously relax their muscles.

Apart from the immediate relief which comes from relaxation, it also gives the one who practices it a feeling of accomplishment and of being in control. In other words, people who learn how to relax will not see their tenseness as something outside their control which they cannot resolve but will look it as a problem which can be solved.