Stress Buster

1. Talking to parents.

2. Talking with your children.

3. Your relatives come over.

4. You get a promotion.

5. Retirement.

6. You’re asked to be married.

7. You get a flat tire.

8. Your dog becomes sick.

9. It’s your turn to cook.

10. Attending a PTA meeting.

11. Your throat becomes sore.

12. Your favorite TV show is cancelled.

13. You can’t find your reading glasses.

14. Picking up a friend from the airport.

15. All of the above.

If you picked “All of the above”, you’re right. Most people think that stress is synonymous with worry but that is not true. Stress can be positive or negative. Your conscious mind may think that stress occurs only with worrying about something going wrong but your subconscious mind stresses out to any change in your life. Anything that breaks the normal routine induces stress.

So this month’s health tip is entitled “Stress Buster”; Dr. Hirano’s sure remedy to help you “Chill Out” from life’s multidimensional exposures to change.

Did you know that stress and relaxed muscles are incompatible? So, if there is stress in your life, you can be sure that your muscles are not relaxed. Biofeedback utilizes this psycho-physiological fact by placing sensors on the body to determine the amount of muscle movement, perspiration and temperature change when the subject thinks about the various issues in their life. The sensing instrument will make a high pitch sound if there is body activity and the subject, listening to the sound, will attempt to lower noise by only relaxing the muscles. This can actually slow down your brain wave frequency from beta to alpha, thereby reducing the body’s stress state.

b) Pretend you are the captain of a ship (your body) and your muscles are the crew; command your muscles to relax. Part by part, start from one end of the body and work towards the other end. For example; feet muscles RELAX; lower leg muscles RELAX; thigh muscles RELAX; and so on. It doesn’t matter which end you start.

c) Next command your blood vessels to relax. Your blood vessels are actually muscles, which is why blood pressure changes with stress.

d) Finally, command your organs to relax. You may address them all together or one by one.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to pass this issue of health tips to your friends and loved ones.