Research reveals effective methods that get beyond one-off tips: Dane McCarrick knows that if left to fester, stress causes not just mental anguish but physiological changes that lead to sundry health problems. So, when stressed, McCarrick employs part of a pre-planned strategy by disengaging himself from the worrisome thoughts and putting them off for consideration at a less chaotic time when, presumably, he’ll have a clearer head.
“Usually, by that point in time the thing I was getting myself worked up over didn’t even happen anyway,” he says.
McCarrick may have a slight advantage over the rest of us when it comes to stress-busting. As a postgraduate researcher in psychology at the University of Leeds in the UK, he recently led a review of 36 studies on stress-reduction strategies and their long-term health outcomes, revealing which ones accomplish two goals: They work in the short term and offer lasting health benefits.
The study confirms other research and my own experience finding that stress reduction requires a comprehensive strategy, not just cheap tips.
Stress doesn’t just happen
To employ effective stress busters, we first have to accept that stress is common and normal for all of us at any age, and that most of us have an overdeveloped ability to make emotional mountains out of cognitive molehills.
“Stress affects all of us and pervades most aspects of life,” McCarrick tells me. “But the problems we encounter in reality are often a mere fraction of how we appraise them in our minds.”
The thing is, stress isn’t something that happens to us. Events and experiences happen (or we create them). Stress is generated, or not, by our resulting thoughts and feelings, and how we deal with them. Often, we do a lousy job of it.
Worrying about a current problem, or some possible future dilemma, or ruminating over stressful stuff that’s in the past — all these cogitations trigger the release of adrenaline and other powerful hormones in a fight-or-flight response that has evolved to help us face or avoid danger. Stress raises your heart rate and your pace of breathing. It can also put a lump in your throat, make your chest hurt, or make it hard to catch your breath.
Imagine, then, when stress becomes chronic, simmering for hours and hours and then days on end. The constant flood of chemicals overload the mind and body and, put simply, wear you out. Fatigue and sadness can set in, your immune system doesn’t work as well, and you may fear you won’t be able to cope—all of which can lead to clinical depression.
To conquer stress, we have to get a grip on our own thought processes, a thing scientists call metacognition, which can include “using internal goals and environmental cues to either switch off or offset intrusive thoughts,” McCarrick says.
Successful stress reduction techniques
With that in mind, you can begin to explore techniques shown to work as part of a broad strategy of effective stress reduction. These five approaches were found to work in the new research review, seemingly regardless of age or gender, McCarrick says:
Psychological detachment: Aim to switch off from stressful situations, perhaps by having a firm rule not to read work email after hours, for example.
Planning: Prepare for how you’ll react when stress strikes, such as planning to postpone your worry for consideration later, as McCarrick does, maybe during a special “worry window” at a regular time that fits your schedule.
Stress management techniques: A range of approaches can be learned through self-education or with the help of a mental-health professional, McCarrick says. A great example: Focus on things you can control and let go of those you can’t. One approach is called the four A’s: Avoid unnecessary stress, Alter the situation, Adapt to the stressor, Accept things you can’t change.
Within that framework, here are some of the specific tips (see a longer list from the Mayo Clinic):
- Identify the sources of your stress.
- Say “no” more often to requests for your time.
- Set realistic goals and avoid sky-high expectations for yourself.
- Make shorter to-do lists that focus only on the most important tasks.
- Be more forgiving. Anger causes stress and stress can lead to anger.
- Politely ask people to stop doing things that cause you stress.
- Talk to someone about your feelings.
Mindfulness and relaxation: People who practice mindfulness and mindfulness meditation understand and extoll its virtues. Those who’ve never tried it may wonder if it’s some sort of hippie hooey. But it’s less esoteric than you might think, and proven to work when done right, according to the new review and a bevy of studies. Mindfulness exercises teach you to be aware of the present moment, focus your thoughts and feelings without judgment, and accept both the good and the bad things in life. Whether on your own, with an app, or with an in-person instructor, practicing mindfulness has been shown to effectively reduce stress as well as anxiety and depression in many people.
Talk therapy: Taking things up a notch, seeking help from a trained psychiatrist has been shown in numerous studies to be a highly effective way to solve problems, reduce stress, and confront several other forms of mental illness. Two types — cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) — challenge a person to recognize negative thinking patterns and learn skills to cope with situations in daily life. These are psychotherapies, not the deeper-dive psychoanalyses that aim to dig into your childhood experiences.
Do these basic things, too
Any of the above techniques can work well whether you practice them on your own or with the help of a professional therapist, the research suggests.
Meanwhile, there are also several specific lifestyle changes known to reduce stress. Consider these as foundational to any stress-reduction strategy:
- Avoid or ease up on alcohol.
- Quiet or scale back your social media use and news consumption.
- Get daily physical activity (aerobics, yoga, brisk walking — anything).
- Cut back on work hours and intensity (seriously—science says).
- Spend more time outside (just being in nature reduces stress).
- Get more and better sleep (here’s how).
While any one of these tactics can be helpful, modern stress requires more than a quick fix. You need a stress-busting strategy, a way to actually plan for the stressors you know are coming, prepare to deal with them, and then proactively improve not just your day but your life.
I hope the effort doesn’t stress you out.
