Stress Management

As part of my cardiac rehab, I attend a short class each week. The last two weeks have been on stress management and relaxation.

As I reflect on stress in my life, I have been amazed to realize that before my heart failure, I had an extreme amount of stress; however, since my heart failure, Ray and I have slowed our life's pace and have very little stress. What I find interesting is that we are just as fulfilled now as we were when we had a million commitments and activities.

After further thought, it occurred to me that perhaps my co-workers, my family, my friends, my fellow heart disease sufferers, doctors, nurses, pastors, etc. may benefit from a little "stress break" as well. So here are a few lessons learned on how to adjust your thinking and help form a healthier heart:

• CHANGE YOUR THINKING
• IDENTIFY DISTORTIONS -
• all or nothing thinking (if the situation is not perfect, it is a failure),
• overgeneralization (a single negative event is a pattern of defeat),
• mental filter (dwell on a single negative detail),
• disqualifying the positive (don't count the positive),
• jumping to conclusions (no one does that right?),
• magnification or minimization,
• emotional reasoning (I feel it, therefore it must be true),
• should statements (also includes musts and ought tos),
• labeling and mislabeling (I'm a loser, he's a turd)
• personalization (see yourself as a cause when you were not primarily responsible)
• STRAIGHTFORWARD APPROACH - substitute a more positive and realistic thought.
• COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS - list the advantages and disadvantages of a negative feeling, thought, belief, or behavior.
• EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE - what are the facts? what does the data really show?
• SURVEY METHOD - do a survey to find out if your thoughts and attitudes line up with what other people think and fee.
• DOUBLE STANDARD - talk to yourself in the same compassionate way you might talk to a dear friend who was upset.
• ACCEPTANCE - instead of defending yourself against your own self-criticisms, find truth in them and accept them. Then try to change them.
• CLARIFY YOUR VALUES AND PRIORITIES
• You don't have to do everything you are asked to do
• Trim out time-fillers
• Make time for the things that matter most
• EXERCISE
• HAVE FUN/LEISURE/LEARN
• How did you have fun when you were a kid? Why not recreate?
• Too much work and no play make for a dismal attitude.
• Try new activities and get out of your normal routine.
• RELAX
• Any point in your day when you realize you are flying a million miles a minute, stop and take a deep, deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth (this includes when you are stuck in rush hour traffic)
• Take time to stretch your muscles throughout the day
• Turn off the radio, computer, tv and anything else that is noisy and soak in the quiet for at least 15 minutes a day to let yourself unwind and find your focus

Just thought some of these suggestions would do us all some good. Love and peace to you.