Stress is bad, right? Or is it good? Well, if you talk to the experts, they’ll say both are true. You need some stress to just get out of bed in the morning. And when you drive to work in your car, you need stress to stay alert and respond to what is in front of you. So stress has its place. But what if a high level of stress goes on and on? The doctors tell us that ongoing stress becomes Chronic Stress. Chronic Stress is bad news. It shuts down your immune system so you are susceptible to illness, and it robs you of a good night’s sleep.
Fortunately there is a solution. The key is to learn how to inhibit the Stress Response and enter into the Rest Response. If you want to change your stressful-ways, you need to develop and use new stress relief skills. Learn the techniques to direct your mind and body away from stress and into a restful state. Notice I said, “Learn.” That is because stress is automatic; it comes with the human operating system. However, rest and relaxation need to be learned and practiced — they do not come naturally.
So What is Stress?
Stress is your body’s response to the fear perceived by your mind. There are many fears and stresses we as humans have in common — pain and humiliation, to name a couple. There are also many stressors that are particular to each individual. For example, I think spiders are kind of cool; I like to see them crawl on my arm. I know a lot of people who freak out about this and run away screaming. Big stressor for them! You should become aware of what your own particular stressors are.
When your mind recognizes a stressful situation (spiders or 700 point drop in the Stock Market), it immediately alerts your nervous system and endocrine system. From there, every cell in your body gets on the stress express. Everything nonessential in your body shuts down: immune system, cell regeneration, creative thinking processes, etc. Your heart speeds up, breathing becomes rapid, and blood is diverted from your internal organs. You are ready to fight or flee. All this is good if a deer just jumped in front of your car, or you have to dive for the telephone to call your stockbroker.
When Stress Goes Wrong
When stress continues from one crisis to the next, or happens frequently, then your body does not have a chance to fully recover from the stress. If stress continues for a day, or a number of days, then you can expect serious health problems will follow.
During times of chronic stress, stress hormones are released in your bloodstream. Serotonin in your brain (that is your happy brain hormone) is inhibited by excess cortisol, so you feel depressed more of the time. Chronic Stress adversely affects just about every cell in your body. It can even unravel the strands of your DNA. (Don’t ask, you don’t want to know.) Getting to the point, about 90% of all illnesses today are caused by stress. Not a pretty picture. But don’t let me scare you. All of this can be managed with a good set of Stress Relief Skills.
The Need for Stress Relief
So what do we know so far? We need stress to make it through the day. Chronic stress makes us sick. And rest does not come naturally; you have to learn it. So where is the balance between stress and rest? To maintain balance in your workday, you should regularly cycle between moderate stress and rest. After major stressful encounters your body and mind need to reenter a deeply relaxing state. This cycle between stress and rest may happen every few hours or even several times in one hour during your workday.
Stress followed by rest is the key. Fortunately you do not need to take a long nap or go play a round of golf every time you get stressed. Stress relief really only takes a few minutes and needs to become a habit. Once rest is a habit, you will be able to recover from stress in a few minutes, and you will not enter into Chronic Stress.
Stress Relief Skills
Briefly, here are three Stress Relief Skills you should learn and practice.
1. Relax your muscles: say the word “soft” in your mind, picture things that are soft, and in your mind feel the quality of softness. Place that soft image and feeling in all the tense places of your body: your forehead, neck and shoulders, lower back, hips, legs and feet. Use your imagination to search everywhere in your body that is tense and replace the tension with the feeling and image of “softness.” This will cause your muscles to relax and let go. With practice you can easily relax your whole body in 20 seconds while sitting at your desk.
2. Pay special attention to relaxing all the muscles you use for breathing. As you breathe, your rib cage should expand front, back, and side to side. A deep natural breath should move your whole torso and easily fill your lungs. Breathe naturally and not too deep. Allow your breath to slow down, keep your throat open, and make a slow smooth transition between each inhalation and exhalation. Do this breathing practice for at least two minutes. Done properly, this type of breathing will shift your Autonomic Nervous System to a relaxation response and increase your Heart Rate Variability — that is a good thing.
3. Give your mind a rest. When your mind is not thinking about the past or future, or not thinking at all, then you will avoid the stress response. Relax your eyes, look straight in front of you and slightly down, and do not move your eyes. In this way notice your entire field of vision, left to right, and top to bottom. Do not focus on any object, rather be conscious of your entire field of vision. You should feel a little “zoned out.” This practice will slow your mind and even allow it to stop briefly. Your mind needs to rest just as your muscles do.
Once you have learned these skills individually, you can practice them all together at once. This makes the process deeply restful and practical, as it should take only a few minutes — less than five. You should practice these skills several times a day and be sure to use them after every stressful experience.
Aaron Gaul is a Stress Relief Coach. He has studied in India and has a four-year degree from Antioch University in Spiritual Psychology. You can visit his website at www.StressReliefSkills.com
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译文:
压力消除终极指南
压力可是个糟糕的玩意，不是吗？难道说它也有好的一面？诚然。你若找来专家谈谈，他们一定会告诉你：压力是好坏参半。早晨你需要一点压力来作为起床的动力，开车上班你同样需要压力来保持警醒和直面前方。因此，压力是不可或缺的。然而，倘若高压源源不断地侵袭而来呢？ 医生告诉我们，长期的压力将演变成慢性压力。慢性压力可是恶魔，它会让你的免疫系统趋于崩溃，令你易于生病，并影响你的睡眠质量。
好在还有解决的办法。重中之重，是学会抑制应激反应[1]，进入其他反应状态。你若是不想让压力蔓延，就该培养和采用新的减压技巧。比如，学习如何让你的身心从压力中脱离出来，进入放松状态。注意我说的，是“学习”。因为压力是自然而然，伴随着人体操作系统而产生的。然而休憩与放松不是先天就会的——需要我们去习得和操练。
压力为何物？
压力是人体对大脑所感知到的恐惧的生理反应。人类有许多共有的恐惧感和压力，比方说，痛苦与耻辱，还有些压力源是每个人所独有的。譬如，我就认为蜘蛛很酷（译者狂汗中-_- ），我喜欢看着它们在我手上爬。而我知道大多数人看到蜘蛛都会抓狂，然后尖叫着跑开。他们也太紧张了吧！你应该慢慢了解你自己的压力所在。
当你的大脑识别出一种应激情境（发现蜘蛛或是你的股票又跌破700点的时候），大脑会立刻向神经系统和内分泌系统发出警报，你身体的每个细胞都开始处于紧张状态。此刻身体的其他不相关系统，如免疫系统、细胞再生、创造性思维进程等等，都将停止运作。你的心跳加快，呼吸急促，血液逆流。你已经准备好——或战，或逃。除非股市还有转机（原文直译为当你开车就快撞上一头麋鹿时它泰然一跃，译者认为采用意译好些），要不你也只好急急忙忙掏电话打给你的股票经纪人了。这很正常。
当压力变得糟糕
当压力一波未平一波又起, 或是不断袭来，你的身体就很难从压力中完全恢复过来。如果压力持续了一整天，甚至是好几天,那你就得等着看一系列危害严重的健康问题接踵而来了。
伴随着慢性压力，应激激素会在血液中扩散开来。你大脑中的血清素（感知快乐的脑激素）被大量皮质醇所压制，所以大多时候你会感到萎靡不振。慢性压力对你体内的每个细胞都施加负面影响，慢性压力甚至会解开你的DNA索(别问我，你不会想知道这些的)。还是说说重点吧，目前90%的疾病都是压力导致的。这景况不容乐观，但我可绝不是为了吓吓你才这么说的。只要你有一套好的减压之道，这些问题都好办。
减轻压力所要做的
综上所诉，我们可以得出什么结论？我们需要压力来度过每一天，而慢性压力则会引发疾病。休憩不是先天就会的，你需要学习怎样休憩。因而怎样才能保持压力与休憩间的平衡？要在工作日保持平衡，你必须在压力和休憩间有规律地循环调节. 在高压面前，你的身心需要重新进入到深度放松状态。这种压力与休憩间的循环在工作日每隔几小时（甚至一小时几次）就会产生。
关键是要应对休憩后产生的压力。所幸的是，你不用在每次感到压力的时候就去睡觉或打回高尔夫。减压实际上只需要短短几分钟，而旨在形成一种习惯。一旦休憩成为一种习惯, 你花几分钟就能从压力中释放出来，而不至于让你走向慢性压力。
减压高招
简单地说，你可以试试以下三种减压技巧。
1. 肌肉放松: 在心里默念“柔软”，在脑海里勾勒那些柔软的事物并感受柔软的本质。把这些柔软的图像和感受放置于所有你感觉身体紧绷的地方：前额，颈部和肩膀，后背，臀部，腿和脚。运用想象力搜索你身体紧绷的各部位，用你想象和感知的“柔软”取代紧张感。这能让你的肌肉放松和舒展开来。通过练习，书桌旁你就轻而易举地在20秒内让全身舒缓。
2. 尤其要注意放松与呼吸有关的肌肉：当你呼吸的时候，胸腔应该前前后后，左右伸展。一次自然的深呼吸应该牵动全身，毫不费力地进入你的肺部，自然呼吸，不要太刻意。让呼吸渐渐慢下来，张大嘴巴，在吸气与呼气间稳当地来回转换。呼吸练习不得少于两分钟。做得好的话，这样的呼吸能将你的自主神经系统转变成一种松弛反应[2]并增加心率变异性[3]——这是好事。
3. 让大脑休息下. 当你的大脑没在思考过去或未来，或者根本什么都没想时，你就能避开应激反应。放松你的眼睛，直视前方，稍微下移，不再转移视线。 就这样感受你的视野，从左到右，由上至下。不要集中看某样东西，就这样感受你的整个视野。你会感到有那么点在“神游”。这项练习能让思维慢下来，或者干脆让它停止运转。你的大脑和肌肉一样，同样需要休息。
一旦你逐个地习得以上技巧，你马上就可以全部实践下。这样，你只需短短几分钟，不超过五分钟的时间，你就能完成整个流程，压力消除的整个无比宁静而又切合实际的流程。你需要日复一日，反复地实践这三项技能，并确保每次经受压力后，都能使用上述技能来缓解压力。
亚伦高卢是一名压力消除专家. 他曾在印度求学，并在安提俄克大学有研习精神心理学四年的资历. 你可以访问他的网站：http://www.stressreliefskills.com/
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译者注：
[1]应激是指某些因素如精神紧张、创伤、感染、休克、手术、心肌梗塞等对人体施加压力，而人体产生抵抗的一种现象。由于紧急的情景刺激这个有机体，就能使其激活水平很快改变，引起情绪的高度应激化。在危险的境遇下独立地采取果断的决定，在瞬息变化的情况下作出迅速的反应，都是应激状态。
[2]松弛反应：这是一种通过自我调整训练，由身体放松进而导致整个身心放松，以对抗由于心理应激而引起交感神经兴奋的紧张反应，从而达到消除紧张和强身祛病目的的行为训练技术。一般的松弛反应训练方法，使用较多的是雅可布松所首创的渐进性松弛法。此法可使被试者学会交替收缩或放松自己的骨骼肌群，同时能体验到自身肌肉的紧张和松弛的程度以及有意识地去感受四肢和躯体的松紧、轻重和冷暖的程度，从而取得松静的效果。我国的气功、印度的瑜珈和日本的坐禅等都能起到类似的作用。
[3]心率变异性（Heart rate variability HRV）是指窦性心率在一定时间内周期性改变的现象，是反应交感-副交感神经张力及其平衡的重要指标。