Minimizing Stress, Depression And Staying Positive.

Hello everyone, Today I have a guest post from a good friend of mine Mr B. B. Hank. I personally know Mr Hank and you probably know him too as ScannerMan from the insightful and interesting comments he leaves in this blog.

So take it away my friend…

We live in a world dominated by stress.  Science and medicine have concluded that stress is not healthy but the truth is that it is not something that can be avoided.  America is home to the most stress in the world.  Thanks to our capitalistic society, pressure is constant – to do, to achieve, to make things happen.  Speed of change adds to that.  Add the ever increasing number of humans both in this country and on the planet, bringing the carry capacity of the world to its limits and beyond.

So what can we do about it?

Let us look at what stress actually is. Here is the excerpt from Wikipedia about the concept of “stress” in relation to biology:

Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance. It refers to the consequence of the failure of an organism — human or other animal — to respond adequately to mental, emotional, or physical demands, whether actual or imagined. When the person perceives a threat, their nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rouse the body for emergency action. The stress response is the body’s way of protecting the person. When working properly, it helps in staying focused, energetic, and alert.

To deal with today’s stress one can seek out the cause of that particular stress and attack it directly.  For instance, today I have a stress related headache, a very uncomfortable, vein popping, nuisance.  I attack it directly first by taking some aspirin.  This can relieve some of the actual pain and also affect the blood pressure by thinning the blood and allowing increased circulation.

But what about the actual cause?

Once the medicine takes affect and helps clear the head for better thinking, the root causes might be assessed and effective remediation applied.  In this case the cause is frustration and worry.  Several events occurred that helped cause this.  The fix in this case is to realize past events are gone – where nothing can be changed about them.  Knowing this, one can look at these and think out solutions that can be applied in the future.  This is about stress that has occurred and lends itself to analysis.  Not all stresses conform to this wish.

All that can be done is to try and minimize the stress one gets or creates for oneself.  There are quite a few methods toward that end.  Let us look at some of  these.

How about a look at instant stress – those are events that hits one in the face right now and demand some action, for better or worse.  Fighting stress generally requires the ability to think as clearly as possible.  How does one achieve that in a pinch, a fast moving situation that requires immediate or sooner, attention?

One of the best methods comes from Pranayama.  That’s right – breathing.  The taking of a deep breath has a calming effect on both the mind and the body.  This is the one most immediately effective stress reducer ever found.  It can produce near instant relief.  Take a deep breath, hold it, and exhale slowly.  This allows one to “jump back and catch yourself!”  You can take a  better look at the situation, be able to more clearly think out the solution and how that can be applied.

“Jumping back and catching oneself” involves an abrupt halt where one is able to back out of the situation for, even, seconds, and look especially at what is about to happen, the consequences, and choose one path or another.  This is especially useful in times where  anger is a player, negatively influencing the outcome.

Long term stress is a different animal.  It can sneak up on you.  It can build up while you are aware.  It can do both at the same time.  This is where time and work management in your endeavors is important.  For instance if you are a blogger, you know blogging is ongoing but your life has many more facets; many that come and go as to their importance.  Sometimes when one has to prioritize one’s activities, the blog might get pushed way down the list, until there is little work done on it.  This can be a source of serious stress.

Adam’s note: Tristan has written a great article over at SteveScottSite titled 8 ways to enjoy stress free blogging in which he talks about strategies that have worked well for him to reduce blogging stress. This article is a great read and I thought I would include it here because of its relevancy. The conversations and discussions in the take action post is also relevant here regarding prioritization. 

Realize that there are times when life does not permit one to do as one ideally would like.  This time, this potentially negative energy, can be turned to positivity by planning how one is to get back into one’s  endeavor – taking that lemon and turning it into lemonade.  It is also helpful to know that long term stresses may require longer term solutions.

Economic stress is notorious because there are so many facets to one’s economic life.  Factors like unemployment, debt management, illness, and not having enough money are all prevalent in today’s stress filled world.  Reduction of economic stress can be mitigated by living the minimalist lifestyle.

Another major stress is social stress.  Social stress is especially heavy among younger people who strive to fit in, be like, and/or assimilate into society.  Being new to America is stress on rails.  One not only has to learn the language but the combination of cultures that exist within the zoo we call America.  Social stress is heaviest among people who are from non western societies.  This is difficult because it requires learning the nuances of a culture that is taken from many different cultures and a language that borrows heavily and freely from other languages.  These stresses can only be mitigated with learning and understanding – not an easy task.

How does one do that?  The greatest tool here is Ask.  That’s right, asking questions and discussing answers is a key.  For those born and raised here the same is true.  The changing, fast paced, doggish, society we live in is difficult especially for youth to assimilate; even knowing a great deal about how this society works – a very hard row to hoe.

What about physical stress?  This is one type of stress that in many cases can be made to give positive results.  Athletic stress is one physical that has been shown to be generally good for the body and mind.  It is stress and if applied incorrectly can be debilitating.  One can hurt oneself with the wrong kind of physical stress applied the wrong way and/or time.  We see the effects of correct applications of physical stress in health.  Applied correctly the outcome is better health, greater well being as athletics/exercise has shown to affect one’s well being greatly and positively.

Physical stress managed positively is what helped get me to 62 and still be within 15 pounds of my high school graduation weight, without high blood pressure, heart problems, or organ failure.  Many of my friends and relatives have left the building from the effects of not incorporating exercise (among other things) into their lives.

Buried among these stresses is psychological/emotional/mental stress.  This crew is possibly the most dangerous of the group because it deals with the mind, the mental state.  This is the one stress to minimize.  Due to its pervasiveness and multiple causation it is better to attack its facets, sometimes individually.  The aforementioned methodologies can be of some assistance with these.  Dealing with modern life requires almost daily rethinking about who and why we are and what the hell we’re doing – a near constant mazeway resynthesis.

This family of stresses is the one that affects self confidence and helps pave the way for negative thoughts, frustration, anger, and their buddy – Depression.  We tend to stress on things that need not be given that much attention, things we don’t need to spend as much energy on.  One of the worst is trying to keep up with the “Jonses”. The stress of trying to “keep up” or “be in” (as “in vogue”) – an especially destructive phenomenon for youth.  This peculiar type of negativity stress produced has the tendency to blind one to the better alternatives.

Maintenance of a healthy body helps the mind be healthy.  I found that certain rare minerals, if deficient, can help cause depression in me, so I take multi-vitamins that have high percentages of these  minerals.  I have also tried SSRIs but they produced a false sense of security – They gave me this silly smile while allowing me to just sit and be happy without solving the root causes of my depression.  I no longer use or advocate the use of “happy pills” unless all else fails.

I think that a well  rounded approach – using the more natural tools at hand can give a much better, longer lasting, result.  Then again, this is the real world and no one set of solutions is right for everybody.  You can’t beat eating healthy and exercise for what they do though.  Hand in hand, they rule.  Mental exercise is just as important.  Learning should never stop.  The will to get up an go should never stop.  All these together helps one become and stay positive.  Getting busy is also a great positivity producer.  Doing is a great hedge against depression and negativity.  Good health is the key to good doing, quality results, even fun.

There used to be a guy on TV with an exercise show whose motto was “Don’t Stop”.  My grandfather didn’t until stop he fell off his feet – up and at em at 93, sharp of mind, able of body.

And remember if you get a lemon, add some sugar and water.

Mr Hank is a semi-retired geek who back in the days worked in some high profile companies like Rapp Collins, AT&T, Sprint as a network administrator and consultant. Currently at the ripe age of 62, he is living his life to the fullest by doing what he loves the most – helping people, traveling, mountain biking, bowling and web publishing. You can reach Mr Hank at bbhank@excite.com

Please feel free to comment down below and add to the above conversation. Plus, if you like this article Tweet it, share it in Facebook or your favorite social media outlets.

Here’s to your successful online endeavor!

-Adam Paudyal.

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