Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / 5 simple ways to minimize stress

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5 simple ways to minimize stress · Silver FM 100.6

0:01
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Speaker 2: You're listening to Life Kit.
0:26
Speaker 3: From NPR.
0:30
Speaker 4: Hey, everybody, it's maryel.
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Speaker 2: We all get stressed, right And one thing I've learned
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Speaker 2: through our reporting it Life Kit is that while it's
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Speaker 2: really important to ground yourself in these moments, that's not
0:41
Speaker 2: where the work ends. Because if you're constantly having these
0:45
Speaker 2: days where your fight or flight response is triggered, there's
0:48
Speaker 2: probably a reason, some underlying cause of your stress. It
0:51
Speaker 2: could be your health or the health of someone you love.
0:54
Speaker 2: It could be a relationship that's falling apart, or the
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Speaker 2: fact that you can't pay rent, or a fear for
0:58
Speaker 2: your safety.
1:00
Speaker 5: These are things that never quite go away, so that
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Speaker 5: fight or flight response is always on at a slow
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Speaker 5: hum in the background.
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Speaker 2: That's doctor A. DT Narukar She's an internal medicine physician
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Speaker 2: at Harvard and she wrote a book called The Five Resets.
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Speaker 5: The Five Resets has been laid out to be a roadmap, a.
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Speaker 2: Roadmap to recovering from chronic stress because stress doesn't just
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Speaker 2: make us feel terrible in the moment. It can also
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Speaker 2: have ongoing effects on our bodies. It puts us at
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Speaker 2: higher risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes,
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Speaker 2: and it can also increase inflammation in our bodies and
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Speaker 2: weaken our immune systems. NPR Health correspondent Retoo chatter Gye
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Speaker 2: talk to doctor Narucar and on today's episode, they're going
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Speaker 2: to walk us through these five resets and how they
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Speaker 2: can help you live a healthier, less stressful life.
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Speaker 6: The surreal horror film back Rooms is a smash. The
1:58
Speaker 6: director is a twenty year old YouTuber and it's based
2:01
Speaker 6: on his popular web series Why is this online Phenomenon
2:05
Speaker 6: taking off at the box Office? We get into it
2:07
Speaker 6: on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Listen via the NPR
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Speaker 6: app or wherever you get your.
2:12
Speaker 3: Podcasts Aditi says a key part of lowering one's stress
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Speaker 3: is finding ways to rest and recover.
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Speaker 5: Rest and recovery are not just nice to have luxuries.
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Speaker 5: They are essential for our brains and bodies, and particularly
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Speaker 5: for the biological features of our brains and bodies to thrive.
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Speaker 3: Now, if you're already stressed and overwhelmed, you might be
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Speaker 3: thinking I have no time for rest and recovery, or
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Speaker 3: the idea of adding one more thing on my plate,
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Speaker 3: even if it's to ultimately lower stress, makes me feel
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Speaker 3: even more overwhelmed. Well, that's exactly how most of Aditi's
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Speaker 3: former patients felt when they came to see her. Take
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Speaker 3: for example, a patient she calls Wes.
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Speaker 5: Wes is a single dad of three. He works two jobs,
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Speaker 5: and his doctors had told him that it's important for
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Speaker 5: him to lose weight because he has high blood pressure,
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Speaker 5: is slowly starting to develop high cholesterol and may develop
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Speaker 5: diabetes down the road.
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Speaker 3: She says. Wes knew he had to change his diet,
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Speaker 3: but he just couldn't do it because he was living
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Speaker 3: in survival mode.
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Speaker 5: He would wake up early in the morning, take care
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Speaker 5: of his children, which was his first priority. He would
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Speaker 5: rush out the door. He would get to his first job.
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Speaker 5: Then between jobs he needed.
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Speaker 3: To eat, and so he'd swing by a drive through
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Speaker 3: on his way to his second job and grab a
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Speaker 3: burger and fries.
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Speaker 5: And it was easy, fast and cheap. Then he would
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Speaker 5: go on to his next job and he would finish
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Speaker 5: that and he would come home, exhausted, fatigued, having done
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Speaker 5: the best he possibly could. He would go to sleep,
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Speaker 5: he would wake up, and he would do it all
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Speaker 5: over again.
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Speaker 3: Wes is like a lot of people. His circumstance were tough.
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Speaker 3: He didn't have the money or the time to join
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Speaker 3: a gym or take along vacation, although I'm sure he'd
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Speaker 3: have enjoyed that. But Aditi's resets are small adjustments to
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Speaker 3: people's daily lives that have been shown to lower stress levels.
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Speaker 3: So she began helping Wes with her first reset, which
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Speaker 3: is also our first takeaway. It's called finding your most goal.
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Speaker 7: Most is an acronym most and for motivating or for
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Speaker 7: objective and measurable, s for small and tea for timely,
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Speaker 7: something you can accomplish within a couple of months.
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Speaker 3: So start thinking about what it is about your stressed, out,
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Speaker 3: overwhelmed life you want to change and why is there
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Speaker 3: something you can look forward to When you make that
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Speaker 3: change and are feeling less overwhelmed.
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Speaker 5: Ask yourself what matters to me. Most studies have found
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Speaker 5: that when you focus on what matters to you most,
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Speaker 5: it can help you increase your sense of self efficacy.
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Speaker 5: And efficacy is your sense and ability to feel like, hey,
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Speaker 5: I can do that.
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Speaker 3: Aditi says, Wes wanted to get healthy so he could
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Speaker 3: be around for his kids for the long haul. That
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Speaker 3: was his m the motivation for his goal. So Aditi
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Speaker 3: helped him find ways to make little tweaks to his
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Speaker 3: daily routines. The stuff that makes up the rest of
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Speaker 3: the most acronym the objective, small and timely things that
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Speaker 3: Wes could do right away, things that could lighten his
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Speaker 3: load within a short period of time, like buying healthier
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Speaker 3: foods at the grocery store.
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Speaker 5: And when he was packing his three children's lunch the
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Speaker 5: night before, he would do the same for himself.
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Speaker 3: Once he started to do that, he stopped eating fast
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Speaker 3: food for lunch, and he started to use those twenty
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Speaker 3: minutes between his two jobs to take a walk at
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Speaker 3: a nearby industrial park.
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Speaker 5: That twenty minute walk helped him so much in terms
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Speaker 5: of creating a habit of daily movement. He was able
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Speaker 5: to decrease his stress. It created a stopgap measure for
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Speaker 5: him because it helped him create a bookend between one
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Speaker 5: job and the other.
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Speaker 3: All of which began to lower his daily stress levels
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Speaker 3: and exhaustion. So when you're thinking about your most goal,
6:09
Speaker 3: try to think hard about why you want to have
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Speaker 3: less stress. Maybe, like Wes, you want to have more
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Speaker 3: time for your kids or other family or friends, or
6:18
Speaker 3: perhaps you want to make room in your life for
6:20
Speaker 3: something else that brings you joy. If you figure out
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Speaker 3: that why, it will make it easier for your already exhausted,
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Speaker 3: overwhelmed brain to start thinking about those other little changes
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Speaker 3: you can make in your daily life to get to
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Speaker 3: your goal. Our second takeaway, Aditi's second Reset is all
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Speaker 3: about finding quiet in a noisy world by changing your
6:42
Speaker 3: relationship with technology, because most of our lives these days
6:45
Speaker 3: are filled with so much noise and information coming at
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Speaker 3: us all the time from our devices, especially US smartphones.
6:53
Speaker 3: Studies showed that on average, people spend more than four
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Speaker 3: hours on their phone each day, that's more than twenty
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Speaker 3: eight hours a week. Surveys also show that over fifty
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Speaker 3: percent of respondents grab their phones within fifteen minutes of
7:07
Speaker 3: waking up, about fifteen percent doing this as soon.
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Speaker 5: As they wake up they are scrolling through the headlines
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Speaker 5: or social.
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Speaker 4: Media or their email.
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Speaker 5: Think about what that is doing to your brain and
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Speaker 5: your body. Think about what that's doing to your stress.
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Speaker 3: Aditi also writes about a phenomenon that researcher David Levy
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Speaker 3: called popcorn brain. Think about what happens when you sit
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Speaker 3: down to read a book and then grab your phone
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Speaker 3: to look up a word, and then check messages and
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Speaker 3: social media updates that urge to constantly bounce from task
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Speaker 3: to task when we're online. That's popcorn brain.
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Speaker 5: Our brain circuitry starts to pop from that extended time
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Speaker 5: spent online, and it makes it increasingly difficult to live offline.
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Speaker 3: Because the pace of life offline is much slower than
7:53
Speaker 3: the online one and needs more time and attention. A
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Speaker 3: good way to counter that sensation of a hopping brain circuitry,
8:01
Speaker 3: Aditi says, is by setting boundaries with your phone, limit
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Speaker 3: scrolling to twenty minutes a day. One thing that can
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Speaker 3: help you get there is by limiting the push notifications
8:12
Speaker 3: and alerts on your phone during the day. She suggests
8:15
Speaker 3: putting your phone away in a drawer or, if possible,
8:17
Speaker 3: ten feet away so it's easier to resist that urge
8:20
Speaker 3: to grab it all the time at night. She suggests
8:23
Speaker 3: keeping the phone far enough so you can't reach for
8:26
Speaker 3: it first thing in the morning.
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Speaker 5: So when you open your eye, give your body and
8:31
Speaker 5: brain the ability to open the other eye and just
8:34
Speaker 5: rest in the moment for thirty seconds, for one minute,
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Speaker 5: doesn't have to be long, but just acho me to
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Speaker 5: the morning, the light, and then you can check your phone.
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Speaker 5: But giving yourself that little moment of pause, of grounding
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Speaker 5: at the start of your day can be a game changer.
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Speaker 3: We'll have more life kit after the break.
9:00
Speaker 4: Reeves is unimpressed by online influencers who pedal ideas about
9:04
Speaker 4: hyper masculinity.
9:06
Speaker 3: You're talking about boys and men.
9:07
Speaker 6: Where's your policy agenda?
9:09
Speaker 8: You're good on podcasts, but we've actually done a bunch
9:11
Speaker 8: of stuff for boys and men.
9:12
Speaker 3: Sorry, what have you done?
9:14
Speaker 4: Ideas about the next era of manhood? That's on the
9:17
Speaker 4: Ted Radio hour podcast, listen on the NPR app or
9:21
Speaker 4: wherever you get your podcasts.
9:25
Speaker 3: Our third takeaway, Aditi's third reset is about ways to
9:29
Speaker 3: tap into the mind body connection to lower stress.
9:33
Speaker 5: The mind body connection. It might be a newphrase to you,
9:36
Speaker 5: but you have been operating with the mind body connection
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Speaker 5: in the background your whole life.
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Speaker 3: Butterflies in your stomach when you fall in love, You're
9:44
Speaker 3: heart racing before a big interview. Are your muscles feeling
9:47
Speaker 3: tight and achy after a long, stressful day at work?
9:51
Speaker 3: All examples of the mind body connection.
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Speaker 5: Your mind and your body are in constant communication and
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Speaker 5: inextricably linked. What's good for your body is good for
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Speaker 5: your brain, and vice versa.
10:03
Speaker 3: And she has a number of ways to harness this
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Speaker 3: connection to our benefit. For example, regular deep breathing exercises,
10:09
Speaker 3: like one exercise called stop Breathe b that sheese used
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Speaker 3: for many years.
10:15
Speaker 5: When I had a busy clinical practice and I was
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Speaker 5: a medical resident in training, and I would see thirty
10:19
Speaker 5: patients a day, and so my task was as I
10:23
Speaker 5: would knock on the patient door before entering the next room,
10:27
Speaker 5: and I would stop breathe and center myself and just
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Speaker 5: be It's three seconds, and I would say this to
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Speaker 5: myself under my breath, stop breathe and.
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Speaker 3: B Aditi says this technique can be particularly useful before
10:40
Speaker 3: you do something stressful, say a work meeting that you've
10:43
Speaker 3: been dreading. It only takes a few seconds, but when
10:46
Speaker 3: repeated many times over the course of the day can
10:49
Speaker 3: have a dramatic effect on stress levels. Daily movement can
10:54
Speaker 3: also help with that.
10:55
Speaker 5: Not only is movement good for the brain and the body,
11:00
Speaker 5: but in fact not enough movement, or rather no movement.
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Speaker 5: Being sedentary is in fact bad for the brain and body.
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Speaker 3: And so try finding ways to sit less and move more.
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Speaker 3: Maybe you take five minute walks a few times a day,
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Speaker 3: or maybe, like Aditi's patient Wes, you do one twenty
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Speaker 3: minute walk every day. Our next takeaway, the fourth to
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Speaker 3: three set in Aditi's book, is about the benefits of
11:26
Speaker 3: doing tasks one at a time and taking regular work breaks,
11:31
Speaker 3: because most people these days don't take breaks at work,
11:34
Speaker 3: and multitasking has become the norm.
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Speaker 5: The slack channel, the emails, everything going at once. Multitasking
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Speaker 5: it is something that all of us do because it's
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Speaker 5: part of modern working life and we are required to multitask.
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Speaker 3: But she cautions that even if we think we're good
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Speaker 3: at multitasking, studies show that only about two percent of
11:54
Speaker 3: people can effectively do it.
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Speaker 5: We know that multitasking is a scientific misnomer. There's no
12:00
Speaker 5: such thing. When we are multitasking, what we are actually
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Speaker 5: doing is task switching. Doing two separate tasks in rapid secession.
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Speaker 3: Aditi says that's taxing on the brain.
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Speaker 5: Multitasking, or rather task switching weekends are prefrontal cortex. Weekends
12:18
Speaker 5: are cognition, our memory, our attention, and ironically, our ability
12:24
Speaker 5: to be productive.
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Speaker 3: What can help, she says, is a technique called time blocking.
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Speaker 5: Essentially, it means doing one task for you know, you
12:32
Speaker 5: start at five or ten minutes, and then you take
12:34
Speaker 5: a short break, and then you do another task for five, ten,
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Speaker 5: twenty minutes and take a short break and then do
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Speaker 5: the next task.
12:40
Speaker 3: She says doing just one task at a time is
12:43
Speaker 3: better for the brain, and so are regular breaks throughout
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Speaker 3: the day. Aditi says the breaks don't need to be
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Speaker 3: very long, anywhere between three and ten minutes, but she
12:52
Speaker 3: says be intentional about those breaks and do something to
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Speaker 3: de stress.
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Speaker 5: Whether it means getting up and stretching, making a walk,
13:01
Speaker 5: going outside, doing something where you are intentionally creating a
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Speaker 5: little bit of spaciousness in your brain can have an
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Speaker 5: impact not just on feeling good, but actually changing the
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Speaker 5: biology of your stress in your brain and your body.
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Speaker 5: In fact, when you take a break, you are enhancing
13:19
Speaker 5: your productivity.
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Speaker 3: Her fifth three set and our last takeaway can help
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Speaker 3: you counter one of the most common impacts of stress
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Speaker 3: on people's psyches by quieting the inner critic.
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Speaker 5: So when there is a negative experience, it becomes sticky
13:35
Speaker 5: in your brain like velcro. The same amount of good
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Speaker 5: and bad may be happening to you at the same time,
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Speaker 5: but when you're feeling a sense of stress, you hold
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Speaker 5: onto those negative experiences and there's a heightened sense of negativity.
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Speaker 3: She says, when you stress, the brain uses a part
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Speaker 3: of it called the amygdala.
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Speaker 5: Your amygdala is focused on survival and self preservation, and
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Speaker 5: your inner critic has a megaphone during periods of stress
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Speaker 5: because ironically, it's trying to keep you safe and out
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Speaker 5: of harm's way. And so when you are trying something
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Speaker 5: new or when you're learning something new, that inner critic
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Speaker 5: is holding that megaphone and shouting from the rooftops. You're
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Speaker 5: not good enough, you're going to fail, you'll never get there.
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Speaker 3: One proven way to hush that negative in our critic
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Speaker 3: is with the daily exercise of gratitude journaling. Adititi says,
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Speaker 3: every night, before you go to bed, write down five
14:31
Speaker 3: things you're grateful for that happen that day. There will
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Speaker 3: be days when you'll have plenty to write about, and
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Speaker 3: on some days it might be hard to find things
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Speaker 3: that you're grateful for. But still, she says, stick to
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Speaker 3: the exercise, even if it's to acknowledge the basic things
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Speaker 3: you have.
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Speaker 5: One of those things could be I have a roof
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Speaker 5: over my head, I have food in my fridge and
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Speaker 5: my pantry.
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Speaker 3: Over time, she says, the practice makes the brain less
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Speaker 3: like Velcrow and more like teflon to negative stressful experience,
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Speaker 3: and it does this through a process called cognitive reframing.
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Speaker 5: Shift your focus to focusing on those good things, and
15:08
Speaker 5: that in turn will change your brain. It'll change your
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Speaker 5: brain circuitry, and it will silence that inner critic and
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Speaker 5: quiet down, decrease the volume of your amygdala.
15:20
Speaker 3: And now it's time for a recap. Our first takeaway
15:24
Speaker 3: is figuring out your most goal. Most is an acronym
15:27
Speaker 3: and for motivating or for objective, and measurables for small
15:32
Speaker 3: and T for timely. This will help your already stressed
15:35
Speaker 3: an overwhelmed brain feel motivated to make changes and figure
15:38
Speaker 3: out where to start. Take Away Number two set boundaries
15:42
Speaker 3: with your phone and other devices. Keep your phone out
15:45
Speaker 3: of reach at night so you don't reach for it
15:47
Speaker 3: first thing in the morning, and limit scrolling to twenty
15:49
Speaker 3: minutes a day. Take Away number three. Tap into your
15:53
Speaker 3: mind body connection to lower stress throughout the day. Deep
15:56
Speaker 3: breathing exercises and daily movement are a great way to
15:59
Speaker 3: do that. Take Away number four. Stop trying to multitask,
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Speaker 3: focus on one task at a time, and take regular
16:07
Speaker 3: breaks at work. Take Away number five practice daily gratitude journaling.
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Speaker 3: It only takes about five minutes but can dramatically rewire
16:16
Speaker 3: your brain to be less stressed and more open to
16:19
Speaker 3: positive experiences and parts. But regardless of which of these
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Speaker 3: resets you use, are the advisors starting with just two things.
16:26
Speaker 3: She calls this the resilience rule of two.
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Speaker 5: The resilience rule of two is how your brain responds
16:34
Speaker 5: to change. Change is a stressor for your brain. Even
16:40
Speaker 5: positive changes in your life can be a stress for
16:44
Speaker 5: your brain. This is why New Year's resolutions don't stick,
16:47
Speaker 5: because we often have the everything but the kitchen sink
16:50
Speaker 5: approach and we try to do everything all at once.
16:53
Speaker 5: Nothing sticks, and so we throw in the towel and
16:55
Speaker 5: we say, oh, well, didn't work.
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Speaker 3: But starting with just two changes at a time, says,
17:00
Speaker 3: we'll make it more likely for you to succeed in
17:02
Speaker 3: your efforts and for those strategies to become daily habits.
17:06
Speaker 3: And once they're part of your daily life, she says,
17:08
Speaker 3: then you can go ahead and try two more changes.
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Speaker 5: That is how we work with our biology rather than
17:14
Speaker 5: against it.
17:18
Speaker 2: That was doctor Adetin Arukar in conversation with NPR Health
17:21
Speaker 2: correspondent Retoo chatter Ge. All right, that's our show. For
17:26
Speaker 2: more Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We have
17:28
Speaker 2: one on how to get into strength training and another
17:31
Speaker 2: uncommon sleep myths. Also, we love hearing from you, so
17:34
Speaker 2: if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share,
17:37
Speaker 2: email us at life Kit at NPR dot org. This
17:41
Speaker 2: episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie Schneider.
17:44
Speaker 2: Our digital editor is Malica garib Our visuals editor is CJ. Rikalon.
17:49
Speaker 2: Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan
17:52
Speaker 2: is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle,
17:56
Speaker 2: Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Magluth.
18:01
Speaker 2: I'm Mary el Sagata. Thanks for listening.
18:13
Speaker 9: On NPR's Wildcard Podcast. John c Riley says he believes
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