The American Psychological Association just released a survey that says 1/3 of people are now extremely stressed. This stress interferes with their jobs, productivity, and eating habits. Some of the stressors are work, money, housing, being single, and being parents of young children.
Stress creates dis-ease in your body so that you actually lose time worrying because you get sick more often.
Does it really have to be this way? Why do you think that people are willing to continue to live like this when there are tools for a better life than this?
What are the best tools you've seen that reduce stress?
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Good question, Sandi! In fact, according to the American Journal of Psychiatry the rates of depression across almost all demographic groups have risen in the United States over the past 10 years, with major depression rising from 3.33 percent of U.S. adults in 1991-1992 to 7.06 percent in 2001-2002: In other words, it has more than doubled.
There are 2 ways to reduce stress one, external and one internal. The external one has to do with the society that we live in. The internal one has to do with our mind and thinking patterns.
In an interesting study by International Institute of Management titled Gross National Happiness (GNH) the institute approaches the subject of happiness from the perspective of socioeconomic policies. It seems the best way to reduce the stress would be to reform the socioeconomic system.
According to Med Yones, the author of the paper, "Being happy is a product of personal development and social evolution"..."Without discounting the value of the modern political, socioeconomic and educational systems, the reality is that our current socioeconomic system is not designed to contribute to our happiness and in fact sometimes works against our well-being." The institute makes reform recommendations addressing six main public policy areas: Government, Economics, Work, Media, Education and Environment. You can find more information.
http://www.iim-edu.org/grossnationalhappiness/index.htm
The other way is internal and has to do with the attitude and mental habits of looking at things in life. In an article titled the psychology of happiness and unhappiness. The author explores "the logic, mindset and thinking pattern of happy and unhappy personalities. It helps you identify some of the key characteristics of their behavior and the impact that their behavior has on their emotional well-being and their lives".
Thinking of it, it is really all in our mind! All external stress reduction tools address the branches rather than the roots of the problem. Yoga, music, meditation etc. surely have an effect, but they mostly distract the person from thinking about the problem. What if the person has the right thinking framework and skills to allow him not to get stressed, that would eliminate the need to stress reduction tools all together. The trick, according to the article, is “Mind Programming”. Practicing lifestyle changes and developing new positive thinking patterns as a habit. I guess that would be a very good tool for stress reduction if not elimination for certain areas of one’s life. You can find more about the subject at:
http://www.lifehappiness.org/psychologyofhappiness/index.htm
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