5 simple ways to minimize stress

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