Stress and Heart Disease: 8 Smart Ways to Deal With Stress

Stress and heart disease are linked—exposing yourself to chronic stress can increase your risk of developing heart disease.

So, how can you deal with stress so that it will not harm your heart? What are some healthy ways to deal with stress? What are some practical ways to handle stress so that it does not give you serious health problems?

In this article, I want to show you how to deal with stress, as well as some stress management techniques you can employ to help you cope with stress at school, at work, or in the home so that you can enjoy a healthy life.

Now, what are some of the strategies you can use?

 

1.    Focus On Beautiful Scenes

• Get 10 pictures of enchanting, exquisite, breathtaking scenes, such as waterfalls, a beach on an exotic tropical island, a beautiful lake nestled in gorgeous mountains, breathtaking shots of a forest or a botanical garden, the sun rising in the morning or setting in the evening, stars shining on a dark night, a river flowing through lush, verdant vegetation and so on.
• Then, sit quietly and comfortably in your chair or on a mat, spread these pictures around you, and focus on each picture for five minutes, doing your best to see every element of peace and tranquility that you can possibly find in each picture.
• Then, close your eyes and imagine yourself physically present at these locations enjoying yourself and having fun.
• Try to breathe in deeply but slowly as you look at the pictures, and breathe out slowly through your mouth.

When you focus on pleasant scenes such as the ones listed above, the scenes will help your mind to grow calm and that can help you to relax and feel at ease.

Additionally, as you sit quietly observing and enjoying these images in a relaxed mood, your heart rate will reduce and the tension in your muscles will also ease so that you can feel calm and at peace with yourself.

2.    Exercise Regularly

Exercising stimulates chemicals in the brain which encourage the growth of nerve cells. Furthermore, exercising boosts the release of serotonin and norepinephrine, which are hormones that make one feel good and relaxed.

Additionally, when your heart rate goes up during exercising, a hormone known as ANP, which helps control the brain’s response to stress, is released into the body to induce happiness and positive feelings in your body.

Therefore, every day, try to exercise. There are various ways you can do this:

• Sprint quickly for a distance of 50 meters, rest for two minutes, and sprint for another 50 meters every evening.
• Run at a moderate, steady pace for 5 miles every day.
• Climb up and down stairs continuously for 20 minutes every weekend.
• Jump a rope quickly for 10 minutes, continue at a slower pace for 10 minutes, and then increase the pace for another 10 minutes every evening.
• Walk briskly with your dog for 15 minutes, tickle it, tease it and play with it for 5 minutes, and then walk briskly again for another 10 minutes, during weekends.
• Walk briskly to the canteen or restaurant at your workplace during lunch break instead of riding there in your car.
• Use the stairs when you are going for lunch instead of using the elevator.
• Cycle for 30 minutes with friends or family members on Saturdays and Sundays.

3.    Avoid Negativity

Hearing bad news after bad news, listening to the grumbling and complaining of people dissatisfied with life, and focusing on negative stuff can make you feel even more stressed out and worried.

Therefore, guard your mind by filling it with positive things—avoid radio and TV programs that are unnecessarily argumentative, especially the ones that argue about topics you are passionate about because such programs can make your blood pressure rise.

Furthermore,  spend a lot of time with positive-minded people who will speak encouraging words and words of motivation into your heart to inspire you.

Additionally, listen to motivational speeches when you have spare time on your hands, watch inspirational movies whose themes are peace, hope, love, contentment, faith in God, overcoming challenges and such themes, and make positive affirmations to yourself often.

4.    Try To Get Enough Sleep Every Night

A study conducted by scientists at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine suggests that when a person does not get enough sleep or when he or she suffers severe sleep disturbances, a large amount of cortisol, a stress hormone, is secreted into that person’s body.

In other words, when you don’t get enough sleep every day, your brain releases large amounts of this stress hormone and, consequently, your stress levels increase.

On the other hand, when you get enough sleep, you will wake up feeling refreshed, mentally alert, relaxed and composed, and that can help you to tackle your challenges in a calm mood.

5.    Don’t Try To Be A Perfectionist

One attitude that can make you increase your levels of stress is trying to be a perfectionist. When you are afraid to make mistakes, when you feel that you must always produce excellent work, and when you are always putting pressure on yourself to produce near-perfect work, you can become mentally exhausted and your anxieties can increase.

Therefore, remind yourself often of your fallibility and of the fact that you can’t get it right all the time.  Tell yourself that it is alright to make mistakes once in a while and that making mistakes does not make you a bad student, a bad worker, a bad spouse and so on, but a student, worker, or spouse who can get it right sometimes and get it wrong at other times.

Furthermore, look at your mistakes as opportunities to help you to grow and develop yourself instead of seeing them as signs which show that you are not good enough.

6.    Listen To Slow Music   

Slow, calm music can soothe nerves, help muscles to relax, as well as slow down the heart rate and decrease the levels of stress hormones in the body so that you can feel calm.

So, when you are worried about how you are going to get money to pay your child’s school fees, when you are troubled about the rape cases going on in your neighborhood because you have young daughters, when your boyfriend or girlfriend is giving you headaches, when your neighbor is acting in ways that irritate you, or when you get mad at the behavior of irresponsible drivers on the raid, listen to something cool and slow.

Close your eyes, focus on the instrumentals and the rhythms, let them sink into your mind and your heart and enjoy them. Additionally, you may hum to the music or whistle as you listen to it so that you can create happy feelings in your body, which will lower your blood pressure and help you to feel calm.

7.    Do Gardening

A study conducted in the Netherlands suggests that gardening can help a person to deal with stress. So, spend time growing food crops, flowers, fruits, vegetables, or rearing small animals such as rabbits, cane rats, or chickens.

As you tend the crops or take care of the animals, the focus of your mind will shift from work, family responsibilities, fears, and other worries and that will make you experience some amount of mental relief, which will help you to feel relaxed.

8.    Prayer

Prayer is one tool you can use to deal with stress. When you take a break from your activities to spend quiet time to commune with your Maker,  when you remind yourself that there is Someone greater than you who can help you with your struggles and problems, it can give you a sense of comfort and that can help you to have peace of mind.

So, say a prayer such as this one when you feel stressed out, “LORD, I glorify Your Name for Your mercies and Your grace which have sustained me to this day. LORD, my flesh and my heart are failing me. I feel overwhelmed by all the problems I am facing at the moment. I acknowledge that there is a limit to what I can do, but there is no limit to what You can do. Your grace is sufficient for me, LORD. Please give me Your grace and help me to solve the many problems that I have to deal with every day. Amen.”

Conclusion

To deal with stress, focus on beautiful scenes and eye-pleasing imagery, exercise regularly, avoid filling your mind with negative ideas and negative words, try to get enough sleep every day, don’t put pressure on yourself to produce perfect work always, listen to slow music when you are stressed out, do gardening often, and cast your cares and burden on God and you will feel relieved.

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