If you’re feeling stressed, these 7 ‘rescue remedies’ can help | Top Vip News

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By Alexandra Klausner

Do you sigh when you are stressed? You are already on the way to regulating your emotions.

Kandi Wiens, an author and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in stress, resilience and burnout, shared her tips for combating stress with The Post.

“People think that when we distract ourselves from stress, that’s a bad thing, but not necessarily,” explained the director of Penn’s master’s in medical education program.

She has a series of stress distraction techniques, which she calls “rescue remedies,” designed to counteract the effects of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These strategies, which range from sighing to exercising to looking at a photo of a loved one, are outlined in her upcoming book, “Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work.” next month.

sigh

Wiens said the breathing technique (two inhalations through the nose and one long exhalation through the mouth) helps people reduce their stress response.

As an anxiety-relieving practice, sighing opens the air sacs in the lungs called alveoli and maximizes the amount of oxygen people get into their lungs.

““When we are stressed and when our stress response is triggered, we accumulate carbon dioxide,” he explained.

“[Sighing] It allows us to absorb enough oxygen at once. Then, that long exhalation allows us to discharge that carbon dioxide,” he added.

Look at a photo of someone you love.

In his research, Wiens said study participants reported that looking at a photo of their children or another person they love calms them.

Simply looking at a picture can produce oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone,” which can counteract stress hormones.

In stressful times, the body “discharges a lot of cortisol and adrenaline, and this causes all kinds of bad things to happen in our body.”

“Our heart rate goes up, our oxygen intake goes down,” he explained.

However, looking at a photo of someone you love “activates the parasympathetic nervous system,” which is activated when the body is in a state of relaxation.

physical touch

Holding someone’s hand or hugging them works similarly to looking at a photograph when it comes to reducing stress.

“Looking at a photo and touching it triggers oxytocin,” he explained.

Hugging a pet can have the same benefits. And if there isn’t a person you love or an animal nearby, massaging your temples or putting your hand on your heart can put you in a state of balance.

You can also calm yourself by massaging your neck at the base of your skull. This stimulates the vagus nerve, which is full of oxytocin receptors.

Exercise

Wiens said exercise produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter and hormone that gives people feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

“When you exercise, you feel a little bit of physical euphoria. You feel like you will have a little more energy afterwards,” she explained.

Like other stress-relieving exercises, exercise can help “dominate the sympathetic nervous system and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.”

“You’re training your body to produce the right hormones at the right levels,” he explained.

Spend time in nature

Spending time in nature increases the production of dopamine and endorphins.

Endorphins are chemicals released by the body in response to pain or stress and are also released during pleasurable activities such as spending time in nature, exercising, having sex, laughing, meditating, and eating chocolate. according to Harvard Health.

Wien’s book said the stress-reducing effects of being in nature occur in as little as 10 minutes.

Cry

Crying releases oxytocin and endorphins and can help people calm down and regulate their mood.

cCalculate, Locate, Communicate, Breathe and Exhale (CLCBE)

Another stress-busting technique he suggested is called Calculate, Locate, Communicate, Breathe and Exhale (CLCBE), coined by Dr. Howard Stevenson, also of the University of Pennsylvania.

For the calculation portion, he said people can ask themselves what their stress level is on a scale of one to 10.

The localization part of the exercise has people locate where stress lives in their bodies. The communication part has people evaluate what the internal dialogue is going through their heads and the breathing and exhalation part has people focus on their breathing.

She said this practice helped her tremendously when a CEO she worked with yelled at her in front of a group of people for about five minutes.

“I took the CLCBE because my stress response was going through the roof. I could feel my blood pressure skyrocketing and that calmed me down, almost immediately,” she explained. “What really controls the stress response and the physiological response is focusing on your breathing.”