Alternative Medicine: Stress Management, Essay Example

Topic 1: Relaxation Techniques (Chapters 17, 18, 20)

Relaxation techniques involve strategies of easing the mind to avoid stress. They include diaphragmatic breathing, meditation, mental imagery and visualization. Diaphragmatic breathing is controlled deep-breathing, which involves lower abdomen movements and expansion of the chest. It helps to restore energy or “life force,” and in yoga practices it is called “pranayama,” the “breath behind the breath.” Meditation involves increased mental concentration on a single object or thought, leading to calmness in the mind and increased awareness. It is a practiced in solitude, whereby one shuts the mind from external stimuli and concentrates on inner thoughts. Meditation helps to enhance the level of mental receptivity, the ability of the mind to be more accommodative of ideas that are often blocked by the ego during ordinary consciousness. Mental imagery and visualization involves using the power of imagination to “see” images formed by the unconscious mind. These images may replicate peaceful scenes; hence promote relaxation, or substitute undesirable behaviors with more healthy ones.

Topic 2: Stress and Nutrition

There is a direct relationship between stress and eating lifestyles, and by extension with physical health. People sometimes eat to ease anxiety, boredom, and depression, and to provide an alternative means of emotional nourishment. Consequently, food becomes a pacifier of psychological disorders such as stress and anxiety. However, the kind of food that people usually eat when stressed include junk and processed products such as yoghurt, candy and popcorn, which are low in nutrients and high in calories. Junk food is regarded as the leading cause of obesity, especially in the U.S, besides contributing to cumulative effects of toxins. These include residues of pesticides or synthetic compounds that are found in carbonated drinks, and which hinder the effective functioning of the immune system.

Topic 3: Physical Exercise (Chapter 28)

Physical exercise is important to body health in many ways. Like money in the bank, it is a long term investment in physical and mental wellbeing. Physical exercise not only helps in utilizing stress hormones properly, but also provides an unbeatable cathartic stress release mechanism. It helps maintain the vigor of youth by enhancing one’s health and longevity. In addition, it enhances the regeneration of brain cell tissues that drive mental functions like memory, attention, and multitasking (Carmichael, 2007).

There are six categories of physical fitness. They include:

• cardiovascular endurance; the capacity of the blood vessels, lungs, and the heart to sustain the circulation of oxygenated blood to the body’s working muscles for metabolism functions,
• muscular strength and endurance; the ability to exert maximum force against physical resistance (muscular strength), and the ability to maintain repeated muscular contractions for a long period of time (muscular endurance),
• flexibility; the ability to move body muscles to their maximum range limit,
• agility; the ability to maneuver and coordinate gross and fine motor movements,
• power; ability to exert energy in relation to distance and time
• balance; the ability to achieve equilibrium in motion.

Topic 4: Critical Issues for Management and Prevention (Chapter 16)

There are a number of strategies of managing and preventing stress. They include:

• Information seeking; it involves searching for detailed, relevant information on a perceived threat so as to increase situational awareness. It helps to eliminate the

References

Allen, R. (1983). Human Stress: Its Nature and Control. Minneapolis: Burgess.

Carmichael, M. (21 March, 2007). “Stronger, Faster, Smarter: Exercise and the Brain.” Newsweek. Retrieved February 17, 2012<http://www.merchantcircle.com/blogs/Ki.Karate.208-448-1580/2007/3/Newsweek-Stronger-Faster-Smarter/14703

Seaward, B. L. (2009). Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well- Being. Idaho: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.