Sex can help relieve stress, work as balm on tired body

Some doctors say that as many as nine of 10 visits to the doctor may be related to stress. But how can you actually reduce stress and avoid a burnout? Instead of staying stressed, a serious attempt must be made to tackle it, so that you can get back fresh and healthy to work even after a stressful event.

To control stress, you have to first determine what is the cause. You need to list all the things in your life that you find especially stressful. After you have identified the things you can do something about, and those you cannot control and must learn to accept, you will be a lot more relieved and be able to consciously stop worrying about things you cannot do anything about.

Usually, you can find something positive even in the thing that stresses you. You will discover that it is probably not as stressful as you’re making it out to be. Begin each sentence with “at least” whenever you’re stressed out. If you work for a bad boss, remind yourself, “At least I have a job.” At the same time, stress burnout is the result of a mismatch between one’s personality or goals and the realities of a situation, which means asking oneself some hard questions and giving yourself honest answers about work ethics, talents and true desires.

A common mistake by most people is that they “catastrophise” events. One way to stop thinking of the worst, which usually leads to stress, is to rate the importance of your stressor on a simple scale of one to 10. Think of some real stressors, a heart attack, losing a job, a death in the family and go back and re-rate the missed bus and lost wallet. You will recognise that when you’re rationalising situations you gain more balance in dealing with them.

However, if you can see stress building up slowly, and you know that it will only aggravate, try this quick relaxation break. Take a deep breath, deeper than normal, and hold it in until you notice a little discomfort. At the same time, squeeze your thumb and first finger together for six or seven seconds. Then exhale slowly through your mouth, release the pressure in your fingers, and allow all your tension to drain out. Repeat these deep breaths three times to extend the relaxation. With each breath, allow your shoulders to droop, your jaw to drop and your body to relax. Alternatively, applying light pressure on your temples with a circular motion helps massage the nerves, which in turn relaxes muscles throughout your body, say researchers.

Travelling to and back from work can indeed be harrowing, with the escalating amount of pollution in our environment. Once you get home, a warm bath will surely help reduce stress by increasing peripheral circulation and relaxing muscles, which causes a calming effect. Soak yourself for 15 minutes in warm water. This is an effective method for stress relief. Don’t ignore sex, as it is a very good way of easing stress. An orgasm is a great relaxer, and even non-orgasmic sex can have a calming effect. Sex also helps to establish or reaffirm meaningful bonds and to build self-esteem.