#de-stressing techniques

SoYouWantToTalkAbout on Instragram: This election has almost 70% of U.S. adults stressed out. I worked with @thisisyolandarenteria to put together some de-stressing techniques to help you get through the next few days of election chaos!

Stress in the workplace is a common issue that affects many individuals. It can have a significant impact on both mental and physical well-being, leading to burnout and other health problems if not properly addressed. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore research-backed strategies and techniques to help you effectively manage and reduce stress at work. By implementing these strategies,…

  In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become an inevitable part of our lives. Whether it’s due to work pressures, family responsibilities, or personal challenges, stress can take a toll on our physical and mental well-being. Fortunately, there are several evidence-based strategies that can help us reduce stress and promote a sense of calm and well-being. In this comprehensive guide, we will…

Mindfulness is focusing all your attention on the present moment. You only observe the sensations happening in and around you, but you do not label these sensations as good or bad and do not try to alter them. You are simply aware, or mindful, of the present moment.

Mindfulness as a concept first appeared in Buddhist religious literature, though similar tenants of focusing energy on the present moment can be found in most religions.

The practice of mindfulness was introduced to health and psychology by Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, as a technique to achieve physical and mental well-being.

Why should you practice mindfulness?

Well, to put it very bluntly, it is the easiest and most effective way of dealing with all the mess in your life. It is a way to not obsess about the past or worry about the future, but divert all that energy into the present moment. In fact, there are physiological benefits of practicing mindfulness as well!

It is good for the heart and gastrointestinal organs and can alleviate depression and stress. Mindfulness is now used as a part of the treatment of psychological illnesses, especially cognitive behavioral therapy.  

The main ‘players’ in the process of practicing mindfulness are, well, first your mind and the million thoughts buzzing in your mind. Next is your breathing, which is what you asked to concentrate on. And lastly, are the sensations and sounds in and around you.

So here’s how to calm your mind of the thoughts swarming in it: Sit down in a relatively quiet and dark place. You can sit in any comfortable position, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. If you find your mind wandering, you could picture a red balloon in your abdomen. The balloon inflates every time you breathe in and deflates every time you breathe out. Feel the cool air that you breathe in and the warm air you breathe out. Then concentrate on the sounds around you, but do NOT get attached to any sound. Pay attention and use all your sensations.

So, there you have it – how to practice mindfulness. Do give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could foresee or control your mood? We present you with 3 hacks to predict and understand the moods of others. We are positive that you will be impressed.

  Singing in the rain? Yeah, not so much.  

Research points that the sunnier and more pleasant a day is, the more pleasant your mood will be. It’s not really that hard to believe, you wake up in the morning, open the blinders and the beautiful Sun is shining down on you. The trees look greener and the sky looks bluer. You tend to think that nothing will go wrong and hence, your mood is manipulated.

Research by the APA quotes an example of how 122 students were approached about ideas for how to conduct an examination, on either sunny days or days with gloomy weather. The results were that students approached on days with pleasant weather were more easily persuaded by weak arguments.

 Money on your mind? It could bum you out.

When you think about money, your mind tends to gravitate towards the thought of how less of it you have. How you need so much more, and you don’t know where to get it from. Just the thought of money makes you depressed and the thought of compromising on your values for a bit of extra cash will cross your mind – and you will consider it. We have research that says so!

Research published in marketwatch.com reveals that, just the sound and sight of money related words and images of money increases your chances of committing petty theft.

 Go green, literally

We’ve previously spoken about how looking at nature or even pictures of nature can have a calming effect on your mind. But here we are talking about the fascinating psychology behind the effect of different colours on minds. While the effects of the colours red and blue are fairly well documented, here is a lesser known fact about the colour green – it boosts creativity!

According to research published in Sage Journals,  participants who were shown glimpses of the colour green, even briefly, outdid the participants who were shown other colours when it came to creative tasks.

One of the strongest human emotions is worry. While worry in itself is not bad, too much of it can lead to anxiety and may have a lasting and deep effect on our happiness and overall wellbeing. But as much as we want to shut it when life gets challenging, it tends to keep coming back and haunt us. Don’t ‘worry’, there are ways to help you reduce worry – backed by research.

Let’s look at 4 unique ways to help you get rid of worrying.

Assign a time to worry: Sure this sounds weird. But think of it this way, the time you actually spend specifically for worrying will make that much more of your time free for other thoughts.

So carve out about half an hour each day to worry ‘productively’, that is think of all your worries and coming up with solutions for them. Any worrying thought that occurs outside of this period should not be entertained. In fact, this is what is suggested by a study published in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

Limit the time you spend on your phone and laptop: Research by Anxiety UK shows that the more time people spend away from Facebook and email, the more worried you are. This is a bad habit that needs to be kicked as soon as possible.

Assign a time to check emails and Facebook and switch off your phone at the end of work, and do not check your email, however hard that may sound. This can do wonders for your mental health!

Be mindful: Mindfulness is when you can just observe the sensations in your mind and body, be mindful of them, without passing judgment and without reacting to them.

The University of Surrey studied not one or two but nineteen studies on mindfulness and concluded that it is one of the most effective ways to beat stress. Want to know how to control your mind? We have you covered. Just read this article.

Write down your worries: According to University of Chicago researcher, Sian Beilock, writing down your worries, which may seem counterintuitive is actually very effective.

It is almost like you are emptying your head of its worries. Your worries don’t seem as daunting when you’ve written them down, and it’s almost like you have “Slain the dragon”.

Of course, meditation, exercise, and a healthy diet all contribute to a less worrisome life. Do you have any unique ways of dealing with your worries? Do let us know in the comments below.

Rejections are unpleasant and embarrassing. From when you were a little kid and the older kids wouldn’t let you play with them, to being a spurned lover, rejection leaves scars that we are not likely to quickly to forget. It is man’s nature to engage with other humans, so despite what we are told, we take rejection personally.

There is a research to prove that rejection from people we don’t even like can be as painful as being rejected for something we really wanted.

There is proof that rejection actually makes o feel stupid. It can hamper your IQ. It reduces your ability to reason, while increasing aggression.  

However, what if we told you there are ways to handle rejection without holing yourself up in your room and wallowing in self-pity?

Here are three techniques you could use to handle rejection better:

Make a game of it:

This is the essence of Jia Jiang’s book, ‘Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection’ and his TEDx talk.

It’s really quite a simple trick! Imagine that every attempt is a part of a game, and each time you don’t make it, you just start playing all over again. Like, if life were a video game and you lost some time, you just shrug your shoulders and hit the replay button.

In fact, if you could add some humor to the situation, that makes it even better!

As suggested by Rod Martian from University of Western Ontario,

“So whenever we see something as funny; we’re looking at it from a different perspective. When people are trapped in a stressful situation and feeling overwhelmed, they’re stuck in one way of thinking: This is terrible. I’ve got to get out of here. But if you can take a humorous perspective, then by definition you’re looking at it differently — you’re breaking out of that rigid mind-set”.

Think About Your Favorite TV show:

TV shows give you that feeling of being in a relationship, this is called the Social Surrogate Hypothesis.

Just thinking about your favorite shows increases your self-esteem that has plummeted when you are rejected.

Hug a Teddy Bear:

The third technique is a sort of continuation of the second technique.

Hugging a teddy bear makes you feel better, just like how looking at pictures of your loved ones will make you feel better. The answer ultimately lies in relationships, we tend to feel better when we reach out to loved ones and know that they are there for us.

Read all about this in the research here.

So, there you have it! Three simple, unconventional yet actionable ways of facing rejection!

With  rising standards of expectations at work and strained relationships, we all need help at one time or another. What if we told you that help is available at your convenience, whenever you want it, and that everything is anonymous and confidential? This is not just a castle built in the air, but a service provided by YourDOST.com.  

 Did you know that online counseling is more effective than regular counseling?

Yes, providing online therapy might just be a more effective treatment for anxiety and depression than usual primary care, says breakthrough research.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh in the US studied 704 depressed and anxious patients who were between 18 to 75 years.

They showed that providing an online computerized cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) programme both alone and in combination with Internet Support Groups (ISG) provided better outcomes for patients.

The participants were randomly assigned into one of three groups: 1) care manager-guided access to the eight-session Beating the Blues CCBT programme; 2) care manager-guided access to both the CCBT programme and a password-protected ISG that patients could access 24/7 via smartphone or desktop computer; or 3) usual behavioural health care from their primary care physician.

Over the six-month period, 83 % of patients assigned to CCBT started the programme, and they completed an average of 5.3 sessions.

77 % of patients assigned to the ISG logged into the site at least once, and 46 % provided one or more posts or comments.

Six months later, those patients assigned to CCBT reported noteworthy developments in their mood and anxiety symptoms and the more CCBT sessions patients completed, the greater the improvement in mood and anxiety symptoms.

Although patients assigned to both CCBT and ISG had similar overall developments in mood and anxiety symptoms compared to patients assigned to only CCBT, a secondary analysis showed those who engaged more with the ISG tended to experience greater developments in symptoms.

“Our study findings have important implications for transforming the way mental health care is delivered,” said Bruce L Rollman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “

Providing depressed and anxious patients with access to these emerging technologies may be an ideal method to deliver effective mental health treatment, especially to those who live in areas with limited access to care resources or who have transportation difficulties or work/home obligations that make in-person counselling difficult to obtain,” he said.

So if you have difficulty in focusing on studies or have issues in your relationship, YourDOST has all the answers and it’s just a click away!

This post is reviewed by Dr. Shireen Stephen