Navigating Stress: Strategies to Regulate Your Nervous System

Navigating Stress: Strategies to Regulate Your Nervous System

What Is Stress?

Imagine for a moment that you have a test or interview next week. 

Notice how your body is reacting on a psychological and physical level. At this moment, do you start to feel an overwhelming sense of emotions and a sense of impending doom?

Of course! These upcoming experiences that cause changes or challenges within our day-to-day lives are known as stressors.

Stress is a natural physical and psychological response to these stressors that everyone experiences from time to time.

Though this stress is often short-term and usually goes away when the stressor does, some people may experience stress for longer periods of time. 

Related: Coping with Stress—Printable Digital Booklet

What Are ANTS?

When you experience a stressful situation, ANTS may pop up. 

ANTS, or Automatic Negative Thoughts, are the thoughts that you may experience automatically and that skew your perception of reality. 

These thoughts can lead to feelings of anxiety, guilt, frustration, hopelessness, or emotional distress. . 

Some common examples include:

  • Black-and-white thinking: Thinking everything is all positive or all negative. “I can never do anything right.”

  • Mind reading: Trying to figure out what the other person is thinking without actually knowing what they are thinking. Example: “Everybody hates me.”

  • Fortune telling: Trying to predict the future in a negative light. Example: “I’m going to fail that test.”

Types of Stress

Stress comes in many different forms. The three main types of stress are typically broken down into:

  • Acute Stress: A temporary form of stress that comes and goes quickly. 

  • Episodic Acute Stress: Happens when you experience acute stress on a consistent basis. After each episode, your body doesn’t usually have the time to return to a relaxed state. 

  • Chronic Stress: When stress occurs for months or years due to going through a stressful event over an extended period of time. Example: going through a divorce. 

Symptoms of Stress

Your body contains what is known as the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This system is responsible for controlling your automatic bodily functions, such as breathing and heart rate. 

When you go through a stressful situation, your ANS is activated in an attempt to bring your body back to a calm state. 

But chronic stress causes continued activation of the ANS and may cause your nervous system to break down. This can result in physical, psychological, and behavioral changes.

Physical

Physical symptoms of stress may include:

  • Aches and pains in the body

  • A racing heart

  • Fatigue

  • Trouble sleeping

  • Headaches 

  • Concentration issues

  • Muscle tension 

  • Stomach upset

Psychological symptoms

Stress can lead to emotional and mental (psychological) symptoms, like:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Feelings of hopelessness

  • Guilt and shame

  • Low self-esteem

Behavioral symptoms

Individuals who experience stress on a chronic basis may engage in unhealthy coping mechanisms as an attempt to cope. These can include: 

  • Substance use disorder

  • Suicidal behavior or self-harm

  • Impulsive spending

  • Overeating

How can I relieve stress?

Stress is an inevitable part of life. 

But it can become overwhelming. When this happens, there are steps that you can take to regulate your nervous system. These strategies can be broken down into taking care of your body, taking care of your mind, and DBT techniques. 

Taking Care of Your Mind

  • Deep Breathing and Mindfulness Techniques

  • Figure 8 Breathing: Put your finger on the number. Breathe in slowly while tracing the number 8. Repeat tracing the number 8 and breathe out slowly. Repeat three times.

  • Bear Breathing: Breathe in to a count of 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold breath for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4. Breathe out to a count of 1, 2, 3, 4, Hold breath for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4.

  • Try a mindfulness app.

  • Use visualization techniques: Imagine yourself in a beautiful place.

  • Grounding Techniques: Consider the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. Sit wherever you are and look around in your surroundings for things that can calm your nervous system. Find 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste. Repeat this process until you feel calm. 

  • Creative Expression: This could take place through several art mediums, including listening to music, drawing, gratitude exercises, or journalling.

  • Emotional Expression: Sometimes you just need to cry it out, and that’s okay. Crying is one of the many ways to relieve stress. On the other hand, you could also try laughter therapy by watching funny videos. 

  • Engage in Positive Affirmations: Repeating positive quotes and affirmations to yourself each day can lift your mood and reduce stress. 

  • Set Boundaries: When you are experiencing stress, step away from social media and take a break from the people, places, and things that are causing you stress.

  • Practice self-compassion: Do a U-turn and treat yourself the same way you would treat a friend who is going through a similar situation. 

  • Set SMART Goals: Set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely so that you are more likely to achieve them. This reduces the chances of stress developing when you are unlikely to achieve your goals.

If you wish to create a customized mental wellness plan, identify personal mental health warning signs, and develop coping strategies, check out Creating a Personal Mental Wellness Action Plan.

Taking Care of Your Body

Engaging in various activities can help you release feel-good endorphins, which can boost your mood and help distract you from your thoughts. You can:

  • Take a hot bath.

  • Place ice on your wrist.

  • Go for a walk.

  • Do a workout.

  • Engage in progressive muscle relaxation.

  • Get a massage.

  • Get enough sleep.

  • Eat a balanced diet.

  • Stay hydrated.

  • Practice yoga.

  • Try tai chi or qigong.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic approach that focuses on staying in the present (mindfulness), staying true to who you are and controlling what you can control while letting the rest go (acceptance), building up your ability to tolerate distress (distress tolerance), and deepening your relationships with others. 

The techniques usually involve acronyms. Below are two acronyms that could help you discover how to tolerate stressors more effectively. 

ACCEPTS

Used as an acronym for a variety of distress tolerance techniques, ACCEPTS stands for activities, contribution, comparison, emotions, pushing away, thoughts, and sensations. 

Each aspect of the acronym involves using a different skill to manage distress and build up a tolerance to handle it. 

  • Activities: Keep your mind busy by filling it with activities that keep you distracted.

  • Contributions: Contribute to your community through volunteering or participating in another community event. This helps you distract yourself and keep your mind on someone else. 

  • Comparisons: Compare your current situation to a time when you were worse off. This involves recognizing how far you have come and how much worse off things could truly be. 

  • Emotions: Distract yourself from your negative emotions by cultivating a positive emotion. Example: Watch a funny video.

  • Pushing away: Leave the situation to be able to push it away and take it out of your mind for some time. 

  • Thoughts: Focus on different thoughts to distract you from your negative thoughts. 

  • Sensations: Use physical sensations to draw your attention away from your negative thoughts. This could involve placing a cold ice cube on your wrist. 

DEARMAN

A technique used in dialectical behavioral therapy to increase your ability to tolerate stressful situations. The acronym reads like this:

  • D: Describe the current situation using facts. Let the other person know what you are responding to.

  • E: Express how you feel about the situation. You shouldn’t assume the other person knows how you feel.

  • A: Assert yourself. Express clearly what you need. Remembering again that others don’t know what you want unless you communicate this.

  • R: Reinforce or reward the person by explaining the positive effects that come from you getting what you need.

  • M: Mindful of your goals. Keep your focus and attention on what you need to accomplish. Keep repeating what you need and ignore attacks from the other side.

  • A: Appear confident and effective. Use a confident tone and state clearly what you need.

  • N: Negotiate with the other person. Be willing to compromise and give a little to get a little. Focus on what will solve the issue.

YMHC Tools for Personal Improvement

Youth Mental Health Canada (YMHC) provides a range of materials to assist in your journey with managing stress. Here are some of their valuable tools and products:

When should I talk to a healthcare provider about stress?

Experiencing stress from time to time is a natural part of life. But you may want to consider seeing your doctor for additional support when:

  • The stress is impacting your daily functioning.

  • You can’t control your stress.

  • Your physical health is affected.

  • Symptoms of stress aren’t going away .

  • You’re engaging in unhealthy habits to try to cope (i.e., gambling or excessive substance use).

 

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