Category: Stress

A Loving Way To Reduce Stress In A Crisis

People were given a stress test involving putting their hand into cold water.

People were given a stress test involving putting their hand into cold water.

Under stress, thinking about your romantic partner is enough to reduce blood pressure.

In fact, thinking about your partner is just as effective at reducing blood pressure as having them there in person.

For the study, 102 people were given a stress test involving putting their hand into cold water.

The results showed that thinking about, or having your partner in the room, lowered blood pressure.

Dr Kyle Bourassa, the study’s first author, said:

“This suggests that one way being in a romantic relationship might support people’s health is through allowing people to better cope with stress and lower levels of cardiovascular reactivity to stress across the day.

And it appears that thinking of your partner as a source of support can be just as powerful as actually having them present.”

The study helps explain why people who are in love have better physical health.

Dr Bourassa said:

“Life is full of stress, and one critical way we can manage this stress is through our relationships—either with our partner directly or by calling on a mental image of that person.

There are many situations, including at work, with school exams or even during medical procedures, where we would benefit from limiting our degree of blood pressure reactivity, and these findings suggest that a relational approach to doing so can be quite powerful.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology (Bourassa et al., 2019).

The Wonderful Mental State That Reduces Stress

In this state, an hour can pass in the blink of an eye and you feel in full control.

In this state, an hour can pass in the blink of an eye and you feel in full control.

A flow state helps reduce the effects of stress — even more effectively than mindfulness.

A flow state — sometimes known as being ‘in the zone’ — is the experience of being fully engaged with what you’re currently doing.

Many activities can provide flow states — in fact anything that engages the attention, stretches your skills a little and that you are doing for its own sake.

When you’re in a flow state:

  • an hour can pass in the blink of an eye,
  • you feel what you are doing is important,
  • you’re not self-conscious,
  • action and awareness merges,
  • you feel in full control,
  • and the experience is intrinsically rewarding.

Flow beats mindfulness

These results come from a study of 5,115 people in China conducted during the COVID pandemic.

They were asked about their experiences of mindfulness and flow.

Researchers found that people who were quarantined for longer had worse mental health, except for those who experienced more flow states.

Mindfulness was also helpful, but not as powerful as flow states in warding off stress.

The study’s’ authors write:

“In a sample collected via social media in February 2020 in China, experiencing flow and mindfulness was associated with better well-being.

More interestingly, whether people were in quarantine was irrelevant for well-being among people who experienced a lot of flow in the previous week, but the same was not true for mindfulness.”

Getting into a flow state

To create a flow experience, you need:

  • to be internally motivated, i.e. you are doing the activity mainly for its own sake,
  • the task should stretch your skills almost to the limits, but not so much that it makes you too anxious,
  • there should be clear short-term goals for what you are trying to achieve,
  • and you should get immediate feedback on how you are doing, i.e. you can see how the painting, photo, blog post etc. is turning out.

Related

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Sweeny et al., 2020).

The Work Tasks That Make People Switch Off & Burn Out (M)

One type of work task leads people to want revenge on their employer.

One type of work task leads people to want revenge on their employer.

Keep reading with a Membership

• Read members-only articles
• Adverts removed
• Cancel at any time
• 14 day money-back guarantee for new members

Become a member

This Technique Beats Stress Better Than Mindfulness

The technique made people feel more relaxed, detached and in control.

The technique made people feel more relaxed, detached and in control.

Playing games on a smartphone beats stress better than a mindfulness app.

People who played a shape-fitting game, similar to Tetris, felt less tired and more energised than those who used a mindfulness app, researchers have found.

Surprisingly, the mindfulness app made people feel worse when used after work over the course of a week.

Games can be effective in reducing stress because they are:

  • distracting,
  • relaxing,
  • involve mastering a new skill,
  • and let people feel in control.

Dr Emily Collins, the study’s first author, said:

“To protect our long-term health and well-being, we need to be able to unwind and recuperate after work.

Our study suggests playing digital games can be an effective way to do this.”

The first study in the research involved 45 people who were given a tricky math test to make them stressed.

Afterwards, one group played a game for 10 minutes, while two comparison groups used the Headspace mindfulness app or a fidget spinner.

The results showed that people felt more energised after playing the game than after using the mindfulness app or fidget spinner.

The second study had 20 working professionals playing a game every day after work or using the mindfulness app.

The results showed that those playing the game felt more relaxed, detached and in control — and this improved over the week.

In comparison, the mindfulness app made people feel worse over the week.

The more people enjoyed playing the game, the better they recovered from the stress of work, the results showed.

Professor Anna Cox, study co-author, said:

“Far from feeling guilty about being absorbed by their phone, people who play such games after a stressful day at work should know they are likely to be gaining a real benefit.”

The study was published in JMIR Mental Health (Collins et al., 2019).

Watching These 5-Minute Videos Beats Stress — Even Rivals Meditation (M)

Most Americans say they feel moderate to extreme stress every single day: could these short videos help?

Most Americans say they feel moderate to extreme stress every single day: could these short videos help?

Keep reading with a Membership

• Read members-only articles
• Adverts removed
• Cancel at any time
• 14 day money-back guarantee for new members

Become a member

The Best Way To Stay Positive When Daily Stressors Are Piling Up

Being prepared is important, but it needs a certain mindset to accompany it.

Being prepared is important, but it needs a certain mindset to accompany it.

The key to staying positive is a combination of living in the moment and planning for the future.

Proactive planning is very effective at reducing stress.

Essentially, proactive planning means making plans for how to cope with inevitable problems.

For example, someone who knows they will be stuck inside all day makes themselves a schedule of activities to keep busy.

Similarly, a person who knows something will needlessly stress them out (say, the news) avoids it.

Although not every stressful event can be anticipated or ameliorated, many can.

Professor Shevaun Neupert, study co-author, said:

“It’s well established that daily stressors can make us more likely to have negative affect, or bad moods.

Our work here sheds additional light on which variables influence how we respond to daily stress.”

For the study, 233 people were tracked over 8 days.

Psychologists measured their ability to plan proactively along with their day-to-day levels of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the quality of living and appreciating the present moment.

Each day people reported the stressors they faced, how mindful they were and their mood.

The results showed that proactive coping helped people feel better.

However, planning ahead only worked to improve mood when people reported being mindful.

So, it is a combination of thinking ahead and living in the moment that helps people stay positive.

Professor Neupert said:

“Our results show that a combination of proactive coping and high mindfulness result in study participants of all ages being more resilient against daily stressors.

Basically, we found that proactive planning and mindfulness account for about a quarter of the variance in how stressors influenced negative affect.

Interventions targeting daily fluctuations in mindfulness may be especially helpful for those who are high in proactive coping and may be more inclined to think ahead to the future at the expense of remaining in the present.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Polk et al., 2020).

Get free email updates

Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.