Stress Reduction
One of the first issues that must be taken into consideration is stress and therefore, cortisol levels. As the author of ‘The Cortisol Connection’, Shawn Talbott suggests controlling your cortisol levels will help prevent health problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, depression, coronary heart disease, arthritis and osteoporosis, not to mention its improvement to your general happiness and well-being. Also, constant bombardment of stress hormones like cortisol can decrease your ability to sense trouble, prevent accidents and avoid confrontations which can further add to your state of stress.
Stress is a normal part of modern life and there is no way that we can expect to completely get rid of it. Some stress is useful and does not cause harm. This is the type of stress that you control and usually bring onto yourself such as achieving goals and striving to do well. The issue is not whether you experience stress or not, but rather how much stress is experienced over a period of time and how you deal with it when it hits. We need to learn how to control and reduce stress as much as possible.
This is not a self-help site on how to be a happier person and we do not claim to be experts on stress reduction and relaxation techniques. However, we have done plenty of research on the topic and from this, have developed a list of
. We will also provide some of the resources we considered when developing this list, so that you can look at them further if you wish.
© Nicole Webb, Nutritionist/ Stand Six, 2008