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By Newsweek Editors
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Granted, stress can be deadly and none of us escapes it. But that doesn't mean we're all doomed. As Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel puts it, "Living a stress-free life is not a reasonable goal. The goal is to deal with it actively and effectively." Though that's easier for some people than others, studies suggest that anyone can learn to cope better.
One approach is to emulate people who are naturally resistant to stress. Some people weather devastating experiences--captivity, torture, illness, loss--with uncanny serenity. By studying them, researchers have found that they share distinctive habits of mind. They tend to focus on immediate issues (a dying child's comfort) rather than global ones (the prospect of death). And they find ways to rationalize--many interpreting their ordeal as a special assignment from God. As Stanford stress researcher Robert Sapolsky observes in his book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers," "If you can view cancer and Alzheimer's disease, the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing... in the context of a loving plan, that must constitute the greatest source of support imaginable."
Stress-resistant people also tend to share what experts call an optimistic "explanatory style." According to University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman, they assume their troubles are temporary ("I'm tired today") rather than permanent ("I'm washed up"), and specific ("I have a bad habit") rather than universal ("I'm a bad person"). In addition, they credit themselves when things go right, while externalizing their failures ("That was a tough audience," not "I gave a wretched speech"). Once you start monitoring your explanatory style, you can catch yourself leaping to awful conclusions--and consider the alternatives.
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Even a pessimist can learn to modulate the stress response. At the University of Massachusetts' Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, specialists have spent two decades teaching people to manage stress through meditation and other relaxation exercises. During their weekly sessions, participants in the center's stress program concentrate on breathing to quell the mind's restless forays into the past and future. Then they lie down and "scan" their bodies, relaxing one muscle at a time. Studies suggest that this type of exercise can stem the flow of stress hormones, helping to lower both heart rate and blood pressure. "It's not a magic potion," says Mark Gorden, a 43-year-old grocery wholesaler who joined the U Mass program last winter after an undiagnosed illness that lingered for months. "But it helps you deal with everyday stressors."
Massage is another proven antidote to stress. No one knows precisely how the kneading of flesh quells the stress response, but the effects can be dramatic. Over the past 23 years psychologist Tiffany Field of the University of Miami's Touch Research Institute has published studies suggesting it can hasten weight gain in premature infants, improve lung function in asthmatics and bolster immune function in men with HIV. Healthy people may benefit too. In a 1996 study, medical workers who got 10 biweekly rubdowns outscored their unrubbed colleagues on timed math tests.
If massage and meditation are too tame for your tastes, exercise may be your medicine. Researchers have found that after a half hour on a treadmill, young men score 25 percent lower on anxiety tests and exhibit favorable changes in brain activity (less action in the stress-sensitive amygdala and more in the more self-possessed left prefrontal cortex). No one is sure just how these changes come about, but exercise is known to increase the body's production of morphinelike endorphins, while improving the brain's oxygen supply and releasing tension from the muscles.
There are many other options, from yoga to biofeedback to music therapy, and none of them excludes the others. So do what works for you. And whether you go to confession, join a support group or start a diary, find a way to talk about your feelings. Studies suggest that group support can extend the lives of people with skin or breast cancer. And researchers showed recently that people with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis could ease their symptoms by writing about the most stressful events in their lives. How can such different exercises have such similar benefits? The key, experts agree, is that they combat feelings of helplessness. Anything that fosters a sense of control--putting a traumatic memory into words, calming a racing heart through breathing exercises, even planning your own imminent funeral--lets you stop feeling like a victim. And when that happens, your body stops treating itself like one.
The Science of Serenity
Meditation Psoriasis sufferers who combined conventional therapy with guided meditation cut healing time from 95 days to 46
Massage Premature infants, massaged regularly for 10 days, gained 47 percent more weight than other preemies--and left the hospital six days earlier
Exercise Men reported less anxiety after 30 minutes on a treadmill, and EEG tests showed favorable brain-activity changes
Social Support Melanoma patients who received six weeks of structured group support suffered only half as many recurrences as their peers
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