Physiological effects of stres
Stress has been an ever increasing problem in our fast paced lives, especially here in North America. We constantly feel under pressure by many different factors, for instance, our place of work is a major aspect of our lives which we consider to be extremely stressful; as well there are other different situations and aspects of life that some people find more stressful than others. The ultimate question is, is our constantly changing environment the reason for our society to be under stress? Actually research has shown that we create a great deal of our own stress, particularly because of what most of us define success to be. It is the constant strive for materialistic rewards as a means to an end in our lives. I believe that the main reason and cause of stress is the inability to create a balance in ones life. It is fundamentally important for everyone to reach a balance in life, a balance in leisure, work, social connections, and physical and mental relaxation. It seems as if attaining such a balance in our lives is becoming more and more difficult because we are living is such a fast paced and demanding world. Stress affects almost every aspect of who we are along with our health and our performance whether you are an
'Their findings proved that this relaxation technique lowered diastolic and systolic blood pressure. The individual muscle groups are tightened for five to eight seconds and the tension is then released. p, 59) In sports, athletes strive to great lengths to push their bodies to their full potential, trying many different performance enhancing treatments in order to get an edge above the competition. p, 58-59) 'Borkovec and Mathews studied the effect that progressive muscle relaxation has on the treatment of anxiety disorders, concluding a decrease in anxiety lowering the incidence of depression. Progressive muscle relaxation can be learned by nearly anyone and requires only ten to twenty minutes per day. "The study concluded that there was an increase in self-esteem due to the perceived feeling of control over his/her mind and body. Jacobson thought that muscular tension might even cause anxiety and that contracted, tight muscles were actually at the root of many emotional problems. Progressive muscle relaxation has been used to improve athletic performance. Unfortunately, no matter what we do there will be events and situations in our lives that will create anxiety and stress, fortunately there are measures that we can taken to help cope with our problems and have been proven to be effective. 198)The technique of progressive muscle relaxation was found by Edmund Jacobson in the 1930s and has often been regarded as the grandfather of relaxation methods. "Jacobson reasoned that since tension accompanies anxiety, one might be able to reduce anxiety by learning to relax the tension. Most people often associate relaxation with sleep, however, that is definitely not the case. Having difficulty gaining back his focus, the athlete would incorporate a number of relaxation techniques such as imagery, and progressive muscle relaxation in his warm-up before practice and a competition.
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