How to Reduce Stress

Stress is the body's reaction to any situation that seems to be an emergency. We automatically shut down digestion and increase our heart rate. Pumping extra blood to our muscles helps us act more effectively during the flight, fight or freeze response.

The problem is that we respond to many situations as though they are life threatening when they're not and when that happens too often our nervous systems don't have time to recover. This can exhaust our adrenal glands and lead to stress related illnesses.

There is a solution, but whereas the fight, flight or freeze response is automatic Herbert Benson from Harvard University found that its counterbalance - the relaxation response - requires practice.

Simple techniques, such as deep breathing, trigger this response so it's easier than you may realise to de-stress even if you are busy. The hardest part is realising that something so easy can make such a big difference to your well-being and remembering to put the techniques into practice.

If you have children, Linda Lantieri's recent book, "Building Emotional Intelligence" has techniques you can share with them. There is a CD at the back of the book with exercises guided by Daniel Goleman to get you started.