To manage your stress, master these 8 skills: Shots

Is your to-do list overwhelming? Are you stressed by the demands of family or work? Or maybe it's politics, climate change, or global conflicts that scare you.

It's impossible to eliminate all of your stress, but science shows that you can learn to manage it better.

For the past 20 years, Judith Moskowitz, a research psychologist at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, has researched a series of eight skills and practices designed to help people increase positive emotions and reduce anxiety, even during difficult times. And she developed an online course to teach these skills. a kind of master class in stress management.

“People can certainly be taught to have positive emotions, even when things seem pretty bleak,” Moskowitz says.

She has documented this in her studies of people who find themselves in difficult situations, such as caring for a spouse with dementia or living with stage four breast cancer and other health problems.

Now Moskowitz is starting a new research study. She wants to evaluate how the course's skills can help people with everyday stress that we all experience in our daily lives. She opened the course and studied to anyone 18 years of age or older living in the United States

Study participants complete a survey to determine their levels of anxiety and positive emotions before and after the course.

How to join: Register here if you are taking Northwestern's online resilience course and would like to participate in the study. Please note: Due to the high level of interest, there may be delays in registration.

One thing Moskowitz realized early on in her research is that even in difficult times, people still want to talk about positive things, like seeing a beautiful sunset or sharing a meal with a friend. And the people who notice more of these bright spots tend to do better.

Moskowitz's course can immerse you in these skills. Here's a quick summary if you want to get started:

1. Positive events

We tend to fixate on the negative. So try this: Focus on something good today. It could be a beautiful sky, a delicious bite of fresh fruit, or a phone call from a friend.

Moskowitz is a coffee lover, so she suggests taking the time to really enjoy this morning ritual and notice the scent and feel of the warm cup.

When you pay attention to small joys, you may feel a sense of calm or comfort.

It's a simple concept, but it goes against our natural instincts. Humans have evolved to pay attention to threats and problems. “It’s adaptive,” Moskowitz says. But don't miss out on the good.

2. Enjoy

Now that you've noticed a beautiful sky or a delicious scent, take time to enjoy it. The goal here is to make the moment permanent. Suppose you have great photos from a vacation or celebration, every time you look at them you can relive positive feelings.

“Think of it as another bout of positive emotions,” Moskowitz says. You can enjoy a moment by simply remembering it, or you can write it down or tell someone else about it. This can increase positive feelings and give you an emotional buffer when stress and anxiety increase.

3. Gratitude

This can feel like a platitude. I get it! But before you brush it aside, there is a lot of research into the benefits. For example, a recent study among women suggests that feelings of gratitude can potentially increase life expectancy.

So you can ask yourself this: If I had a list of all the things I was grateful for, would it be long? Think about all the people, events and experiences that bring you joy. At first, you might only think of a few obvious things, but with practice, your list can grow longer as you notice more little things that enrich your life, says Moskowitz.

4. Daily mindfulness

You've probably heard this before: To feel calmer, focus on your experiences in the present moment instead of getting lost in your thoughts. But you won't see the benefits until you actually take the time to practice it. One option is to focus on your breathing. It's a shortcut to getting rid of the clutter in your head. To try it, find a quiet place and take a few slow breaths. As you breathe in, allow your belly to expand. Make your exhalation slow, about twice as long. Notice how your breath feels in your belly as it rises and falls.

5. Positive reappraisal

Can you find a silver lining when something unfortunate or unexpected happens? It's a familiar concept, but Moskowitz says it can pay off. A refrain she uses in her own life when something bad happens is, “It could have been a lot worse.”

Try it next time you have an annoying experience – say you take your car in for repairs and it's not ready on time. Instead of getting angry, could you use the time to take that walk you've always wanted? Or do you treat yourself to some quiet time? This isn't possible in every situation, but it's a good way to gain perspective in the midst of everyday challenges, like losing your keys or missing the bus.

6. Self-compassion

Are you your own biggest critic? If your self-talk is negative, that's a good indication. Many of us “hold ourselves to a very high standard that we wouldn’t expect from anyone else,” Moskowitz says. Now is the time to turn the compassion you would give a friend toward yourself. There are easy ways to try this. For example, take the time to do things that make you feel good or take a lunch break when you're hungry instead of putting it off. You can even try giving each other a gentle hug every now and then.

7. Personal strengths

In the midst of challenges and struggles, we can forget what we are good at. Therefore, the course offers an opportunity to recognize your strengths and take stock. Are you a good listener? Sensitive? Are you good with details? Knowing your strengths will help you stay strong even when faced with challenges.

8. Achievable goals

Knowing your strengths can make it easier to set goals that align with your strengths. “Research on goal achievement shows that any progress toward a goal increases positive emotions,” says Moskowitz. So it's worth getting out a notebook and writing down some goals. “I find it extremely rewarding to check something off my list,” says Moskowitz.

A growing area of ​​research

You may be skeptical that these simple things could make a difference. And it turned out that Moskowitz was also a skeptic. “My first reaction to anything is, 'This will never work,'” Moskowitz says.

But after years of documenting the benefits, she's become a convert. Of course, these abilities are not magic. They can't eliminate your stress or eliminate the cause of your anxiety, but they can help you become more resilient and experience more moments of happiness.

According to Moskowitz, practicing these skills can help build a “reservoir” of positive energy that you can draw on when it comes time to deal with challenges or annoyances.

“There is good data that feeling positive emotions makes people happier,” he says Jeff Huffman, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. However, he says more research is needed to understand the mechanisms of positive interventions and the long-term effects of practicing these skills.

“We don’t know whether this can have a lasting impact on health,” he adds.

Huffman has collaborated with Moskowitz in researching the effects of these interventions, and his lab uses many of these skills to help patients overcome stress and make healthy lifestyle changes.

There is other research in the field of neuroscience that shows that repeatedly experiencing certain positive emotions can even change our brains.

Studies show that the parts of the brain that are activated after people are trained in empathy and compassion can begin to form new connections.

Just as someone can become good at a sport by repeating the same motor movement over and over again, the same is true of positive emotional practices, says Jyoti Mishra, a neuroscientist at UC San Diego. “It can become a self-fulfilling virtuous cycle.”

This also works for emotions like awe and gratitude, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett told NPR. If you repeatedly practice swapping negative feelings for positive ones, you're more likely to feel positive feelings again, says Barrett.

Get your stress under control: To take Northwestern's online resilience course and research study: Click here to register. Please note: Due to the high level of interest, there may be delays in registration.

And for additional tips and insights and to share your thoughts with us, Join our special five-week newsletter series, Less stress. Register here.

Please note: These strategies have been shown to be beneficial for people struggling with stress in difficult situations, but they are not a replacement for mental health treatments such as counseling or medication.

Vicky Hallett contributed to this story. Edited by Jane Greenhalgh and Carmel Wroth.

Stress Less is edited by Jane Greenhalgh and Carmel Wroth