Sir William Osler once said, “The worry and strain of modern times contributes greatly to arterial degeneration” What’s interesting about this statement is that he made it 100 years ago.

I’m big on the stress -body mind connection. For the past century the mind body connection and its affect on our health has been studied extensively. It is now widely accepted that stress and its associated symptoms can give us not only colds and flu but also can contribute to heart and cardiovascular disease.

There was an interesting study of 2000 men that began in 1961 that established a direct correlation between anxiety and sudden cardiac death. After taking their health histories and giving them a physical, researchers asked these 2000 men four questions designed to determine their level of anxiety.

Those questions were:
1) Do you have fear of strange people and places?
2) Are you nervous?
3) Are you jittery?
4) Do you have feelings of sudden, senseless fright?

These men were followed up regularly and in 1993, 402 of these men had developed some type of heart problem, murmur, heart attack, high blood pressure, chest pain, stroke, death, etc. A high correlation was established between anxiety and heart problems. They found that if a man answered had yes to one of the questions the probability of a heart problem increased 3 times. If they answered yes to 2 or more of the questions the probability of a heart problem increased 4 times.
How does this happen? Research has shown that stress interrupts the nerves controlling your heart. This, in turn, can lead to rapid cardiac twitching, which is also known as ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation is a condition that causes the heart’s electrical activity to become disordered. This results in the heart’s lower or pumping chambers to contract in a rapid, unsynchronized way which deceases or cuts off blood pumped by the heart to the brain. When the blood supply is cut off or disrupted the person collapses and, if not given immediately medical attention, dies.

How can we counteract this? We can develop a sense of calmness which one of the best natural ways to relieve stress. Now calmness is not a trait of our times, in fact, I don’t believe that calmness has been a trait of any time. Humans have always been affected by stressors, whether it was wild animals trying to eat us, or wild bandits wanting to relieve us of our goods and maybe our lives. But learning how to regain a sense of calmness is essential to overcome stress  and improve your health.

Three Easy Ways to Deal With Stress

So what’s the best way to deal with stress? Why don’t you try a combination of regular exercise, prayer or meditation and self-hypnosis or visualization?

Most experts agree that regular exercise is beneficial to the mind body connection. Regular cardiovascular exercise improves blood flow, can control weight, can increased HDL (good) cholesterol levels while decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels all while helping you deal with stress. Regular strengthening exercise improves physical strength while guarding your bones against osteoporosis.

Exercise is a wonderful method of developing calmness and counteracting the affects of stress on your daily lives. A favorite exercise method of mine that both improves strength and gives a great cardiovascular workout is Tai Chi.

Prayer and meditation are excellent methods of stress reduction. In the words of an early Quaker, William Penn, “True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

Both western and eastern thought suggests meditation. You can meditate on a phrase, a picture or a time in your life. You can also meditate on certain spiritual scriptures such as in “Meditate on the word of the Lord.” I don’t wish to delve into the differences between Eastern and Western meditation. Let just say that you should choose a form of meditation that agrees with your personal beliefs and then set aside a period of time, perhaps 15 to 20 minutes a day, to practice.

Another method of reducing stress is through visualization or self-hypnosis. Stress is often the result of negative visualization. When you focus on what went wrong or what could go wrong you worry. What’s interesting about the word worry is that it derives from an old Anglo-Saxon term that means to choke or strangle. So it’s no wonder when we feel stressed you often feel like you’re out of breath. You’re literally choking yourself to death.

A better way to use visualization is through positive focus. Decide on what outcome you would like and focus on what it will take and how you will feel when you achieve it. This can also be done using self-hypnosis. If you have difficulty in positively programming your thought patterns visit a mind therapist that works with these types of issues. I am a hypno-coach that regularly works with these issues so if you’d like my help give me a call at (800) 989-6570 or send me an e-mail. You’ll learn natural ways to relieve stress that you can use on a regular basis to relieve stress and improve your life.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy and author of a Stress Relief e-Course that you can have at absolutely no charge. Drop by http://www.onlinestressreliefcourse.com/ for your copy today.