Quick stress management method

The essence of all quick stress relief methods that can take effect within 10 minutes is to bypass the rational brain that has been paralyzed by stress and directly adjust the physiological state, which is at least three times more efficient than reasoning and psychological construction. Those things that you think are useful, such as watching short videos, complaining to friends, or drinking milk tea, either take effect slowly, or there is a high probability that there will be an emotional rebound later.

Last week, I was waiting at the door of Party A’s conference room for the final review of the 8-version plan. My palms were clenched with sweat, my heartbeat was so fast that my ears were pounding, and I almost forgot all about the plan framework that I had memorized. I was hiding in the fire escape nearby and took three 478 breaths - taking 4 seconds to inhale fully, holding it for 7 seconds, and then 8 seconds to slowly exhale completely. Finally, I splashed cold water on my face, stared at the sycamore tree outside the window and counted the lines of three leaves. It took less than 2 minutes. When I opened the door and went in, I was so steady that my speech speed was not messed up.

To be honest, this is not some metaphysics. Research from Harvard Medical School has long confirmed that extending the duration of exhalation can quickly activate the parasympathetic nerves and reduce the heart rate within 1 minute. This is a conclusion written in clinical psychology textbooks. After all, when stress comes up, your rational brain is equivalent to being locked up in a dark room by the amygdala. You shout to yourself, "Don't be nervous" and "It doesn't matter." In essence, you are shouting to a locked door, and no one will listen. Instead, it is better to directly send a signal to your body, telling it "it is safe now."

Of course not everyone agrees with this. I have a friend who is a game original artist. The more she forces herself to take a deep breath, the more annoyed she becomes. She wants to drop the hand-drawn tablet in her hand. She uses the logic of the behavioral activation school: don’t suppress your emotions, let out the extra energy first. Her fixed operation is to hide in the stairwell and quickly raise her legs for 30 seconds, or clench her fists until the knuckles turn white and the whole body is shaking, and then suddenly release them. Repeat three times, and the whole person will relax. Last time, she worked on the version node for three days in a row. A fatal bug occurred just before it went online. She squatted at her workstation panting until she almost cried. Then she ran to the corridor and jumped for 40 seconds. After returning, she found the bug in 15 minutes.

One of the hotly debated issues on the Internet right now is "Can you rely on eating sweets to relieve stress?" In fact, both sides of the argument make sense. A study published in Nutritional Neuroscience in 2022 by the nutritional community has indeed confirmed that refined sugar can quickly promote the secretion of serotonin and improve low and anxious moods within 10 minutes. When I am stressed before get off work on Fridays, I will also order full-sugar milk tea. Anyway, after drinking it, I will lie down without any burden. However, scholars in the field of endocrinology have not recommended the routine use of this method. After all, you will be more tired than before during the fall period after a rapid increase in blood sugar. If there are still two hours of meetings to be held and a 30-page report to be written, it will be a delay.

There is also a little secret method that I have been using for five or six years. I carry a citrus-toned lip balm or hand cream with me. When I feel stressed, just take it out and smell it for 3 seconds. The olfactory nerve is the only sensory pathway that directly connects to the limbic system without going through the thalamus. It regulates much faster than vision and hearing. To put it bluntly, taste can directly touch your emotional center. The last time my best friend took the test for subject two, she was so nervous that she squatted on the roadside and vomited while waiting. I gave her a smell of my orange-flavored hand cream, and she passed it. Now she has a small piece of dried orange peel in her driver's license book.

In fact, there is really no need to stick to a certain "standard answer". When I was working as an EAP service provider for an Internet company, I saw a little girl in operations take out three Sudoku puzzles for third-grade elementary school students when she was under great pressure, and she could settle down in 5 minutes. I also saw a technical director hiding in a fire escape and folding paper airplanes for 2 minutes before every executive meeting. It seemed outrageous to others, but it was useful to others.

There is no unified standard for quick stress relief. Don’t practice 478 when others say it is useful, and don’t think it is unhealthy for others to rely on eating desserts to relieve stress. Try two more and make up your own 3-minute first aid kit. It is much more useful than saving 100 articles on stress management. After all, when you really encounter trouble, the best way is to use it.