APA Archives - Mindful Happiness

March 5, 2015 By Admin

Stress in America – 2014 and Beyond

Stress In America – How to Deal with it Effectively

The American Psychological Association just released the results of its annual stress survey for 2014. This comprehensive study of stress in America has some serious implications for our health and happiness. Although self-reported stress levels in many categories are lower than in 2013, the overall picture is still less than positive.

Here I will simply review some of the more important points.

The rank order of sources of stress existing for Americans looks like this: money, work, significant relationships, family health, family responsibilities, housing costs, job stability, personal health, and personal safety. Note the important role of money, work and jobs! The top four sources of stress for most people were money concerns (64%), work concerns (60%), family concerns (47%), and health concerns (46%). Up to 72% noted that they worried about money some of the time. Women, especially with child rearing responsibility, experienced slightly more stress than men did. Parents reported that when they were stressed they ate too much or ate junk food (43%), while some skipped a meal (37%). Given these lists, it is no surprise that only 38% of Americans noted that their health was good to excellent.

When annual family income was below $50,000, self-reported stress levels increased. In this group self-medicative solutions were more common. These people reported that when stressed they surfed the internet (58%), watched TV (53%), went to sleep (42%), ate more (38%), smoked (25%), and drank alcohol (20%). Millennials (ages 18-35) experienced more stress than other groups, and lacked adequate emotional support. The self-medicative reactions to stress have serious implications for both psychological and physical health. Stress may lead to unhelpful levels of anxiety, depression, substance use, eating problems , and obesity. Chronic stress often leads to deterioration in physical health and complications in existing medical conditions. The human brain, body, and immune system have problems when bombarded with continued stressors. Americans in the non-self-medicating categories responded to stress by listening to music, exercising, reading, socializing, praying and working on hobbies. Much better choices!

So what should people do to deal more effectively with their personal stress level?

Here is a helpful list.

Remember your level of stress is usually based NOT on the actual stressor but how you respond or react to it. Take better control over your emotional reactions, and use more helpful thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to respond with more calmness.

Respond to stress how people did in the non-self-medicating group noted above (music, exercise, read, socialize, pray, and enjoy hobbies.).

Increase social and emotional support to/from co-workers and to/from family and friends. Learn how to PRACTICE mindfulness and self-compassion skills when facing acute and chronic stressors.

More helpful responses to stress will occur when you practice these skills on a daily basis whether or not you feel stressed. Know that ample research supports the effectiveness of mindfulness and compassion skills in reducing your reactivity to stressors. Your emotional health will also improve. The more you practice, the more your brain goes on autopilot in the behaviors you choose. If you react in negative ways OR if you respond in more “wise mind” ways (enlightened), your brain will change over time. The habits you develop will occur more and more easily. So, be certain to select mindfulness, self-calming, and compassion over negative emotional reactivity. Your choices will determine how well you do in stressful situations. If you are already experiencing anxiety and/or depression, be certain to learn and use mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy skills. These two approached, above all others, have been shown to improve personal responses to stressors and associated moods. If you do not know these skills, see a competent therapist who knows how to do these skills. Learn from her/him. BIG Hint – If your therapist spends more time talking and less time doing helpful skills with you in sessions, you may need to find another therapist (too much talk – not enough skill-building). And, if your therapist is overly concerned about how you emotionally interact with them, you may need to find another therapist (too much psychodynamics, not enough skill-building). Learn about and practice daily loving kindness meditation and daily gratitude awareness. Loving kindness gentles your mind toward yourself and others, and gratitude gently reminds you of what you DO HAVE to be thankful for. Be kind and appreciative to yourself and others. Lastly, and I mean this, LOVE yourself just a bit more. STOP being stuck on your” less-than” parts of self! You are human; you have weaknesses. And, you are human: you have strengths. Use the strengths!

May you be safe and healthy. May you be happy and unstressed. May you change for the better by practicing daily mindfulness and compassion skills.

Refer to Stress in America: Paying With Our Health. (2015). Washington, DC: The American Psychological Association. See also The American Psychological Association. (March, 2015). Monitor on Psychology. 46(3), 50-55.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Taoist Meditation on Healing Colors of Light In Taoist views the four seasons (five if you include “Indian Summer”) are strongly associated with emotional moods and bodily energies. Healing colored light is also part of this viewpoint. For each of the colors we use, follow the process noted below. Sit quietly and breathe calmly. Circle […]

Vipassana Meditation – Emptiness One of the great insights from regular, long-term vipassana practice is the experience of emptiness. The actual knowing of it by the experience of it. This is not your typical conceptual emptiness of the West; it is not total void, negative beings, or nihilistic pit, or suffering in endlessness. It is […]

Mindfulness On Loss, Grief and Mourning Mindfulness about personal loss, grief, and mourning may encompass many things. Here I will focus on the process and what people can do to better handle their suffering and pain. One way to look at it is through the lens of radical acceptance; another is via the reality of […]

Interpersonal Mindfulness Various forms of mindfulness-based compassion training help us to care more about the needs, happiness, and health of other people. However, direct applications of interpersonal mindfulness activates these influences into direct action on behalf of others. Thus, if lucky, we learn to care more about others and less about ourselves. The self-centered ego […]

Using Mindful Movement as a Form of Meditation Practice with the Body In Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction practices Hatha Yoga has been used as part of the recovery process from both psychological and physical suffering. In my own clinical use of mindful movement with children, youth and adults, I found that basic Qi Gong/Che Kung, Walking […]

Preverbal Trauma – Therapy Problems A. R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Preverbal trauma (hereafter PVT) is one of the most pervasively troubling human conditions. PVT occurs when a preverbal child is exposed to parental, caretaker, or other forms of abuse. This abuse may be sexual, physical, or emotional. This form of abuse is so destructive because […]

Tonglen Meditation or Giving and Taking I have added various posts about many compassion practice. Earlier posts have covered a range of practices – from super-easy to more demanding. Here, I will add a more advanced practice. This Tibetan compassion meditation practice has been taught often in the Vajrayana school of Buddhism. In my opinion […]

In-Depth Means to Discover and Be Your True Self Henry David Thoreau reminded us that it is not what you look at, but it is what you see that matters. How do you SEE yourself? John Muir reminded us that the sun shines in us as well as in our souls. Do you find “the […]

Mediation: Conscious or Not? A true, in depth understanding about what human consciousness is and how it works has eluded mind and brain scientists for many years. A few very interesting ideas have been presented by Stuart Hameroff, professor emeritus and director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Consciousness Studies. Consciousness rests in the […]

The Reality of Experience What is deep mindfulness? Deep mindfulness is the concentrated awareness of all experiences, preferably without evaluating as pleasant or unpleasant. Deep mindfulness is pure awareness as it becomes part of personal consciousness. We humans, however, are always evaluating our experiences and phenomena as pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant – often getting hooked […]

The “I AM THAT” Meditation Elena Brower’s new book, Practice You: A Journal (Sounds True, 2017) has many thoughtful suggestions on how to connect with the true inner self, and – more importantly – how to improve your self-views and the experience of your deep inner self. Below I have modified her presentation of the “I Am […]

Mindfulness Expands the Art of Journal Writing T. Merton, J. Kerouc, I. Progoff, J. Upton, and others have helped to expand the art or journal writing practice. This type of practice can become your mindfulness practice. You will need to write on a daily basis (even if briefly), and you will need to be highly […]

Advanced Practice in Tara Brach’s RAIN Protocol So often we humans find ourselves in a state of limbic disarray, with ego defenses stimulating our need to protect ourselves from others – even from ourselves. We feel something is very wrong in this moment, and we allow separateness to pull us into a frenzied effort to […]

How We Make Habits – An Understanding Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha reportedly taught how humans make habits. The insights of this earliest Buddhist Psychology sheds shame on the West, with its almost-the-same version of this view in the 20th century. One must wonder if B. F. Skinner or N. Chomsky knew about Buddhist […]

Mindfulness and Concentration – Experience Differences In this post I will explain some basic differences between mindfulness and concentration, both of which are required for effective meditation practice. This will be the first of three posts dealing with what mindfulness and concentration are, how to experience them briefly in a body-based activity, and how to […]

Meditation on the Feeling of Letting Go – Pacification! Pacifying the mind is a desired outcome of regular, stable meditation practice. Pacification may be done via meditating on the breath, general mindfulness awareness, vipassana, and various other forms of meditation. However, the wise mind skill of “letting go” of unhelpful, negative, and harmful thoughts and […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

Pursuit of Happiness – Mindful Happiness Gilbert, a professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of Stumbling on Happiness, implies that we make mind-errors in our search for happiness. Happiness is a core human emotion, most often activated into consciousness via the midbrain reward centers and dopamine activation. Perhaps our hardwired brains are made to […]

Quasi Self-Hypnotic Pain Relief To be successful in this intervention you will have to let go of ego-based defensiveness and remain quite focused for quite some time. These are not easy things to do. DO NOT do this intervention if you are feeling highly vulnerable at this time, or if you are not working with […]

Facing Addiction in America On November 17, 2016 The Surgeon General of The United States (Dr. Vivik Murthy) issued THE FIRST Surgeon General Report on our addictions problems. Since addictions in America may well be the single most threatening condition facing the nation’s health and economy, as well as casting strong doubt about a good […]