You are interested in reading articles about stress, but you have the same experience each time you read a story on this topic. The article provides new research of how stress can shorten your life, interfere with your immune system, so on and so forth. You feel your heart rate pounding faster and harder while processing each word. You are trying to understand how this article can help you to reduce stress while its very essence is causing you to have increased panic.

Has information about how awful stress is ever had a positive effect on you? Probably not. It makes you feel like somehow you are to blame for your stress. If only you could find a way to deal with your precarious situation, you would find peace of mind. There are many situations that would cause anyone to feel stressed out. Financial problems, health issues, loss of a loved one, divorce, and natural disasters are some of those situations.

These articles, after they terrify you with the latest information about stress, then state that you need to find ways to alleviate your sense of overwhelm and lower the tension in your life. Some of these articles even mention stress reduction techniques at the end, but at that point you are so freaked out that it is impossible to focus on remedies. You are fixated on how stressed you are and at that moment, you feel that you are doomed to either an early grave or some kind of sudden health catastrophe.

At that moment it all seems so hopeless and you are extremely doubtful about getting your head around reducing stress. Therefore you either continue to panic or choose to think about something else and pray that this anxious feeling in your stomach goes away.
How we can actually reduce stress:

• We don’t need to read articles about how stress can harm you because you already know that. If you like to read, find stress reduction articles and books instead.
• Focus on believing that there is an activity that will be helpful for you. It is easy to slip into a state of hopelessness about stress. You have to fight your way to keep exploring different remedies until you find one that works.
• Ask yourself an emotional pain question and then attempt to answer it. This is a self help technique that can be effective.
• Talk to those you trust about your stress. You’ll be amazed at how many others feel as stressed out as you do. Being able to express and share can be healing.
• There is so much evidence to support exercise as a healthy way to decrease anxiety. Therefore it will help to have a regular workout routine. You can walk, bike, and run, swim or any other aerobic activity.
• Meditation, yoga and other stress reduction programs are also very effective means of feeling calmer.
• A psychotherapist can help you discover your own internal calming resources that have always eluded you in the past.