Stress shows up in everyday life, from tight commutes and back-to-back deadlines to hurried meals and juggling commitments on your schedule. Utilizing short bursts of stress and adrenaline can help you focus, but long stretches can drain your energy and mood. Considering this, the most important thing to remember is that the goal is not to eliminate stress but to recognize it, process it and reset.
Matthew Tritico, LPC, program therapist with Memorial Hermann Workplace Health and Safety, frames the idea of resetting simply: “It’s okay to reset,” he says. “Just like we recharge our phone when the battery is at 5%, we need to take time to recharge ourselves, too.”
If you’re someone who is currently in a stressful season or who becomes easily stressed, Tritico advises that you cultivate awareness of your mood so you can “take 5” to reset when needed, engage in simple breathing exercises and seek professional help if you get to a point where you’re feeling too overwhelmed.
Eustress and Distress
Tritico distinguishes between helpful and harmful stress. “The good stress is called ‘eustress,’” he says. “It is short-term stress that’s manageable and can actually boost your performance.”
Eustress does this by releasing hormones when you feel a stressor. But instead of it feeling overwhelming and negative, eustress is often associated with a task that you have a high level of confidence that you can complete. The following is a list of common causes of eustress you might encounter:
- Coordinating calendars for a meeting
- Preparing for a work or public presentation
- Getting ready for a first date
- Visiting a new place or event
- Starting a new job or attending the first day of school
“Eustress helps you manage your time, prepare for your day, or tackle something you’re excited about,” explains Tritico. “You’ll get a sense of completion when the task is finished, and you’ll be able to move past the stress to focus on the next thing.”
Distress, by contrast, is the overwhelming, long-term chronic stress that puts a person in a negative headspace. Some of the common forms of distress you could experience include:
- High-pressure work environments
- Financial challenges and uncertainty
- Caring for family members or friends who are ill
- Managing unemployment
- Dealing with geopolitical challenges and violence
When chronic stress escalates, many people feel it physically. “I think we’re usually wired to the negative,” Tritico explains. “These negative thoughts and concerns can intensify your days and cast a narrative that something bad is around the corner, and you can feel it.”
He notes that if you stay in this high-intensity distress, your body will respond to it on a physiological level. If this sense of fight-or-flight persists, it can raise your blood pressure, disrupt sleep and worsen other health conditions, such as asthma.
The STEAM Method
But how is a person to pause when they feel overloaded with stress? Tritico says to remember a simple framework called STEAM.
S — Skills that work for you. When it is hard to see the forest for the trees, Tritico suggests developing a skill set you can use to get yourself out of a negative headspace. Some of the common strategies he encourages his patients to work on are as follows:
- 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding: This is where you stop and name five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. Doing this helps you focus on the environment around you, which pulls you out of your mind and resets you physically in the moment.
- 15-Minute Worry Time: To stop a person from obsessing on the negative throughout the day, Tritico suggests allowing yourself a small amount of time (e.g., 15 minutes) to unabashedly ruminate. When the timer is up, accept that the time for worrying is over and that it is now time to focus on your day.
- 4-7-8 Breathing: Stop and deliberately focus on your breath by inhaling for four counts, holding for seven counts, and exhaling for eight counts. Tritico says that doing this three times can send a relaxing impulse to your brain that calms you down.
T — Talk it out. Rather than bottling emotions in, Tritico says it is important to find an outlet to discuss your feelings and experiences. This can be with loved ones, a support group, professional counselors and therapists or even a service provided through an employee assistance program.
E — Establish a routine. Short, intentional breaks matter. Taking a walk or checking in with a colleague can be very helpful. One thing Tritico cautions against is simply pulling out the smartphone in every spare moment; doing so can prolong—or even exacerbate—stress and anxiety rather than allow you to pause and be present.
A — Avoid decision fatigue. When you are experiencing high stress, having to make superfluous decisions can not only be daunting but can also be a breaking point. Tritico says that, in those moments, it can be okay to put off decision-making that is not time-sensitive and instead allow yourself time to decompress.
M — Monitor your reaction. This means giving yourself the grace to pause and check in with your body and emotions. When you’re constantly in distress, you risk burning out. Being in tune with how your body feels can be the cue you need to take a moment to reset.
Physical Activities That Can Help You Reset
Beyond the mental grounding and breathing techniques, there are some exercises that Tritico and the health coaches on the Memorial Hermann Wellness team recommend, such as the following:
Chest Opening Stretch
This stretch doesn’t just counteract slouching but also opens the chest so you can breathe better.
Neck and Shoulder Roll
Relieves tension in two of the areas that people tend to “hold” stress; this exercise also improves overall circulation and relieves stiffness.
Seated Forward Fold
A more intense stretch that can help relieve tension in your back and neck muscles.
Seated Butterfly
This stretch opens your hips and relieves mental tension.
Reclining Spinal Twist
A stretch that aids in relaxation by releasing the spine and massaging internal organs.
Child’s Pose
A common yoga stretch, this can help calm and ground you.
While not an exercise, one of the most important physical activities you can do is to get quality sleep. Getting a full, deep sleep can restore your brain and body, and support emotional regulation which lowers stress-hormone reactivity. Tritico encourages a simple routine to allow for quality sleep: reduce screen time before bed, follow a predictable schedule and give your body time to unwind.
Focus on What You Can Control
If stress becomes constant or interferes with your daily life, support can help. Tritico encourages a practice of pausing to reassess and, when needed, to connect with available resources, including therapy and employee assistance programs. An extra bit of support can help you build a reset routine that is less about perfection and more about practice.
Small, repeatable habits, paired with built-in moments that allow you to breathe, move and reflect can help you meet stress with a clearer mind and a steadier body. “We can only control three things: what we say, what we do, and how we respond. Resetting during a moment of stress how you take control of your response, by allowing yourself to pause, rest and recharge to tackle what’s next,” says Tritico.
