Serenity: Methods to Lower Stress at Home
By Matt McDowell, CSCS Personal Trainer & Group Exercise Instructor at Harvard Recreation Controlling your stress may seem like an impossible task, but the body has many ways to regulate its tension if you can tap into its systems. To start, where does stress come from? There is a substance that builds up in your body to make you feel anxious. Cortisol, or the “Stress Hormone,” is secreted by your adrenal glands to control mood, motivation, and fear. While it has its uses, it becomes a problem when you are under constant emotional, mental, or physiological pressure. Under the current climate we all have a good excuse to feel stressed. So how do we attenuate our cortisol and reduce stress? There are many avenues to relieve tension. You can try a short-term solution to boost your mood, such as sweet foods or distractions, but those will not last long. There are mental exercises such as meditation, mindfulness training, or breathing exercises. These target the autoregulat...