Stress Management

'Stress' refers to life events that challenge your ability to cope, and to the uncomfortable consequences. Stress affects us on different levels:

• Physical: symptoms of stress include headaches, insomnia, constant tiredness, muscular aches and pains, digestive problems such as IBS, high blood pressure, laboured breathing and susceptibility to infections.
• Mental and emotional: symptoms include racing thoughts, anxiety, volatility, poor focus and concentration, and depression.

Stress management is the art and science of how to feel, think and act more appropriately or effectively in the face of stress. It means learning to be more in control.

Biofeedback for Stress Management: Why It's Different

One reason that stress is difficult to control is that often your body's responses are outside of conscious awareness. Relaxation techniques used in combination with biofeedback are much more effective because you have objective feedback on how well it is working.

Biofeedback helps you build key skills for stress management:

• self-awareness: understanding the connection between bodily responses and your own thoughts and perceptions
• emotional intelligence: making effective choices as to how to respond to your own emotions that will take you in the direction you want.