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This is the second part in a series on managing stress. The goal of this series is two-fold. The first is to give you a better understanding of what stress is and how it fits into your lives and secondly how you can use this understanding to better cope with the stresses in your life. Part one explained the first goal, so if you haven't already read the first part, then please read it first.

From the first article, we can up with some conclusions:

• For any given system (our body), input = stress = load = demand.
• For every input (stress), there is an equal amount of ouput (work).
• For any given amount of stress (load) that your body takes in, its ability to handle that load is dependent on its stress capacity.
• In order for your body to maintain balance, all input that is taken in must have a corresponding output - that is equal in force (energy).
• Stress capacity is the total amount of work our body can produce.
• Our body is an energy convertor, transforming input energy (stress) into output energy (work).
• The more efficient you are, the less "wasted" energy your body produces.
• There are only two fundamental ways to decrease stress:
1. Lower input
2. Increase load (stress) capacity

In this article, I will be discussing how you can lower your stress by looking specifically at the first fundamental way of decreasing stress.

Lower stress by lowering input

Lets explore the first way to decrease your stress - which is to decrease your input. This is pretty much common sense and self-explanatory. When we are told that we need to "lower" our stress, this is what most people are referring to. As a system, any input you put into your body is stress. The more input you take in, the more stress you place on your body. The less input you take in, the less stress you place on your body. Simple right? Lower your input, lower your stress. Okay, makes sense, but like all simple things, there is more to it than meets the eye. Let's take a closer look.

What is input?

In its most fundamental form, input is essentially "energy." Remember, from the first article we concluded that our body is, also in its most fundamental form, an energy convertor. We are transforming incoming energy into output energy. How does the body take in in this energy? The way our body takes in this energy is through the five physical senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Understand that what you are inputting into your body is energy.

Understanding this, you can see that anything you can "perceive" through your five senses is input. Everything you hear, taste, see, smell and feel is stress that you are placing in your body. Sounds rather harsh, doesn't it? It sounds like the only way you can live a stress-free life is to live in a bubble. That way you won't be exposed to any stress. Yes, that is one way to live a stress-free life, but it doesn't sound fun at all (it doesn't make a good movie either). My intention is just to make the point that all input is stress. Therefore, you can see that by the very act of being alive, you will incur stress into your body. I can't "stress" this enough (pun intended). A stress-free life is no life and an impossible goal to attain.

What happens when you have too much input?

We've already said that all input needs a channel of output. One way or another, input is turned to output. Be it healthy or unhealthy output. Now, what happens if your body is taking in more stimuli than it can handle? Then your body is in a state of stress overload. You've probably used the phrase, "I'm all stressed out" Did you know what you were saying? What does it mean? Well, it means that your body is taking in too much stimuli than it can effectively process and output in a healthy way. This usually happens when you are "juggling" too much activities at once. Your input is greater than your output capacity. Under these conditions, your body cannot perform optimally and you feel "stressed out".

At this point, you should listen to your body, it is telling you that it is in a state of stress overload. It is a warning sign. This is commonly the feeling of what we would normally define as "stress." What you need to do now is to take a break - lower your stress input. You've heard the advice before, "relax, recharge, rest, calm down, take it slow." The reason here is that your body simply cannot handle any more stress - you've reached your stress capacity. Make sense?

Now if this "stress overload" is continual, then you are placing your body at great risk for what I call "burnout." Burnout happens when your body has built up too much stress (input) energy that has not been (output) in a healthy way. The result of burnout is that the "built-up" energy is released in an unhealthy manifestation - anxiety, disease, depression, physical ailments, chronic health conditions, pain, etc. Basically, anything unhealthy.

As you can see, you don't want your body to get to this point. But how many of us are living like this on a daily basis? I see it all the time in the pharmacy. The pills and drugs we are taking are used to help the symptoms of this physical manifestation of "burnout". Think about the person who has diabetes and is looking to solve his/her health condition by taking a pill, without any regard to the "underlying" conditions of what is causing it - without decreasing their input (diet), without effectively managing their output in a healthy way (exercise)? Replace diabetes with whatever unhealthy condition you can think of and it remains the same. Does this make any sense to you? This needs to make sense to you if you want to empower yourself to healthy living. It is not about quick fixes. Am I condeming the use of drugs and medications? Absolutely not. I am trying to get you to see where the specific use of medications fit into the overall picture of a healthy life. Yes they provide value in certain situations - no they are not NECESSARY all the time.

Ways to decrease your stress input

So now that we know what input is and how it is taken it into our body through the five senses, we can figure out how to decrease the stress input in our lives. I like to "stress" the importance of lowering your input continually. It is not something that you do only once a year, it can be done on a hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis. What and how you do it isn't as important as the fact that you do just do it. With that being said, here are some ideas broken down by time. should be done continually throughout the day. These ideas are broken down by time.

• Hourly: take a break. Stop what you're doing right now and take a 5 minute break. Do it. Throughout the day take mini breaks to help you recharge. I find it difficult for me to concentrate on anything for more than 1 hour at a time, sometimes quite less - considerably. Reading a book, watching tv, listening in class - these are all input that you are taking in. Take a short break from any prolonged activity.
• Daily: get enough rest/sleep. On a daily basis your body needs enough sleep to recharge. Now you know why - you do not want yout body to go into a state of continual stress overload, or that will lead to burnout. How long is enough sleep? It depends. You know what your body needs.
• Weekly: a day of fun. Once a week take a full day off. Can't take off one full day? Then divide the time during the week. Between 3 to 4 hours a day of fun equals 24 hours a week. Can't do that either? How long do you think it will take your body to reach burnout?
• Yearly: take a vacation. I know some people who haven't had a vacation in years. Yes, these people look like they could surely use one.

I know you guys have your own unique ways of lowering the stress input in your lives. What are your best ways?

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