Managing stress in Singapore
Lion City: The state of stress
$31 billion dollars are spent on stress-related illness annually in Singapore. While the statistics are shocking, it may come as little surprised to readers in the Lion City where all-nighters, undeclared overtime and tight deadlines are de rigueur at the office.
While the consequences of prolonged stress – see hypertension, heart disease and obesity, have become better known through research, stigma around such illnesses still exist. In a country like Singapore where talk of stress and related mental health issues are still seen as an admission of weakness or incompetence, much more has to done to create a supportive and robust system of workplace health and well-being.
But how did we get here? And how does stress make us sick? If you’ve ever returned home from the office tight, tense and unable to relax, or with the feeling of being ‘always on’, the work of Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky who has spent more than 30 years studying the impact of stress on health, might shed a light on things.
‘Essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick.’
It is with this statement that Dr Spolsky elucidates that one of the primary causes of chronic long-term stress (beyond a stressful job, poor economy or unreasonable boss) may exist in our own minds. While the stress response – ancient and hardwired into our brains through millennia of evolution, is common throughout different species, humans, by dint of our intelligence, are unique in our ability to ruminate, worry and catastrophize about both past and future, even when no stressors are present.
The impact of this on our nervous systems can be devastating. Newer studies show that stress affects us down to even a genetic level, causing our chromosomes to fray and our DNA to age faster. Feeling under threat all of the time causes normally healthy immune systems to shut down, making us more prone to disease as well as increase the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal disorders.
What to do about it
The upside is that such research into the consequences of chronic stress have also allowed us to identify the factors that keep such stress going and to design ways to alleviate it. If an anxious mind and dysregulated nervous system is keeping us chronically stressed, methods and treatments that help soothe and manage both mind and body may lead to relief. Thankfully, a growing body of evidence have documented ways to skilfully navigate the challenges of modern life and work.
Here are a few tips to skilfully work with stress:
Breathwork - Extended Exhale
Breathing exercises that focus on long extended exhales can help calm the stress response. The breath can send a strong signal to the more primal areas of the brain and deactivate our fight or flight response, moving us towards a state of ‘rest and digest’. There are many variants of such techniques, with a popular one termed 7-11 breathing. Inhaling slowly and gently into the belly for 7 seconds, and exhaling for a slow count of 11 not only calms the nervous system but relaxes the body and provides the mind a stable anchor of focus through counting.
Follow the instructions below:
1) Set a timer for 5 minutes
2) Find a posture where the spine can be straight (but not stiff) and the belly can be soft
3) Place a hand on the belly region to make sure you are breathing from the belly and not the face
4) Relax and soften as best as possible. If the body remains tense allow it to be that way (struggling will only increase tension)
5) Breathe in for the slow count of 7 feeling the belly swell gently with the breath
6) Breathe out for the slow count of 11 allowing the lungs to deflate completely
7) If the count is too long for you reduce the number making sure to keep the exhale longer than the inhale
8) It is perfectly naturally if the mind wanders off. Gently return attention to your breathing and start again at 1
9) End your practice when the bell rings.
Progressive Relaxation
For those caught up in their heads all the time, a primary challenge of trying to relax is an inability to feel into the body. Numbness, disconnection and a lack of somatic awareness can be barriers to relaxing or even beginning to recognize that the body requires rest and recovery. A simple exercise of Progressive muscle relaxation can help increase somatic awareness (felt sense of the body) and help practitioners learn to systematically relax their musculature, in turn helping the nervous system achieve rest.
Instructions
This practice involves tensing and releasing various parts of the body. Start with the top of the head and work your way downwards, tensing, holding and releasing various parts of the body. It can help to do this in tandem with the breath.
Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Begin by taking a deep breath in, and hold your breath as you tense the face for 5 – 10 counts. As you exhale, allow the face to relax completely. Sense deeply into this process of relaxation to let the body become familiar with this process of release.
Continue this process working with various parts of the body – from the shoulders all the way to the feet and back up to the top of the head.
End with breathing while staying mindful of the whole body until the timer ends.
In Closing
While feeling stressed is an increasingly common experience in our fast paced modern world, being stressed all the time can also be a signal of deeper underlying issues or unmet needs. Beyond seeing stress as purely a physiological issue, taking a holistic perspective through work with a qualified psychotherapist or counsellor can help unearth and work with not only the biological facets of stress but also psychological and social factors that are affecting our well-being. Stress in fact while undesirable might be a message that we have issues to process, boundaries to draw, or connections to make.
Our Therapists
Jonathan Lim
Counsellor and psychotherapist specializing in stress management, and treating anxiety, addiction, and trauma through existential and mindfulness-based psychotherapy
Lucy Liu
Counsellor and psychotherapist specializing in stress arising from change and transitions, and challenges in relationships and work.
