- Being able to forgive yourself for mistakes key to staying healthy
- Team say constant stress over small things like traffic should be a warning sign
13:42 EST, 8 April 2014
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15:27 EST, 8 April 2014
How we deal with stress has a major effect on our lifespan – and researchers say learning to deal with it more effectively could even increase how long we live.
New York researchers say they have found a link between people likely to forgive themselves for mistakes and damage to their bodies caused by stress.
The key to a long and happy life, they say, is to ‘cut yourself some slack’.
Researchers say that being unable to deal with stress can cause major harm to our bodies – and have warned people to ‘chill out’ to improve their health.
AM I AT RISK?
Self-compassion describes behaviors such as self-forgiveness or, more colloquially, cutting yourself some slack.
A person with high levels of self-compassion may not blame themselves for stress beyond their control or may be more willing to move on from an argument, rather than dwelling on it for days.
Participants ranked their agreement to statements such as, ‘I try to be understanding and patient toward aspects of my personality I do not like’ and ‘I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies.’
The research illustrates how easy it is for stress to build over time and how a seemingly small daily stressor, such as traffic, can impact a person’s health if they don’t have the right strategies to deal with it.
The Brandeis University researchers found a connection between a self-compassionate attitude and lower levels of stress-induced inflammation.Â
The discovery, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, could lead to new techniques to lower stress and improve health, they say.
Psychological stress can trigger biological responses similar to the effects of illness or injury, including inflammation.
While regulated inflammation can help stave off infection or promote healing, unregulated inflammation can lead to cardiovascular disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s.Â
The paper was authored by psychology professor Nicolas Rohleder, with postdoctoral fellows Juliana Breines and Myriam Thoma, and graduate students Danielle Gianferante, Luke Hanlin and Xuejie Chen.
Self-compassion describes behaviors such as self-forgiveness or, more colloquially, cutting yourself some slack.
A person with high levels of self-compassion may not blame themselves for stress beyond their control or may be more willing to move on from an argument, rather than dwelling on it for days.
The team say those who fail to deal with everyday stresses are most at risk – and need to ‘chill out’ or risk seriously damaging their health.
Rohleder and his team asked 41 participants to rank their levels of self-compassion.
The participants ranked their agreement to statements such as, ‘I try to be understanding and patient toward aspects of my personality I do not like’ and ‘I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies.’
Then, the participants took one stress test a day for two days and their levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), an inflammatory agent linked to stress, were recorded before and after each test.
After the first stress test, participants with higher self-compassion had significantly lower levels of IL-6.
On the second day, Rohleder and his team found something unexpected.
Those with low self-compassion had higher base levels of IL-6 before the test, suggesting that they may have been carrying the stress they experienced the day before.
‘The high responses of IL-6 on the first day and the higher baseline levels on the second day suggest that people with low self-compassion are especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of this kind of stress,’ Rohleder says.
The research illustrates how easy it is for stress to build over time and how a seemingly small daily stressor, such as traffic, can impact a person’s health if they don’t have the right strategies to deal with it.
‘Hopefully, this research can provide more effective ways to cope with stress and reduce disease, not only by relieving negative emotions but by fostering positive ideas of self compassion.’
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Maximus Relaximus,
Tampa,
2 hours ago
But you? that’s a different story…………………
John,
Taunton,
3 hours ago
Some stress is good. It helps us perform. All things in moderation.
Jack Hammer,
Fairbanks, United States,
6 hours ago
“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.â€
That about sums up the topic,…THANK YOU JESUS, THANK YOU GOD!
tc2014,
San Francisco, United States,
9 hours ago
fuggedaboudit……
tc2014,
San Francisco, United States,
9 hours ago
fuggedaboutit……..all of it.
DrMallard,
West Palm Beach FL USA,
9 hours ago
How about tossing the mobile and forgetting Facebook, for starters? Or will that get you a diagnosis on the autistic spectrum?
CoolTex,
Abilene,
10 hours ago
That’s why people love pot so much…almost instant chill out for a couple of hours…
CoolTex,
Abilene,
10 hours ago
That’s why people like pot so much because it will chill you out very quickly
poorhardworker,
Germantown,
13 hours ago
Well…DUH!!! And how much did this cost us?
poorhardworker,
Germantown,
13 hours ago
Well, DUH!!! And how much did this cost us?
Jilly,
Portland,
11 hours ago
Don’t worry about it!
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