Why are we so bad at letting go of stress? Instead of setting it aside at the end of a workday, we stubbornly carry it with us into the after hours and by doing so, it leads us closer to depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, and an assortment of other maladies stressful in their own right.
If we knew what was good for us, we’d shake stress quickly and rush headfirst into that post-work, stress-free promised land that shimmers in the distance. The question is, how do we do it? How do we completely relax after leaving work and allow ourselves time to enjoy the final hours of the day?
Lyrical Let Go
It sounds strange, but reciting a poem may be one of the quickest ways to calm down after a harried day. A 2004 study conducted by a team of European physiologists revealed that oscillations of heart rate and respiration synchronize during recitation of hexameter verse from ancient Greek literature.
During the study, twenty healthy volunteers performed three different types of exercises: 1) recitation of hexameter verse, 2) controlled breathing, and 3) spontaneous breathing. After careful measurements, scientists found that the recitation of hexameter verse caused the subjects’ breathing pattern and heart rate to slow and harmonize more than the other exercises did. This indicates prominent cardiorespiratory synchronization, a sign of relaxation.
The findings, which were published in the American Journal of Physiology, have prompted some experts to recommend poetry recitation as a method for controlling breathing patterns and thereby alleviating stress.
That means that making room on your desk for the Iliad is not only a way to exercise literary responsibility, but to unwind as well. Until further study is completed, perhaps you should stick to Greek classics, although I sneak in some T.S. Eliot and feel that the poet’s delicate rhythms and rhymes chase my stress away.
Start a Sunset Vigil
A friend recently told me that the members of her beachside community gather after work to observe the setting sun. They bring chairs and cocktails and settle on the sand for a half hour of observation and conversation. You may not live near the beach, but access to the western sky is all that’s required. If by chance you do not have access to the horizon, there are always sunset relaxation videos, Web sites devoted to images of sunsets, and a bevy of calendars, screensavers, and paraphernalia with multi-hued skies dotted with plush clouds that cushion a descending sun.
Although the scientific community has not formed a definitive conclusion regarding the relaxing effects of sunset viewing, there is plenty of evidence that surrounding oneself with nature can lower blood pressure, decrease depression, and improve mood. And anecdotal evidence for the stress-reducing powers of a sunset exists in abundance. Who can argue that watching a sunset doesn’t engender a sense of relaxation and well-being that could lead to positive physiological effects? Perhaps it’s the very act itself—a heavenly, energetic body easing down for the evening—that helps us do the same.
To help disperse stress after work, decide to spend at least fifteen minutes watching an undervalued event most often wasted on tourist brochures and romance movies.
Take Time for Tea
According to the Chinese philosopher Tien Yiheng, “Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.” Since it’s inception in China thousands of years ago, tea has brought people together, induced pleasure, promoted relaxation, provoked peace, and encouraged tranquility. The act of taking tea—sitting quietly in peaceful surroundings with good company—is medicine itself, but the beneficial properties of tea leaves make it the ultimate stress relieving elixir.
In a 2006 study conducted at the University College London, researchers found that drinking black tea helped people recover from the stresses of everyday life by affecting hormone levels in the body. They also found that participants who drank a black tea concoction four times a day for six weeks had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a stressful event, compared with a control group who drank fake tea for the same period. According to the researchers, this is important because slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease.
