Glassthought

Combatting Elevated Stress

1 min read

Do not wish for events to happen as you wish

Do not wish for events to happen as you wish.

But wish for them to happen as they do happen and you will have peace, tranquility - Epictetus

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Breathing

Breathing Techniques

Breathing Techniques

Different breathing techniques can be very beneficial for combatting stress.

Firstly to mention breathing right throughout the day.

What is breathing right? Breathing right is breathing with your belly rather with your chest.

Belly Breathing

Belly Breathing/diaphragmatic Breathing and Stress

Combatting Stress Through Belly Diaphragmatic Breathing Throughout the Day

Belly Breathing

Diaphragmatic Breathing/Belly Breathing:

When practicing diaphragmatic breathing, the stomach, rather than the chest, moves with each breath, expanding while inhaling and contracting while exhaling. - uofmhealth.org

In simple words Diaphragmatic Breathing is breathing with your Belly, or Belly Breathing.

How to breathe | TedTalk | Timestamp:433s

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Study

Here is a study that examined Belly Breathing. Which stated:

There was a significant interaction effect of group and time in the diaphragmatic breathing condition on cortisol levels, whereby the BIG [Belly Breather Group] had a significantly lower cortisol level after training - study

In the diaphragmatic breathing condition, there was a significant interaction effect of group by time on sustained attention, whereby the BIG showed significantly increased sustained attention after training, compared to baseline. - study

Product Idea: Diaphragmatic/Belly Breathing Tracker

The above study makes you question why isn’t there a device that would encourage correct belly breathing.

A possible implementation would be the usage of piezoresistive fabric, worn as a wearable around the belly that would allow to give fairly accurate assessment of the whether the customer is correctly breathing or not.

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Cyclic Sighing

Next to mention is not a very intense breathing technique that can be incorporated into daily morning routine or invoked upon when necessary throughout the day without being very intense: Cyclic Sighing.

Cyclic Sighing

Cyclic Sighing

This study compared the following methods for stress management:

  • Mindful meditation
  • Box breathing
  • Cyclic Hyperventilation (sounds like wim-hof-breathing)
  • Cyclic Sighing

And Highlighted “Cyclic Sighing” as the most effective method:

Double inhale through the nose. The first one is the complete inhale until your lungs feel full, and then you sneak in a little bit more air as a second inhale. And then a long slow exhale through the mouth. Until your lungs are completely empty. - Andrew-Huberman/short with huberman

Repeat for 1-5 minutes.

Studies

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Wim Hof Breathing

Wim Hof Breathing (or Cyclic Hyperventilation with Breath holds) personally is one of the more intense breathing methods.

Wim Hof Breathing

Wim Hof Breathing

Wim Hof Breathing

Wim Hof breathing tutorial by Wim Hof

There are interesting studies around Wim Hof Breathing.

For example study that showed that Autonomic nervous system and the immune system can be influenced voluntarily. (Here is a news story related to this study).

Also to note from the same study:

In the intervention group [Wim Hof Breathing], practicing the learned techniques resulted in intermittent respiratory alkalosis and hypoxia resulting in profoundly increased plasma epinephrine (adrenaline) levels. - study

Definitions for above quote
  • Respiratory alkalosis is a condition in which the pH of the blood becomes too alkaline (greater than 7.45) due to a decrease in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood.
  • Hypoxia: the body is deprived of an adequate supply of oxygen.
  • increased plasma epinephrine levels: there is a higher amount of epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) present in the blood.
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I don’t have a study to link for direct relationship for Wim Hof Breathing and stress. However, from personal experience it helps.

However, it is interesting that something that causes adrenaline to spike up also appears to help with stress. 🤷.

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Meditation

Meditation

Meditation

Meditation can a good aid in the mix of combatting stress.

(See also cyclic-sighing, if meditation is not your cup of team).

Here is a study that showed decrease of stress hormone after months of TM-transcendental-meditation

The results showed significantly different changes for the two groups, or trends toward significance, for each hormone (includes cortisol) over the 4 months. - study

TM-Transcendental-Meditation-And-Hormone-Levels-1997

Study: Effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on adaptive mechanisms: changes in hormone levels and responses to stress after 4 months of practice

Abstract: Stress has been implicated in both somatic and mental disorders. The mechanisms by which stress leads to poor health are largely unknown. However, studies in animals suggest that chronic stress causes high basal cortisol and low cortisol response to acute stressors and that such changes may contribute to disease. Previous studies of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique as a possible means of countering effects of stress have reported altered levels of several hormones both during the practice and longitudinally after regular practice of this technique. In this prospective, random assignment study, changes in baseline levels and acute responses to laboratory stressors were examined for four hormones-cortisol, growth hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone and testosterone-before and after 4 months of either the TM technique or a stress education control condition. At pre- and post-test, blood was withdrawn continuously through an indwelling catheter, and plasma or serum samples were frozen for later analysis by radioimmunoassay. The results showed significantly different changes for the two groups, or trends toward significance, for each hormone over the 4 months. In the TM group, but not in the controls, basal cortisol level and average cortisol across the stress session decreased from pre- to post-test. Cortisol responsiveness to stressors, however, increased in the TM group compared to controls. The baselines and/or stress responsiveness for TSH and GH changed in opposite directions for the groups, as did the testosterone baseline. Overall, the cortisol and testosterone results appear to support previous data suggesting that repeated practice of the TM technique reverses effects of chronic stress significant for health. The observed group difference in the change of GH regulation may derive from the cortisol differences, while the TSH results are not related easily to earlier findings on the effects of chronic stress.

Hormones Examined

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Working out

Working out

Working Out

Scientists have found that regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem. About five minutes of aerobic exercise can begin to stimulate anti-anxiety effects. - adaa.org

Thus far for aerobic exercise (cardio, when your heart rate goes up), seems to be more important for brain function and stress management.

~ Amount of exercise per week for brain benefits: 3-4 times per week at least 30 minutes per session with elevated heart rate. - timestamped segment from TED talk by Dr-Wendy-Suzuki

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Natural Supplements

Natural Supplements

Natural Supplements For combatting stress.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha

Relationships

Traits

  • Half life: 2-4 hours.
  • After 12 hours ~95% of ingredients are out.

References

Ashwagandha intake was associated with an 18% greater increase in DHEA-S (p = .005) and 14.7% greater increase in testosterone (p = .010) compared to the placebo Ashwagandha in Aging, Overweight Males (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Testosterone may be increased in infertile men (who have a reduction in testosterone) and men undergoing strength training, but there is currently no evidence to suggest an inherent testosterone boosting effect in otherwise normal men. - https://examine.com/

When to take it

Best time is unknown at this time.

How to take it

Best to take it every 12 hours.

  • Morning & Evening.

How long to take it?

Supposedly Looses it effectiveness if you take it indefinitely.

Macro cycle:

  • 2-3 months every month.
  • 1-2 months abstain

Micro cycle

  • 1-5 days
  • half to equal of not taking it
  • Example 3 days on, 1-3 dont take it.
  • 4 days on 3 days off.
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Silexan

Silexan

Lavender oil extract that has shown to effective at decreasing anxiety in a clinical study.

Study on Silexan vs lorazepam

Lorazepam Vs Silexan Lavender Oil Extract

Study Link

silexan is extract from lavender.

This study is very interesting as it shows comparable anxiety reducing results from Silexan (lavendar extract) and lorazepam (benzodiazepine same class as Xanax). A low dose of lorazepam was used. But nonetheless the results are quite interesting.

In GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) silexan and lorazepam showed comparable HAMA total score reductions.

However, a thing to note that the dosage of lorazepam used in the study is much lower than what would be typically prescribed for someone with anxiety disorder. A typical prescription of lorazepam is 2-6mg per day. While the study used 0.5mg of lorazepam. Nonetheless its an interesting piece of information to Silexan perform at the level of mini dose of benzodiazepine.

Dosages in the Study:

  • 0.5 mg lorazepam once a day
  • 80 mg Silexan once a day

Safety Question around essential oils

Safety Question around Essential oils

Safety of Essential Oils

There have been mentions that Chemicals in lavender and tea tree oil appear to be hormone disruptors suspecting a link between abnormal breast growth in young boys—called prepubertal gynecomastia.

However, this other study states that there is not enough evidence of this sort of link.

Reporting of inclusion, demographic data, clinical data, and the potential for causality was found to be insufficient. This study did not find evidence to support the claim that tea tree essential oil is related to endocrine disruption in children, and little to no evidence to substantiate the proposed link between lavender essential oil and endocrine disruption in children. - [pubmed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32147050/

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Private

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Zoom Out

Zoom out

Zoom Out

So often the stress is due to being too zoomed in on something that is out of control and assigned too much importance.

Look at larger span of time. Well past a day, a week or even a year.

Does being stressed create a habit of being stressed?

Look at 10 years. Is being stressed out right now help or hinder your 5-10 year plan?

How about 20 years? Is being perpetually stressed lead to health issues 20 years down the road? Or are you already dead due to being overly stressed?

Hence, zoom out. And with that viewpoint re-evaluate the importance. Do give it what you got (To regret). But don’t worry, while at it. Just do the best you can and leave the rest out of mind.

Ocean is a drop in the universe

Asia and Europe: are just small corners in the vast universe.

The ocean: a drop of water.

Mount Everest : a small pile of dirt in the grand scheme of things.

The present: a split second in eternity.

Minuscule, transitory, insignificant. - Marcus-Aurelius

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Music

Hozho - Be The Best & Fuck The Rest (Original Mix)

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Philosophy

Realizing stress is a form of Fear

Realizing stress is a form of fear, admitting to yourself what you thought you were afraid of and working through that fear can be quite helpful.

How to get out of Fear

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Reframe your way of thinking

Reframe your way of thinking, use cognitive distancing to see the same situation from a different view point.

Such as: Reframe thoughts as hypotheses

Reframe thoughts as hypotheses: Instead of treating a thought as a fact, you can treat it as a hypothesis that can be tested or questioned. For example, instead of thinking,

“I’m going to fail,”

you could think

“I have the thought that I might fail.”

Now you can:

  • Distance yourself from that thought.
  • Question the thought.
Or Use the third-person perspective

Use the third-person perspective: Try to look at your situation as if you were an outside observer. This can help you view your thoughts and emotions more objectively.

Visualize your thoughts

Visualize your thoughts: Imagine your thoughts as objects floating by on a stream, or as words written on leaves that are drifting away in the wind. This can help you see your thoughts as transient and separate from yourself.

Use visual submodalities

The visualization of thoughts advise is akin to whats called visual submodalities manipulation from nlp.

Hence, consider also consider manipulating your fears using visual submodalities to lessen the degree of your fears affecting you.

Visual Submodalities

Visual submodalities are the specific characteristics of our mental imagery. This includes aspects such as brightness, size, distance, and color, as well as the motion (or lack thereof), the image’s perspective, and whether it is viewed first-person or third-person.

Here are ways to adjust these visual submodalities to modify the intensity of their impact:

Increase Intensity

To intensify the emotional effect of a mental image, adjust its submodalities as follows:

  • Add motion: Make the image dynamic or moving.
  • Enhance brightness: Make the image brightly lit.
  • Enlarge: Increase the image’s size.
  • Saturate: Infuse the image with vibrant colors.
Decrease Intensity

To lessen the emotional effect of a mental image, manipulate its submodalities as follows:

  • Keep it static: Make the image stationary or still.
  • Diminish brightness: Make the image dim or dull.
  • Reduce size: Shrink the image to a smaller size.
  • Desaturate: Transform the image into black and white.
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Question yourself in why NOT fashion
  • Why you are not afraid?
  • Why were you afraid? What made you overcome your fear?
  • What steps have you taken mentally to move past it?

Worst case scenario tactic

Worst case scenario tactic

You can also use worst case scenario tactic. Imagine the worst case scenario. While imaging worst case and coping with it all of a sudden you realize the problem that you feared is not as large you have imagined.

In the end zoom out. memento-mori—remember-death, what you fear now will pass.

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Stoic Philosophy

Stoicism

Condensed Message Of Stoicism

Condensed Message of Stoicism

Essence/Condensed Message of Stoicism

To separate in our minds what is within our control and what is not. Focusing on what is within our control and accepting what is not, thereby cultivating inner tranquility.

Stoicism emphasizes the importance of personal virtue, emotional resilience, and understanding the nature of the world through reason, all as means to achieve a content and fulfilled life.

We Control Our Mind Not Outside Events

img{max-width: 500px, display: block, margin: 0 auto, border: 5px solid black}

“You have control over your mind and not outside events, Realize this and you will find strength.” - Marcus-Aurelius

We don’t control what happens to us, but we do control how we react to it. - Ryan-Holiday

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Epictetus starts Enchiridion by stating what we control and what we don't

Epictetus starts his The-Manual-Enchiridion book by

Some things we can control, some we can’t. … What we can control naturally is not governed, restricted or constrained by others; what we can’t control is naturally governed, restricted and constrained by others. - The-Manual-Enchiridion

Happiness is to not be dependant on externals

The essence of philosophy is to not depend on external things for happiness

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. - audio/Epictetus

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There is only one way to happiness

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. - Epictetus

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Quote Playlist

Quote Playlist

Personally what has helped me previously is listening to stoic quotes again an again such as:

Youtube Stoic Quote Playlist

My Stoic Quote Playlist

Individual references:

Be Unshakable Compilation

Be Unshakeable – Ultimate Stoic Quotes (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus)

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Stoic Exercises

Stoic exercises such as Memento Mori can be very useful to take you out of spinning in the mundane and looking at things with different vantage point.

Memento Mori: Remember Death

Memento Mori - Remember That you will Die.

The idea of Memento Mori is to remind us that we do not have control over our fate. We can die later today, tomorrow, 80 years from now, or anytime in between. It’s not up to us. The only thing we can be sure of is that it will happen.

It is important to accept this fact, so we can fully embrace the moment we are in. We shouldn’t put things off until tomorrow because we may not have tomorrow. One day we definitely won’t have a tomorrow and that day could be today. The memento mori is a regular reminder of this fact.

If we keep this fact in mind we will love those around us more deeply because we will treat every moment with those we love as the last moment we will ever have with them. Our work is better because we will treat everything as the last thing we will ever do and I want the last thing I do to be something beautiful. We won’t be afraid to try new things or experiences because we may never have another chance. - ref/reddit

Image


Image description ![|x600|center](assets/images/20251029_1700_Industrial_Hourglass_Regret_simple_compose_01k8s33a9sefstqvwsgswqn2ch-fs8.png)

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Photorealistic memento mori, 9:16 vertical: Industrial hourglass with vault door aesthetic, aged brass, cracked glass. Upper chamber: luxury items (Rolex, Mercedes, gold bars, cash, stocks) disintegrating to ash mid-air. Lower chamber: ash mountains, ghostly text “postponed” “someday” “when I retire”. DOZENS of translucent gray hands surrounding hourglass, emerging from darkness, reaching desperately, clutching dissolving coins, holding fading SOMEDAY calendars, hands turning to smoke from fingertips inward, filling the space around hourglass with overwhelming sense of regret. Background: weathered clock showing “NOW” twelve times. Dramatic Caravaggio lighting from above, oppressive shadows, museum-quality photography, NOT cartoon, hyper-realistic, dark confrontational tone, film grain, high contrast, no titles, no text overlays —ar 9:16 —style raw —v 6

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Accepting death’s inevitability means accepting your only certain future. The more we embrace our mortality, the less fear we have in our life. It’s paradoxical how confronting death brings deeper tranquility.

!>funeral

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” — Marcus-Aurelius

“The final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process.” — seneca

“We have two lives and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” — Confucius

“With regard to everything that you enjoy, find useful, or love, keep their nature in mind, starting with the smallest things. If you have a favorite coffee cup, remember that it’s a cup; then if it’s broken, you can stand it. When you hug your child or your spouse, remember that it’s a mortal human being you’re hugging; then if that person dies, you can stand it.” - Epictetus/3

“Keep before your eyes from day to day death and exile and all things that seem terrible, but death most of all, and then you will never set your thoughts on what is low and will never desire anything beyond measure.” — Epictetus

“Everything transitory—the knower and the known.” — Marcus-Aurelius

Being Afraid of Death Is Ignorance

“To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death whether it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to a man; but people dread it as though they were certain that it is the greatest evil; and this ignorance, which thinks that it knows what it does not, must surely be ignorance most culpable.” — Plato

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“Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.” - Depiction of Marcus-Aurelius in Gladiator

“As you kiss your son good night, whisper to yourself, “He may be dead in the morning.” Don’t tempt fate, you say. By talking about a natural event? Is fate tempted when we speak of grain being reaped?” - Epictetus

“Stop whatever you are doing and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?” - Marcus-Aurelius

You want to live but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying and tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different than being dead? - seneca

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live according to nature.” - Marcus-Aurelius

Walter White Speech on Death

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What you are now, we once were;

What we are now, you shall be.”

If you’re desensitized to the fact that you’re going to die, consider it a different way. As far as you’re concerned, this world is going to end. Now what? - Naval-Ravikant

If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. - Tolstoy

we-have-a-finite-amount-of-time

Videos

man-falling-life-flashing

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Focus on what you control

With that also a thought worthy to link here is that we must always focus on what is under our control Laser focus on what you control

Diving Deeper

Diving Deeper into Stoicism

And if you want dive deeper into Stoicism The-Enchiridion(online version is linked in the note) by Epictetus, or book-Meditations by Marcus-Aurelius. (There are also works by seneca)

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