Stress - Exercise Plans to Improve Your Life
This is another in the series Exercise Your Way to Health, which we were sent to review prior to publication. Once again, we at Journeys are pleased with this book as it will be useful in a persons toolkit for good mental health.
The format is similar to the book Depression: Exercise Plans to Improve Your Health in that exercise is dealt with as part of an holistic approach to dealing with stress.
The sections are:
- Understanding Stress;
- Helping Yourself to Health; and
- The Exercises.
The book is peppered with helpful case studies and quotes. Journeys' particular favourite is from Mark Twain “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time”. This is true of self-management for all mental health conditions, when we need to take small steps to changing lifestyles.
Part One deals with what exactly is meant by stress and how it is, in the appropriate place and time and at an appropriate level, essential to life. It looks at how we can develop a resilience to unwanted stress so that we are better able to cope with it.
It explains types of stressors and the chemistry of stress, as well as the physical impact on the human body. Journeys found this especially interesting as it clearly shows the link between long term stress and other health problems such as diabetes and heart conditions amongst others.
This is a further reason for all of us to understand what stress is and how we can deal with it in a healthy way.
Part Two is the lifestyle section, incorporating ‘The MOT Questionnaire’.
As is rightly stated, exercise is part of a bigger, more holistic approach to well-being. It encourages goal setting using SMART targets: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-framed. These encourage and motivate people to complete small tasks to reach their goals.
What is especially important, is stating that making slips is OK, we are human and this is how we learn and grow.
It begins with being more active and then taking exercise. This means that people are not overwhelmed with expectations of throwing oneself into a heavy exercise routine. It then goes on to other lifestyle issues like food and mood, tackling unhealthy thinking, meditation, sleep hygiene and relaxation methods.
Part Three deals with exercise and stress and begins by explaining how exercise can help combat stress. It then moves on to getting started and describes the exercises themselves. There is a wide array of exercises so there is something for everyone - which is vital when getting motivated.
It also includes charts and diaries which once again helps motivation and enabling involvement by putting words in to actions.
Journeys definitely encourages people to use this book as a guide to keeping stress under control. The book is priced at £6.99 and can be bought from all good bookshops and from here.
December 2010
