One of the Ingredients of Longevity
Jeanne Louise Calment, the world’s oldest person who died at the age of 122 once stated, “If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it”. While Besse Cooper, the world’s oldest living person at the age of 114 answered when asked how she got to live so long, “I mind my own business, and I don’t eat junk food”. We all know that proper diet is one of the keys to healthy living. What we don’t usually pay attention to is managing stress. Often times, we worry ourselves even with issues that don’t even concern us which results to stress that greatly affects our health. Absence of stress management can lead to distress, most especially with seniors. Distress can lead to physical symptoms which include headaches, chest pain, elevated blood pressure, upset stomach, and problem sleeping. In addition, research shows that stress can worsen symptoms and/or existing disease.
We can’t avoid stressful situations but what we can do is learn how to deal with stressors.
Stressor is an external stimulus that causes stress. Being able to identify your stressor will help you figure ways to deal with it (You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know the problem) — that’s just one of the things that you learn from stress management.
Stress management has played an important role in increased seniors’ health and well-being. Some of the following effective methods of stress management include meditation, cognitive puzzles, yoga, breathing exercises, and cognitive restructuring.
In addition, one of the important factors in successfully managing stress is learning to accept things that you can’t change – learn it from Calment.