Stress Reduction Strategies: Indirect Approaches
These strategies are aligned with the billiard ball analogy offered in our previous essays (and in future essays). Negative stress is often reduced indirectly through the actions we take. These are one-bank-shot or two-bank-shot strategies. Remember, when it comes to health and our body, everything is related to everything else!
(1) Get rid of the stress: problem-solving
(2) Isolate the stress: compartmentalize
(3) Balance off the stress with other initiatives (Kurt Lewin: force-f9ield analysis: can’t just add more positives)
Conclusions
Negative stress-reduction can be a key pathway, when it comes to health-related practices leading to higher quality sleep. The value of multi-faced stress-reduction strategies can’t be over-emphasized—nor can the value of mindfulness practices. We don’t need to imagine lions in order to stay alive—but we do need to get rid of the lions we imagine and must find strategies to escape the lions that seems to linger and keep us awake at night. Welcome (hopefully) to the world of lion-less sleep . . .
